Book review: Who Are We

(Book picture taken from Vibal Shop website)

EXCERPTS from today's column of Michael L. Tan in the Philippine Daily Inquirer "Who Are We" of October 23, 2019.   A book review of a Filipiniana material worthy to be included in our library collection.

Vibal Publishing is probably better known for its excellent and innovative textbooks. Less known are its Academica Filipina series with intriguing titles: “More Hispanic Than We Admit” (volume 1 already out of print, with a volume 2 out now), “More Tsinoy Than We Admit” (Tsinoy being Chinese-Filipino), “More Islamic Than We Admit” and “More Pinay Than We Admit.” 

Except for the “Pinay” book, which concentrates on gender, all the others are useful reads as we ask ourselves: Who are we? 

Vibal’s publications remind us there is so much more to discover and celebrate in what makes the Filipino: a lively, if not sometimes chaotic, blend of cultures that is reflected in the most basic aspects of our lives, such as what we eat, what we wear, even what we think.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/124759/who-are-we#ixzz63Ef3eLnc

Clippings: Books, Curiosity and Catalogs

In today issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Click HERE to read the full article.

Books, curiosity and catalogs

By: Ambeth R. Ocampo

My delight in library catalogs, and the hours and hours of fun I spend poring over bibliographies, is seen to be weird, a perversion formed growing up in the age without the internet or the online public access catalog or OPAC. Once upon a time, we had the card catalog, which trained the mind to find books by author, title or subject.

The state of libraries and archives in my youth formed my research instincts and taught me that patience is indeed bitter, but its fruit is sweet. In every new library, my method was the same: Pull out the card catalog drawer that contained cards on the Philippines, put them on a table and go through every card, stopping only to note items I would return to later.

When I search Google today, I’m not content with the result at the top of the list; that could have been sponsored, so I scroll through all results to the end before I decide, based on my instinct and previous knowledge, what is the best source.

The tools of research have changed, but the critical faculty remains: One must continually ask, doubt and weigh evidence before assuming you are right. The UST catalogs will provide sleepless nights, but the outcome will be knowledge of a new terrain for research.

PDI Article: What Attracts Filipinos to Read?

Ms Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, as NBDB chair shares some info regarding the conduct of the 2017 Readership Survey by the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute as against the previous readership survey conducted in 2013, 2017 and 2012 by SWS which were merely a rider suveys conducted "on the kindness of the benefactors and principal originators of the endeavor".

The fulltext of the article is reposted below to aid readers/researchers/librarians in the background information of the latest readership survey. Readers of this site are strongly advised to refer to original article at the PDI website for citation purposes, for new updates and for the comments of the readers (if any) as a result of the publication of this article. Thank you PDI.

THE LEARNING CURVE

What attracts Filipinos to read?

By: Neni Sta. Romana Cruz - @inquirerdotnet 

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM October 06, 2018

It is always a matter of curiosity to know how much our country reads, if at all. That it continues to crave books and reading materials despite the general problems of accessibility and affordability is amazing in itself. But we all know that, for any manner of meaningful long-term planning for both the government and the private sector, such information is absolutely necessary.

The National Book Development Board (NBDB), as the government agency mandated to conduct research on the book publishing industry to determine the reading habits and attitudes of Filipinos, commissioned an independent readership survey in 2017.

There have been previous readership surveys in 2003, 2007 and 2012, but these were rider surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations. For the first time, the agency had an approved budget item that allowed it to run an independent survey, one no longer dependent on the kindness of benefactors and principal originators of the endeavor.

Leonor G. Reyes, the NBDB operations services director who oversaw the survey, highlighted the firsts in this survey, five years hence. This is the very first time the youth population was included as respondents; the survey had 112 questions compared to 70 in the past, and now included in its coverage digital, audio and e-books. There were dedicated questions on the types of  books acquired—second-hand books, brand-new books, e-books—as well as on other subjects, such as reading from different types of gadgets, e-book apps, fanfiction websites.

The NBDB was privileged to work with the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute, which had 2,400 survey respondents: 1,200 were 6 to 17 years old (youth); and 1,200 were 18 years old and above (adults). Textbooks were not included, as leisure reading was the focus. Respondents were asked about their reading habits for the period May 2017 to April 2018.  They were from rural and urban areas all over the country, except the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao because of prevailing security conditions then.

In selecting a national representative sample, the Philippines was divided into four geographic divisions—Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and National Capital Region. A sample of 300 households was selected from each of the groups for a total of 1,200, with each household having two respondents, an adult and a child. Six households from each selected barangay were chosen based on the 2010 Census of Population and Housing.

Dr. Dennis S. Mapa, project consultant  and dean and professor of the UP School of Statistics, presented the main highlights of the survey. What attracts Filipinos to read? In the order of ranking, both the adults (63.14 percent) and the youth (43.29 percent) chose “interesting topics.” For the youth, illustrations or pictures and “words used [that] are familiar or easy to understand” came next.  Television and Facebook are the youth’s main reading sources these days, with word of mouth as a third source. Newspapers and magazines made up a poor fourth source.

Seventy-five percent of the youth and 73 percent of adults are willing to spend only up to P199 for a foreign book, with a comparative number opting for only up to P99. These findings should have a bearing on the current deliberations in the Senate on the removal of the current tax incentives for industries, including the book publishing industry. It is some comfort that, at the first public hearing, Senators Miguel Zubiri and Juan Edgardo Angara categorically said they were not supportive of any taxes on books.

