B/Logging In: How to Subscribe to Newspapers, Blogs, Etc.

Do you read newspapers, magazines and/or blogs online? Wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to go to each and every website? Wouldn't it be easier if all you had to do was go to one website and see the latest from CNN, Sports Illustrated, Wired News, etc.? Well, Bloglines is the answer.

"But I'm not a blogger!" Don't worry, you don't have to be a blogger or a techie. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Create an account by providing your email address and password, then click on "Register."
   
   
2. Go to your email account, open the email from Bloglines Validation and validate your email address by clicking on the link supplied.
   
   
3. A new window will open: "Account Validation Completed." You may now copy and paste the following into the address panel of your browser: http://www.bloglines.com/public/filipinolibrarian.
   
   
4. Choose and subscribe to the feeds of your favorite sites by clicking on the links shown in the illustration below:
   
   
   
   Note: Unfortunately, no Filipino newspaper is available for subscription. And that's why I added the Yahoo! News search results for "Philippines" in the list of feeds. You may also want to check out rickey.org, a site better known for its "American Idol" focus; and Kung Fu Librarian, which specializes in Asian martial arts, including Filipino Kali.
   
   
5. Once you've subscribed to all the feeds you want, just bookmark or add Bloglines to your favorites and visit it as often as you wish to see if anything new has been "delivered."

If you would like to know more about the technology that makes all this possible, check out "RSS For Non-Techie Librarians" by Steven M. Cohen (LLRX.com, 3 June 2002) or "RSS readers keep you up-to-date with your favorite sites" by Andrew Kantor (USA Today, 2 January 2005).

This post was inspired by Joy Weese Moll's "Bloglines for Librarians in Three (and a half) Easy Steps."


Related post:

The Real Revenge of the Blog People
Of Bloggers and "Blog People"

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Online Filipinos

From "11.8M Internet users in the Philippines in '04, says IDC" by Erwin Lemuel Oliva (INQ7.net, 30 March 2005):

Internet users include both residential and commercial (business) users. Further increase in their number will be driven mainly by national economic performance, the eroding prices of broadband Internet services and computers, and online gaming.

Based on the population projections of the National Statistical Coordination Board, the current population of the Philippines should be about 85M. So about 14 percent of the population are online—in a country where more than 50 percent are below the age of 20, and 33 percent are officially considered poor.

Something to think about...

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Txt-literate but Literarily Illiterate?

How many Filipinos would rather spend money on a good book than buy a prepaid card for their cellphones? How many students on the MRT actually carry around literary titles instead of textbooks? Why is it that non-textbook publishing houses in the Philippines continue to experience dismal sales?

--"Adopt-a-Writer project fosters love of Philippine literature" by Marie Aubrey J. Villaceran (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 March 2005).

The lack of interest in literary matters can be demoralizing, but if the high cost of books and the scarcity of libraries at which these may be borrowed are factored into the equation, we probably should not be surprised.

The Philippines is said to be the "Texting Capital of the World" (Christian Ramilo). Instead of fighting this reality, why not acknowledge it? And if this were to be "married" to the Filipino penchant for cliffhanger endings (proof: the popularity of telenovelas), Filipinos of all ages would be reading novels on their cellphones in no time.

"Cell Phones Put to Novel Use," an Associated Press story (Wired News, 18 March 2005), indicates that the technology is already available:

In the latest versions, cell-phone novels are downloaded in short installments and run on handsets as Java-based applications. You're free to browse as though you're in a bookstore, whether you're at home, in your office or on a commuter train. A whole library can be tucked away in your cell phone—a gadget you carry around anyway.

It's only a matter of time before either Globe, Smart or Sun comes up—along with either ABS-CBN or GMA—with the latest innovation: the phonovela. But is it literature? As far as I'm concerned, the first step is to get people reading—anything—and then, hopefully, they will want to read more.

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FO: Newer Maps

You may want to check out the following if you're looking for maps of the Philippines:

• The map collection of the Perry-Castañeda Library, University of Texas at Austin, has country, city, detailed, historical, regional and thematic maps. Most were produced by the Central Intelligence Agency. The oldest is a map of Manila (1851), while the newest (2004) is the kind that most travel guides have.
  
