Quick Links: Talumpati | Licensed Librarians | Filipiniana Online | Stereotypes | Leadership | The Philippines

1992 Librarians' Licensure Exam... 20 Years Later


From Philippine Star, 30 October 1993, p. 38. 
Please click on photo to read the text.

Twenty years ago, the first Filipinos to take the Librarians' Licensure Examination (LLE) administered by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) went home after two days of putting pen to paper. But unlike most examinees during the last two decades, those from that first batch had to contend with various types of tests (not just multiple choice), and results were released not after a few days, but after ten MONTHS. The passing rate was 36 percent. Elvie Lapuz, the first ever LLE topnotcher, graciously agreed to recall her experience to mark the twentieth anniversary of the most visible manifestation of the effort to professionalize librarianship in the Philippines:

Read More...

Books for Camiguin


I can only hope that some of this blog's readers will donate not only books, but also money for the "I-CARE Reading Program" alluded to in the photo above, which I took at a public elementary school in Bug-ong, Mambajao, Camiguin. In case you would like to help, please call or text +639089742613 or send an email to blessed.woman1@yahoo.com.

I am featuring this appeal on my blog, however, for another reason: as an example of what persons assigned to public school libraries in the Philippines should NOT do. Please don't get me wrong. I am not blaming the blessed woman for her lack of marketing savvy. She is, after all, a school property custodian, not a licensed librarian.

She did a few things right. The most significant was a big sign saying "READING PARK," which caught my eye as I rode past the school several times on my way to and from the resort where I was staying. I kept wondering what a reading park was, so I finally asked the driver to stop on one trip, and knocked on the school's gate.

The following photos indicate what I saw before I actually encountered the sign above:

Read More...

Director, Rizal Library

One more post. This one is for those who are wondering what I plan to do now that I'm done with my PhD. The memo below also reveals a little about my background and why blue is my favorite color =)

Director, Rizal Library


Again, for those who have difficulty reading the document above, I am reproducing its text below:


Read More...

History of the Filipino History Book

In case you haven't heard, I successfully defended my dissertation last 22 June 2012. And now I'd like to share its abstract, acknowledgments, and table of contents here on my blog to publicly thank everyone who helped me get to this point, and perhaps inspire other Filipino librarians to obtain their own PhDs.

History of the Filipino History Book


For those who have difficulty reading the document above, I am reproducing the abstract and acknowledgments below:


Read More...

Librarians' Licensure Examination 2012: Results

Congratulations to the new librarians!

The passing rate for the Librarians' Licensure Examination is 47 percent (379 out of 812), which is almost double the passing rate of 28 percent in 2011.

As usual, the list of the top scorers and the list of successful examinees are reproduced below (both downloaded from the official website of the Professional Regulation Commission), but since these lists have already been shared by others elsewhere, I’d just like to call your attention to the astonishingly high passing rate, which reminds me of the late 1990s and early 2000s when it seemed as if half of all examinees could be expected to pass the board exam every year.

"There must be a logical explanation," I thought to myself, "for the significantly higher number of successful examinees this year compared to the number of board passers every year since 2004." So I sent a Facebook message to Mrs. Mila Ramos, a member of the Board for Librarians, which administered the exam:

Read More...

Teodoro A. Agoncillo, 1912-2012



Today is the centennial of the birth of Teodoro Agoncillo. He was, in my opinion, the most influential Filipino historian of the twentieth century. And it is only appropriate that historians like Ambeth Ocampo, Renato Perdon, and Michael Xiao Chua have paid tribute to him as a historian. But before Agoncillo became recognized for the history books he wrote in English, he was in fact better known as a literary critic and poet... in Tagalog. Other lesser-known details about him include the fact that despite the perception that he was anti-Catholic, he counted Horacio de la Costa, a Jesuit priest, among his closest friends, and sent his children to Catholic schools. Also, while he never earned a PhD degree, he did receive an honorary doctorate (see photo above).

The brief biography below, which reveals a few more details that are not widely known, is a slightly revised version of several paragraphs from “History of the Filipino History Book,” my dissertation, in which Agoncillo figures prominently. I have removed the footnotes to make it more readable.