There is a wealth of information in the results that will guide the NBDB as it continues to strive to support book publishing and readership in the country. Its results will bear on the agency’s policies and strategies on capacity-building, content development and book promotion.

With the high interest of the 100-plus members of the audience at last week’s public presentation, I am certain that many researchers will be led to explore with greater focus other areas of literacy.

Neni Sta. Romana Cruz (nenisrcruz@ gmail.com) is chair of the National Book Development Board and a member of the Eggie Apostol Foundation.

PDI Editorial : TRAIN 2 to tax books?

Fulltext of the Philippine Daily Inquirer Editorial of 14 September 2018. Thank you PDI.

Reposted here the fulltext for wider dissemination to all concerned stakeholders in our profession and related fields in order for our timely action to this matter and  "to stay vigilant and continue speaking out against it."

To view the reader's comments/sentiments and or updates/corrections (if any) posted to this editorial, please see the original editorial posted at the PDI website or simply click the links provided above. 

EDITORIAL

September 14, 2018

TRAIN 2 to tax books?

Various sectors have reacted with alarm to what some alert citizens have discovered in the pages of Senate Bill No. 1906, filed by Sen. Vicente Sotto III. SB 1906, first called “TRAIN 2,” has been repackaged as “Trabaho” (Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities) to disassociate it from the unpopular TRAIN, which has been blamed for the inflation and painful economy now besetting the country. The House of Representatives passed its counterpart bill to SB 1906 this week.

Sotto’s measure contains a provision that seeks to repeal Section 12 of Republic Act No. 8047, or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act enacted in 1995, which exempts books, magazines, periodicals, newspapers, including book publishing, printing, distribution and circulation, from the expanded value added tax. Should the provision be retained and enacted into law, such goods and services will be taxed. The prices of books, including textbooks and raw materials for publishing, are likely to increase as a result.

The local book community is up in arms over the provision, warning that it would kill the country’s reading culture by making books even less accessible and affordable.

“You can tax cigarettes to discourage smoking. You can tax sugar for healthy living. But taxing books will not promote reading,” said Clem Malubay, owner of the independent Aklatan Bookstore and author of an online petition against the repeal in change.org.

Filipino writing organizations Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo  and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas, in their joint petition on Facebook, said: “Ang libro ay hindi lamang karaniwang libangan o aliwang maaaring patawan na lamang ng buwis, kung nanaisin. Hindi ito bisyo, tulad ng maraming ibig buwisan ngayon. Isa itong daan patungo sa pagkatuto, paglikha, at pagkilala sa sarili at daigdig. (A book is not a common form of entertainment that should be taxed at whim. It is not a vice, unlike other goods that are being taxed. It is a means of learning, of creating and discovering the self and the world).”

Those who have signed the petitions raise valid questions: Why tax educational materials, of all things? Why turn book ownership, in effect, into a privilege for a few?

Contrary to observations that Filipinos no longer read books given the current dominance of social media and television as sources of information, huge turnouts at book fairs like the Manila International Book Fair and Big Bad Wolf show otherwise.

A survey released by the National Book Development Board in 2012—the most recent data available—showed that “there still exists an enormous market in the Philippines for producers of all sorts of reading materials,” with 88 percent or almost 50 million Filipino adult readers. This figure, however, represented a slight decline from 94 percent in 2003 and 92 percent in 2007.

Those numbers could only further decline with the proposed book tax, and eventually kill the publishing industry.

This is not the first time that the government has attempted to tax books. Eight years ago, the Bureau of Customs imposed duties on a shipment of the popular young adult novel “Twilight,” causing a domino effect on other book imports. The book community loudly protested, citing the Unesco Florence Agreement of 1950, which binds signatory states, including the Philippines, not to impose customs duties on imported educational, scientific and cultural materials. The strong lobby managed to convince the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to scrap the customs duties.

Responding to the growing concerns over the problematic TRAIN 2 provision, Euvimil Nina Asuncion, Department of Finance legal and communications director, has reached out to Malubay through Aklatan’s Facebook page. She gave the assurance that enough legal safeguards are in place to ensure that books will remain exempt from tax and customs duties.

Such assurances are welcome, but not enough. Until the worrying provision is definitively stricken out of the final draft of the tax bill, the reading public has to stay vigilant and continue speaking out against it. Taxing books and making educational materials more expensive—rendering them out of reach, eventually, to many ordinary Filipinos—is antidemocratic, an assault on the essential republican ideal of an informed and critical citizenry.

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

Time to Read [read: Establish Public School Libraries]

Bes, alam mo kaya papano sasagutin ang "concern" ni Ma'am? Di ba meron batas about establishing a barangay reading centers all over the Philippines, siguro napapanahon na din isulong pagsasabatas ng isang mandatory establishment of a public school library (or reading center/corner) para meron long-term solution sa inilatag na "concern" ni Ma'am? Ano sa tingin mo lodi?

A typical problem that had to be worked out was: Who among the faculty would assume responsibility for books handed to the school? The teachers refused to accept the additional accountability. And there was also the concern about the quality of books gathered from book drives.

Click the image file to read/redirected to the full article in PDI website.