• The language maps of Ethnologue show where each of the different Filipino languages and dialects are spoken. A list of spoken and extinct Filipino languages is also available.
  
• If you are a teacher, then you may find the printable blank map from about.com useful for geography tests.

In some cases, maps are automatically resized to fit your screen. Don't panic. A button with arrows will appear on the lower right of your screen. Click on this button to expand a map to regular size.


(Series: Filipiniana Online)

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Early Maps of the Philippines

Not many libraries mount exhibits that make it into the newspapers. But the Rizal Library has done it again.

From "Belgians map the Philippines" by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 March 2005):

The Kingdom of Belgium, in celebration of its 175 years of Independence, and the Juana Madriaga Garcia-Natividad Galang Fajardo Collection provide a gem of an exhibit featuring the "rare treat of viewing not one but five different editions of the earliest separately printed maps of the Philippines," writes Leovino Ma. Garcia, dean of Ateneo's School of Humanities in the show catalog.

It's interesting that one of the references cited at the end of the article is Philippine Cartography 1320-1898 by Carlos Quirino. The book is said to be "the must-read, must-have for Philippine map collectors!" Quirino was director of the National Library from 1962-1966.

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FO: International Children's Digital Library

Happy Easter! If you ever feel the need to read a Filipino story to a child, then the International Children's Digital Library is for you. It has a full-color, digital collection of children's books in different languages. There are 28 Filipino books, 12 of which are award winners. Most are available in English and Filipino, and most were published by Adarna House. You'll need an Adobe Book Reader to read the pdf files. (Series: Filipiniana Online)

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Feedback

It's Good Friday. And I just got some good feedback...

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ALIWW

A Filipino library has made it to the front page!

"Library rescues works of women writers," by Elizabeth Lolarga (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 22 March 2005), is about the Ateneo Library of Women's Writings (ALIWW), which is actually one of the special collections in the care of the Rizal Library.

Edna Z. Manlapaz conceptualized ALIWW as

a place "where women writers can be invited, threatened, cajoled and flattered into donating papers for the use of scholars and readers." ...She credited the Jesuits for "seeing the vision, sharing it and literally giving us a room of our own" on the third floor of the Rizal Library on the Ateneo campus at Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

The only problem I have with the article is that the library does not seem to have a librarian, only founders and directors. Maybe someday...

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FO: Bibles in Filipino

Bibles in Your Language provides ways to read the Bible in the Filipino language of your choice. "Quick Picks" in the menu bar has: Cebuano, Ilokano and Tagalog. Clicking on "Complete List" will show you: Hiligaynon, Pangasinan, Samarenyo (or Waray-Waray; languages are referred to using the website's terms). And then, of course, you can always go to "Alpha Picks."

Clicking on any of the languages will not lead directly to the Bible of your choice. Instead, you will be shown a list of Bibles that are available for free or may be purchased on the Internet.

(Series: Filipiniana Online)

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Are We Poor Because We're Catholic?

Holy Week is serious business in the Philippines. Consider this post an invitation to reflect on why the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, is predominantly poor.

The following are newspaper articles that illustrate the extent of the problem (or lack thereof):

• "UP professors to GMA: Control population to reduce poverty" by Jude C. Galford III (Manila Bulletin, 2 December 2004).
• "Population not booming, says 'prophet of boom'" by Christian Esguerra (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 16 March 2005).
• "Are we winning the war on poverty?" Inquirer News Service (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 20 March 2005 ).

The following are the bases for the articles listed above. They tend to be heavy reading but, hey, it's Holy Week, suffer a little!

• "Population and Poverty: The Real Score" by 22 economists from the UP School of Economics (pdf; December 2004).
• Poverty in the Philippines: Income, Assets, and Access (pdf; Manila: ADB, 2005).

Finally, the following is an article directly addressing the question posed by this post. It's quite interesting that the word "population" is not mentioned at all.

• "Are We Filipinos Poor Because We Are Mostly Catholic Christians?" by Romeo J. Intengan, S.J. (East Asian Pastoral Review 40:3 [2003]).

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