Use of RL

Posted earlier in PAARLyahoo group email discussion thread.

It seems RL as a topic had a second life. I'm happy to note that both sides of the proposition had a passionate adherents. It speaks well for our beloved profession that growing number of our colleagues have started to share their opinion openly, whether pro or con is immaterial on the current topic thread.

The issue at hand could be viewed both from a macro or organizational level and from an individual or personal level. The opinions of Juliet, Ricky, Jay et al belongs to the latter while the rest for the former. It is a given (also our solemn duty) that as a duly acknowledged professionals by PRC that we practice individual or personal level excellence that met/exceed the expectation of the various stakeholders (admin, faculty, parents, students, etc.) of our noble profession.

On the organizational / professional level, initiatives like the use of RL (or RIP - Registered Informational Professional) must be viewed as a parallel group efforts to further advance/promote the "brand of excellence" we are noted/known for in our institutions and to complement that individual level.

Is the use of RL legal? In the absence of any specific provision in our RA9246 prohibiting such practice, it is my humble opinion that it is LEGAL to affixed RL after our lastname or any other initial as maybe later agreed upon, use, and represent our collective/specific identity as a profession duly regulated by PRC.

Is it ethical or moral to do so without a law authorizing it? The answer is YES. Long before the passage of RA6966 & RA9246, our profession existed without a law authorizing it but it does not follow that those who practice it before its passage are immoral or unethical. The more urgent that we start using RL now before other professions claim "prior use & practice" and thus forbid us from affixing the same.

What will be ILLEGAL even if you are a PRC license librarian is when you affixed after your lastname the initial RN or DDM because those initials are reserved/taken for the professional identity of nurses and dentist respectively.

PS:

see also http://plaistrlc.blogspot.com/2007/09/comments-on-use-of-rl.html

and http://plaistrlc.blogspot.com/2007/09/use-of-rl-as-initial-for-registered.html

LLE 2010 : Reden M. Cruzado, RL

RL at Last. Our warmest congratulations to Reden M. Cruzado, librarian of San Sebastian College Recoletos de Cavite, the ONLY ONE from our region to hurdled successfully the LLE given last November 10 & 11, 2010 by the PRC-Board for Librarians. As the newest accepted member of the Council, we are really proud of your achievement. You may have not have hurdled it the first time wherein 28 of your co-examiners passed but surely you have ALL THE SPOTLIGHTS NOW and distinct honor as the sole passer out of that 191 successful examinees from our Council. What a remarkable feat and saving the day for the Council. Congrats.

Comments on Use of RL

Thank you very much for taking trouble to send your comments/ideas on this "RL" issue. All comments received will be aggregated/collated in the PLAI-STRLC weblog where this article was originally posted for complete reading of anyone for the pros/cons of this issue. We are very sorry if we offended anyone in one way or another by our "aggressiveness" in pursuing this issue, please accept our sincerest apology.

During the brainstorming, co-officers shared that as part back as 1998, the need for initials for the profession have been discussed during open forum in various seminar-workshop, conferences, etc. but no concrete or definitive output was realized. Hence, we are glad that colleagues (outside STRLC) are sharing/discussing this issue so that in the end (after 5 more years of waiting perhaps), if majority of us feels that no initials is needed, then, SO BE IT. At least all stakeholders in our profession heard the pros/cons of this issue.

Whether it will be RL (Registered Librarian), LL (Licensed Librarian), RIP (Registered Information Professional) or whatever initials will be adopted later by PLAI or BFL, we will be open to that. We are only biased for "RL" simply because the PLAI-STRLC General Assembly approved this initiative last year and we are pursuing it to its logical conclusion before our term as officers end. The term 'registered librarian' was used several times in pertinent documents of the profession as argued in that article/posting. (i.e. Code of Ethics, RA 9246). That one common initial is preferred than a myriad one as practice in other profession (e.g. Veterinary medicine)

"A person shall be regarded as practicing veterinary medicine and surgery who shall append or cause to be appended to his name the letters V.S., D.V.M., V.M.D., M.D.C., D.V.S., or the words "Veterinary," "Veterinarian," "Veterinary surgeon," "Veterinary dentist," or any other initials or title implying qualifications to so practice"

