PDI Article : Emminent Nonlibrarian

For holistic appreciation of the hot issue confronting our beloved profession, please read Ambeth Ocampo ratiocination about the position of the NLP director and hopefully after reading this you could better appreciate the "polite action" taken by PLAI-NBOT and be with us in seeking an early resolution of the issue without burning any bridges or permanent damage to our collegiality as members of the profession.

Fulltext copied from Philippine Daily Inquirer article. Thank you.

To view the reader's comments/sentiments and or updates/corrections posted on this articles, please see the original article at the PDI website or simply click the links provided above.


COLUMNISTS
LOOKING BACK

Eminent nonlibrarians

By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:28 AM February 02, 2018

Vernon Totanes, a licensed librarian, has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the appointment of Cesar Gilbert Q. Adriano as director of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). Totanes called the presidential appointee a “nonlibrarian” and, in the process, burned his bridges with the Philippine Librarians Association Inc. (PLAI) which had issued a polite “statement of concern” that stopped short of seeking a validation or revocation of the appointment.

Totanes also dragged Ateneo de Manila into the fray because he is the director of the university’s Rizal Library. Totanes and the PLAI defended their citing of the Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003 that regulates the practice of librarianship in the country. They brought up Section 26 of Illegal Practice of Librarianship that states:

“A person who does not have a valid Certificate of Registration and Professional Identification Card or a temporary/special permit from the Commission shall not practice or offer to practice librarianship in the Philippines or assume any position, which involve performing the function of a librarian as provided under Section 5 of this Act.”

They also cited Section 31 of Employment of Librarians that states:

“Only qualified and licensed librarians shall be employed as librarians in all government libraries. Local government units shall be given a period of three (3) years from the approval of this Act to comply with this provision.”

Their fear is that the appointment of a “nonlibrarian” as NLP director will be a precedent that may allow nonprofessionals in government libraries. But it is a narrow reading of the law because the NLP director does not perform a professional librarian’s functions. He/she crafts policy and directs the administration and management of the NLP, which is not an ordinary library but a cultural agency responsible for the preservation and dissemination of the history, culture, and heritage of the nation in book form. While a professional license in librarianship is preferred, it should not be an obligatory qualification for NLP director.

The NLP traces its roots to the Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas of 1887 and was first housed in the Intendencia in Intramuros whose third and most (in)famous director was the eccentric Pedro A. Paterno. A contemporary of Jose Rizal, Paterno was appointed in 1894 and caused to be published the short-lived Boletin del Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas (Bulletin of the Museum-Library of the Philippines). The Museo-Biblioteca was  abolished when the Americans took over from the Spanish as the Philippines’ colonial masters, prompting Paterno to take the Museo-Biblioteca collection to his Quiapo home and merge it with his private library.

In March 1900 an American Circulating Library was established. Its collection was donated to the Philippine Commission, which accepted it on March 15, 1901, the date on which the foundation of the present NLP is reckoned. By 1908 all government libraries had been consolidated, and the American Circulating Library became the Philippine Library in 1909 that later merged with the Division of Archives, Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks and the Law Library of the Philippine Assembly, which called it the Philippine Library and Museum.

In December 1928 the Library and Museum were separated and the National Library was placed under the Philippine Assembly and relocated to the Legislative building (now the National Museum). In 1936, supervision of the National Library was returned to the Department of Public Instruction from the National Assembly, but Manuel Roxas, in 1947, created the Bureau of Public Libraries under the Office of the President, shifting its function from a cultural agency to that of an administrative office.

Of the 23 library directors starting from James Alexander Robertson (1910-1916), only four were librarians. Aside from Robertson—who coproduced the 55-volume compilation of documents on Philippine history known to scholars today as “Blair and Robertson”—there were Filipino directors who were eminent nonlibrarians: Macario Adriatico (1917-1919), Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera (1923-1925), Jaime C. de Veyra, Fernando Canon (in acting capacity, 1925), Epifanio de los Santos (1925-1928), Teodoro M. Kalaw (1929-1939), Carlos Quirino (1962-1966), and Serafin D. Quiason (1966-1986)—men who distinguished themselves in the realm of history, scholarship, learning and culture.