Read More...

Library vs Internet?


The photo above shows Gino (Daniel Padilla), right, as he asks King Anand (Albert Martinez) for permission to use the latter's library: "...pwede ko ho bang gamitin yung library? Kasi po sa Internet, baka may ma-miss po ko eh." (May I use the library? Because on the Internet, I might miss something.)

Gino's statement is actually debatable when taken out of context, but it's good to see that a character in a teleserye, the most popular form of Philippine culture today, is acknowledging the library as a reliable source of information, which does not often happen in Filipino movies and television shows (where the library is frequently merely a setting for humorous happenings, scary sequences, or erotic encounters).

You can watch this 2 November 2012 episode of "Princess and I" (along with current and previous episodes of other ABS-CBN shows) for free on iwantv (registration required). The quote may be heard in the scene that begins at 7:34. The line is spoken at 8:10.

Thanks to Elvie Lapuz for the heads up =)

Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility


Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility
Edited by Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M. Davidson
Toronto: University of Toronto Press

The book is available in hardcover and paperback on Amazon.ca and the University of Toronto Press website.

Composed of papers presented at “Spectres of In/Visibility: Filipina/o Lives in Canada” in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 23 October 2009 (plus a few more added after the conference), this book is the first academic publication to bring together the works of Filipino, Canadian, and Filipino-Canadian scholars about the experiences of Filipinos in Canada.

[Disclosure: One of its chapters, "Borrowing Privileges: Tagalog, Filipinos, and the Toronto Public Library," is a paper I wrote not because it was directly related to the dissertation I was writing at that time, but because I wanted the field of library and information science (LIS) represented in this groundbreaking work.]

Below are some of the articles about the book and its launching that have appeared in print and online, followed by the press release about the book, and its table of contents.

Read More...

The 9/11 Memorial


In 2006, I linked to a website (now defunct) that indicated that at least 15 individuals of Filipino descent died at the World Trade Center towers on 11 September 2001. In 2007, I linked the same names to obituaries that first appeared in the New York Times and other newspapers, even though evidence they were Filipino was not always clear. Since then, the inauguration of the 9/11 Memorial has made it possible to confirm that most of them were born in the Philippines, as well as identify other individuals not previously listed as Filipino.

Unless otherwise indicated, the basis for concluding that the 21 individuals named below were Filipino is the 9/11 Memorial.

Read More...

Outstanding Librarian 2012:
Pablo Muyano de Vera

Pablo Muyano de Vera
Pablo Muyano de Vera
Coordinator of Libraries
San Beda College Library

The Professional Regulation Commission conferred the Outstanding Professional Librarian of the Year Award on Pablo Muyano de Vera on 22 June 2012. The citation reads:
For his outstanding achievements as Professional Librarian as exemplified by his utmost competence and integrity as Chief Librarian, SBC Alabang, Administrator and Abbey Dean, Director of Libraries, Manila, Adviser SBC Junior and Senior Library Clubs and coordinator of libraries in Mendiola, Alabang, and Rizal Campuses; for his significant contribution to the advancement of the profession by sharing his knowledge and expertise to his peers as speaker on various topics such as Current Trends and Practices in the Workplace, Library 2.0 Enhancing Competencies, Enriching the Culture Collaboration among Educational Institution and Libraries, Meeting the Challenges of Librarianship Access and the ABCs of Librarians Success in the Workplace to mention a few; for his extensive travel and study tours in numerous libraries in California, National Library of Korea, Toronto, Vancouver Canada Libraries, US Libraries, Spain Library and Museum, Vatican, British and Biblioteque Nationale du Paris; for the numerous awards he received such as the UST Library Science Alumni Association Outstanding Award, PAARL Lifetime Achievement Award, PLAI Special Meritorious Service Award, PLAI-STRLC Distinguished Librarian Award and PLAI Hall of Fame.

Thanks to Elvie Lapuz for providing the photo and citation.


Category: Librarians—Awardees

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...