Likewise, as a result of this article, we heard from colleagues (here & abroad) from all types of libraries and tentatively could summarized all the comments as:

"this initiative if approve by BFL/PLAI will be more of immediate benefit to PUBLIC than to PRIVATE sector employed librarian who 'suffer some sort of discrimination' in the workplace from other professions. We view it more as career confidence/competence building measure to NEW COLLEAGUES than to OLDER COLLEAGUES who have by now already established their professional reputation"

Having a professional title or initial (whatever it is) is a collective image/recognition/brand of our profession that if reinforced by individual efforts as described by Mam Mila Ramos & Mam Donabella Marilag (see email thread) will surely uplift 'the status of the profession'. The collective & individual image then can complement each other.

This is really a good start that colleagues now are more open in sharing their point of views whether pros/cons so that "at the end of the day" we can draw a collaborative, collegial and "win-win" approach regarding this matter. At least we can look back after old age, we left a "collective legacy", an initiative we leave as our own little way of uplifting the profession.




NOTE: Send earlier as email acknowledgment of received comments from PAARL yahoogroups & FilipinoLibrarians googlegroups and for clarifying some of the issues raised in the comments.

Use of RL as Initial for Registered Librarian

Last October 20, 2006 we posted this article RL - Registered Librarian wherein we advocated the use of affixing RL after surname of registered librarian. This advocacy was the result of the approval of said proposal during the PLAI-STRLC General Assembly held last September 26 2006.

In the monthly meeting held at Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation, Inc. last October 25 2006, during a further brainstorming on how best implement the GA-approved proposal use of RL, a co-officer cautioned us to thread carefully on this initiative on "legality aspect". It was also resolved during that meeting that the approved GA resolution must be submitted to the PLAI-National & HOD for their appropriate action before the scheduled November General Assembly of the PLAI-National.

The rationale for this RL as stated in the previous post:

"the proposal of using RL after the name of licensed librarian (e.g. Rene Manlangit, RL) to 'level-up' so to speak the professionalism of licensed librarian. The GA viewed this initiative as a form of "community of practice" within Region IV (composed of 11 provinces) and hopefully to be adopted by other librarians in other provinces. Further, it was agreed to be on voluntary basis initially as some are not yet sold to the idea of using the initials".

During the January 2007 monthly meeting and the succeeding monthly meetings, the consensus of the majority (or silence of the majority of co-officers), the new PLAI-STRLC chair instructed everyone to "wait for the action of the PLAI-National as they are already studying it" and to refrained from further action/activities regarding the RL initiative. I inquired until "when we are going to wait for the PLAI-National action" but got no definitive response.

Not letting our initiative die a natural death while waiting for the PLAI-National "action", we posted a Survey Questionnaire on the use of RL sometime April 2007 as data collection activity to augment our available facts/information that could be handy later later in defending our position:

"[We] would like to conduct a survey of your preception, views, comments and suggestion regarding the issue on the use of the initials RL (registered librarian) by accomplishing some questions. I together with 3 other fellow librarians would like to make a paper on promoting the librarianship as a profession and thus building a larger community of librarians in the Philippines. This is a preliminary survey and may contact you again as the paper is also part of my research output".

Last April 19, 2007, we posted this article Code of Ethics for Registered Librarians after receiving a printed copy from Ma'am Nera as an off-shoot of her talk at our Batangas Forum. Due to some other urgent concerns/tasks at that time, I was not able to read (scrutinize) it carefully until today. A printed copy of this librarian COE was included as part of Dean Rosa Vallejo seminar kit during her MIBF forum.

We have been researching (not diligently of course :=) i guess) for the legal justification on the use of RL and also as part of the arguments for the position paper to be submitted to PLAI-National. What a surprise indeed that belatedly (better late than never), that document is the librarian COE as promulgated last September 13, 2006. A few days ahead of the September 26, 2006 PLAI-STRLC General Assembly.

In this BFL resolution no. 6 series of 2006, especially paragraph 4 and disciplinary action of the COE, which we are not aware even existed/drafted before we independently arrived through a series of brainstorming session several months away before the GA to the term "registered librarian" or "RL" in lieu of "licensed librarian", the term currently in use then to distinguished from those without PRC license, for its initial could be LL (or loko-loko as a Batangas colleague jokingly shared at that time).