We need more than a professional librarian as NLP director. We need a distinguished librarian, an administrator, or a scholar to head this cultural agency.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu

Why is the NLP Headed by a Non-Librarian?

Sharing this rather than that Philippine Star (PS) article I shared earlier to PLAI officer and members group because in this blog post of Dr. Von Totanes, he included (updated) all the media reporting about the letter-complaint he filed to the office of the ombudsman. I hope he could also include the video links (e.g. Bandera, ABS-CBN) so that we could be appraised of the latest development by simply visiting his blog. Thanks.

Click HERE to view Dr. Von Totanes Filipino Librarian blog.

Note: also posted earlier in the fb group of PLAI and PLAI-STRLC.

Esquire Magazine : Librarians Are the Keepers of Information

Fulltext of the article as it appeared in the Esquire Magazine. Thank you Esquire. 

Please visit/view the original article by clicking the link provided above for the comments, graphics used, info as to how many times the article was shared, and other updated information regarding this article.

The re-posting here is merely for compiling all related articles published in the national media for future reference of the raging issue confronting the librarianship profession in the Philippines.

Librarians Are the Keepers of Information, And That's

Why The Gov't  Needs to Look Into This Complaint

By ANGELICA GUTIERREZ   |   Jan 25, 2018

Last January 19, Von Totanes, director of the Ateneo de Manila University Library, filed a complaint before the Ombudsman regarding the appointment of a non-librarian as director of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). The Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003 states that “only qualified and licensed librarians shall be employed as librarians in all government libraries." Despite the law, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Cesar Gilbert Adriano to the highest post in the National Library on March 17, 2017.

The mandate of the National Library of the Philippines calls it the "repository of the printed and recorded cultural heritage of the country and other intellectual literary and information sources." If you think of our cultural heritage as something sacred, you'll see why the position is also a profoundly important job.

"[Many people] think that anyone who works in a library is a librarian. And that's how many relatives of government officials were appointed to work in government libraries before the first law on librarianship was enacted in the 1990s: They were assigned to the library and—voila!—they were librarians," says Totanes. "The provision in RA 9246 regarding the need for licensed librarians in government libraries was put in specifically to address this problem.” 

Librarians are regulated in the way lawyers, doctors, and nurses are—one needs to have earned a degree in library and information science, and passed a licensure exam administered by the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC).

“And then there's ‘Do we still need libraries? Everything is on the internet.’ This is not true. Just ask anyone who has relied on electronic databases (vs. Google) and looked for books that are not available online to finish their research papers,” Totanes adds. “That includes high school students who are routinely told by their teachers that Wikipedia, like encyclopedias, is not an authoritative source. As well as fresh grads, who keep going back to us to ask if they can still use our electronic databases.”

Having a non-librarian head the National Library affects the ability of the office to effectively perform its mandate. “As far as I know, [Adriano] has done nothing worth mentioning. He did not even appear at the National Congress in Bacolod last November,” Totanes adds. “Since he has no idea what librarians do, then he just approves whatever is recommended to him. Has anything changed at the National Library took over? I don't think so.”

Totanes is not alone in his complaint. In fact, the Philippine Librarians Association (PLAI) publicly issued a Statement of Concern on May 15, 2017, which says that, first and foremost, this appointment could set a precedent for other government agencies, schools, and corporations to do the same when selecting directors and staff for their own libraries.

However, the statement ends with the group saying that they were not “questioning the President’s power to appoint the NLP Director” nor Adriano’s “other qualifications and capacity to be a good manager.” They also weren’t asking for Adriano’s appointment to be revoked—all they wanted was for the next director of the NLP to be licensed. 

The PLAI also sent a revised Statement of Concern to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Civil Service Commission in November 2017, though Totanes was unaware of this before he filed his complaint. 