WHEREAS, any Registered Librarian who violates the said Code, after due hearing in an administrative case conducted by the Board against him/her, shall be subject to the disciplinary action of either the revocation of his/her certificate of registration or suspension thereof (Sec. 11 (i), Art. II; Sec. 23, Art. III of R.A. 9246; and Sec. II (i) and (m) of Rule II and Sec. 23, Rule III of Res. No. 05, Series of 2003);

xxx

DISCPLINARY ACTION

A Registered Librarian who is found guilty for violation of any provision in this Code by the Board after his/her investigation shall be subject to a disciplinary action of either revocation of his/her Certificate of Registration or suspension thereof which the Board shall impose thereto after his/her due investigation.

Even more revealing is the earlier PRC-BFL Resolution no. 2 series of 1992 entitled "Code of Ethics for Registered Librarians". The term registered librarians was used in the title of this pioneering code of ethics for Filipino librarians wherein in the latest PRC-BFL Resolution no. 6 series of 2006 it was simply titled "Code of Ethics for Librarians"

In this merely a coincidence? I remember then Ma'am Nera who was one of the resource speaker for the IL Conference was going to be inducted in the next 2 days as the new BFL chair, the same day the current BFL chair was our resource speaker. We briefed her about the use of RL and "apologized" that the proposal is still to be submitted to the GA but we already use it in the "certificate of appreciation" to be given to her later. She seemed enthusiastic about this proactivity and could not recall now if she mentioned the new librarian COE wherein the term "registered librarian" was also used/preferred.

Encourage by this belated findings, we also peruse RA 9246 for the occurrence of the term "registered librarian" in the law to bolster our claim for the initial use of RL. I found out the term "certificate of registration" mentioned in several sections but only in Section 30 of Article IV wherein the term "registered librarian" was mentioned:

SECTION 30. Integrated and Accredited National Organization of Librarians. - All registered librarians shall be integrated under a single organization recognized and accredited by the Board and approved by the Commission.

In view of this finding, it is our position that the BFL could resolve this his simple "controversy" if you could call it that way, once and for all and release the PLAI-National from coming up a decision by invoking its vested powers in RA 9246, to wit:

SEC. 8. Powers, Functions and Duties of the Board. — The Board shall exercise executive; administrative, rule making and quasi-judicial powers in carrying out the provisions of this Act. It shall be vested with the following specific powers, functions, duties and responsibilities:

xxx

e. To look into the conditions affecting the practice of librarianship, and when necessary, adopt such measures as may be deemed proper for the enhancement and maintenance of high ethical, moral and professional standards of librarianship;

Resolution/Position paper still needed be submitted to PRC-BFL or moto propio the Board could already act on this issue? Please let us know. Thanks.

RL - Registered Librarian

Last September 26, 2006 the PLAI-STRLC (Southern Tagalog Region Librarian Council) General Assembly unanimuosly approved the proposal of using RL after the name of licensed librarian (e.g. Rene Manlangit, RL) to "level-up" so to speak the professionalism of licensed librarian. The GA viewed this initiative as a form of "community of practice" within Region IV (composed of 11 provinces) and hopefully to be adopted by other librarians in other provinces. Further, it was agreed to be on voluntary basis initially as some are not yet sold to the idea of using the initials.

The use of initials after our name was forwarded earlier by librarians in the government sector experiencing some form of "discrimination" from other professionals within their respective institution with similar PRC supervised board exams (e.g. Law, Nutrition, Nurse, Engineer, etc.) that have existing practice of appending initials of their profession before or after their name.

The PLAI- STRLC officers brainstormed on this idea several times during the monthly meetings and adopted the position of why not use similar initials to further drum beat awareness of the profession and as form of marketing our hardwon recognition as one the profession that requires examination before anyone is allowed to practice in the country. It was further agreed that the proposal be brought to the attention of the GA for approval and widespread adoption. Initially it was LL (for licensed librarian) and someone opined it could stand for "loko-loko" until the officers settled for RL.

This particular STRLC approved proposal/initiative in Region IV will be then submited to the PLAI-National and PLAI-HOD (House of Delegates) for appropriate action. (RBManlangit)