Nevertheless, Totanes says: "With this complaint, I hope more attention will be paid not only to the appointments that the President is making, but also to the fact that libraries without librarians are merely warehouses with books and computers. It is people—including the librarian—who turn the warehouse into a library.”

His efforts have already started to pay off. As of today, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the government will "look into it, even if there are remedies for it."

Breaking News : New NLP Director

Heard a news today that a new NLP director was already appointed by President DU30 as one of his latest presidential appointees and will start office by April.

Is it good for our beloved profession that the new NLP head/director is not a Librarian? Is there violations of our RA9246?

Please comment po so that we could have our collective stand as a profession.

DISCLAIMER: I am not posting this as sour graping. I did not apply for the position. I do believe however, that we have a pool of qualified practicing librarian to be named as NLP director without tapping from the other profession.

Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts on this issue. (rbmanlangit)

NOTE: Posted earlier in the PLAI officers and Members fb group (a public group). Please refer to the fb post for the updated discussion/comments.

In memoriam: Director Antonio Santos of the National Library

UPDATES as of 28 October 2015

A necrological service is scheduled today, October 28 (between 1-4pm), to be held at Malcolm Hall, UP Law Center, Diliman, Quezon City, before the remains are transferred to Marikina City at Packet Santiago Funeral Home (13 V. Gomez St., San Roque, Marikina City) at 5pm. Burial is scheduled on November 3 with mass at 1PM at Our Lady of the Abandoned Church, then on to the final destination at Heaven's Gate cemetery (Info from Prof. Salvacion Arlante). 

Our deepest condolences and prayers to the bereaved family of the late Atty. Antonio M. Santos.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let Your perpetual light shine
 upon him, may his soul rest in peace. Amen.

Statement of the National Library of the Philippines on the death of Director Antonio Santos

The National Library of the Philippines announces with deep sadness the passing of its Director, Atty. Antonio Santos, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday. The cause was a heart attack.

Previously, Director Santos had been with the College of Law, University of the Philippines, serving as Law Librarian for more than three decades. Among his many commitments, he also served as National President of the Philippine Librarians Association for three terms, becoming a member of the Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) Executive Board.

Director Santos has received various Outstanding Librarian awards, notably from the University of the Philippines, Professional Regulation Commission, Philippine Association of Academic and Research Librarians, and the Philippine Group of Law Librarians. He was also named Outstanding Librarian of Southeast Asia by CONSAL, its first awardee.

In February 2011, President Aquino appointed him Director of the National Library. During his stewardship, Director Santos presided over the revitalization of this institution, with its current budget more than double its 2010 budget. He began the long-delayed structural retrofitting of the National Library building as well as the digitization of the photo collection and library services.

Among his peers, Director Santos was known as a gentleman, a thoughtful and forward-thinking public servant. He was also a well-loved law librarian, and his passing is a great loss to the legal community, to all librarians, and certainly to the nation.

Info source: http://www.gov.ph/2015/10/23/the-late-director-santos-national-library/

New NLP Director : Atty. Antonio M. Santos

(Photo from Filipinolibrarian, Thank you.)

President Benigno C. "Pnoy" Aquino, Jr. appointed Atty. Antonio M. Santos last February 28, 2011 as the new Director of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). In the photo, he took his oath of office before Marikina Mayor Ed De Guzman last March 3, 2011.

Awards & Recognition:

Outstanding Professional Librarian (1999) by PRC

Outstanding Academic Librarian by PAARL

Outstanding Librarian (2002) by CONSAL

Previous position:

Chair, NCCA-NCLIS (2008-2010)

President, PLAI (1993-1994, 1996-1997)

President, PGLL (1990-1992)

Papers delivered at various PLAI-STRLC activities:

2009 Summer Conference @ Puerto Princesa, Palawan

IFLA-FAIFE Seminar-Workshop on the Internet Manifesto, June 25-26-, 2009

Our Warmest Congratulations!