Looking forward to CONSAL

Now it's official. I'm going to be part of the Reception and Hospitality Committee for the forthcoming Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians to be held at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong from March 25-30, 2006.

My job: meet and greet arriving members of the CONSAL Executive Committee, speakers, and participants at the airport. I won't do it alone, of course. I'll be with fellow volunteers to do round d'clock waiting. I will be bearing the placard so our guests won't get lost at the airport and show them to the car that will bring them to the hotel.

But contrary to conventional wisdom, we in the committee and the volunteers are not entitled to free registration at the conference.

Upgrading our library system

My boss asked me one time if we need to upgrade our present library system, Athena, to a newer version. We are currently using version 9.1 up from 7.1. We passed up on version 8.1 because there were not many improvements but had to go for 9.1 because of the web server, updates for bookings that were supposedly useful for the AV Center, the ability to make global changes to a field, and attach files to a record.

However, I didn't find the added Bookings menu helpful for us at the AV Center in terms of reservation be it for venue or for materials because the system cannot extract and display data necessary for the efficient management of the AV Center. If I where to use this upgrade, I would be doubling my work and that is not exactly what an automated system is supposed to do. Aside from the web interface that's included in version 9.1, we haven't exactly optimized the other new features of the upgraded version.

So in response to my boss's query whether or not to upgrade our system, I had to ask her back what's new with the upgrades and until I get a satisfactory answer, I vote to stick with the present system. Remember, software developers upgrade as often as possible to make money but it doesn't necessarily mean you always have to avail of each upgrade. The decision to upgrade always boils down to the user's needs.


Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. (Psalms 27:14)

Why Google can't replace us

Here's an article by Thomas Mann, a Reference Librarian, on why Google's keyword search cannot replace cataloging and classification. I couldn't agree more with Mann as he presents three major problems in searching the 15,000,000 digitized books for its Google Print database using keywords and we can always use his example when someone tells us that Google will render us librarians irrelevant.

I'm not much of a Google fan except when I'm looking for some quick facts and when I'm feeling too lazy to walk one floor up the stairs to consult an encyclopedia or dictionary. But when you're faced with 160,000 results for one search query, you'd better put your search term in context. Remember, Google ranks websites according to the most links it has, so chances are the top search results may not be the "it" for your research needs, that is of course if you need more than a definition of a term.

That's why I prefer the clustered search of Vivisimo.



I will be with you to protct you. (Jer 1:9)

The disturbing sublety in Coach Carter

This post is long overdue. Last Monday I wrote a reflection on the movie Coach Carter and how impotant it is for student athletes to view the film regardless of the sport.

But there is this disturbing (at least for me) subplot: the love affair between Carter's player Kenyon and the Kyra portrayed by Ashanti. Early in the film, it was established that Kenyon impregnated and that the girl was obviously excited about the prospect of having a child but the guy was having reservations about caring for a family because he was motivated to go to college. So Kyra rants on about Kenyon's selfish interests for wanting to go to college and drops him like a hot potato. The guy hinted at getting rid of the baby because he wasn't sure of the kind of future he could give the three of them. And he was speaking of choices.

Towards the end of the movie, Kenyon got a college scholarship and by way of bringing the good news to Kyra, he asked her to be part of his life again and to go with him where ever he goes together with the yet to be born baby. It was at this point that the girl confesses she had pregnancy terminated and I was deeply disturbed with the guy's reply: "Oh, you shouldn't have gone through it alone" or something to that effect. But it was the girl's answer that I truly found revolting: "My mom was with me".

What is the movie trying to tell teenagers watching? For all I care, this subplot could have been deleted and something more wholesome was put in its place. It is clearly making a political statement, albeit, very subtly that abortion is all right and irresponsible sex is all right. And what about morals?

It was no coincidence that two days after I wrote my Monday post, i got this email from one of my students with pictures of aborted fetuses in various states of mutilation. The images were so graphic that even before I got to the end of the photos I was already crying. And I knew I had to speak up.

Besides using the movie to motivate players and coaches, it can also be used as a springboard to discuss, what else but promiscuity, responsibility, and abortion. And for me, the last one is never a choice; it should not even be an option.

ATM Literacy

Is there such a thing as ATM literacy? Read on.

I was next in line at an ATM machine late this afternoon. The lady at the machine seemed to be confused because her transaction was cancelled. I first thought the machine ate her card but a few seconds later it was ejected. She approached the guard and gestured at the machine. It turned out that she was taking long in entering data that the machine automatically cancelled her transaction. The guard approached her and stood next to her, told her to repeat the process and guided her through each step. She chose to transact in Taglish and it was the guard who pressed the buttons for her. she obviously didn't know what was happening. At the part where she had to enter an amount, the guard told her how much to withdraw then left her to go back to his post. I happened to glance over her shoulder and saw that her acount had insufficient funds.

She again looked at the guard but I told her in Filipino that she did not have enough money to withdraw the amount she entered. So she placed her ATM card back into the machine, keyed in her PIN and when I saw that she was trying to make sense of the menu, I took the liberty of pushing the buttons for her. Since I saw how much she had in her account, I just told her to withdraw 500 pesos. Once she was able to claim her cash, she thanked me and apparently embarassed, she said she didn't know how to use that particular machine.

When she left, I could only shake my head at what transpired nd felt sorry for the lady. I really wanted to ask her how she ended up with an ATM card without knowing how to use it. I guess I'll never know.

What's a library without books?

This may well be a question I can address the government on the lack of books in the country's public school libraries. But this is a perfect juxtaposition of the trend in US academic libraries and the state of our libraries here in the country in relation to this story from USA TODAY.

It seems that academic libraries in the US are taking the bold step of radically changing the library from a place where one can get lost in the stacks, literally and figuratively, into a sort of tambayan and where patrons can check out not books but laptops, MP3 players, and software suites not to mention a cup of coffee and pastries. While these libraries are emptying their stacks, libraries here are aching for materials to fill their shelves and with very limited funds, if there is at all, they could only afford a few titles with the already high cost of books made more expensive with the E-VAT. So how about sending their books over here for good measure?

I wish I'd live to see the day when a public school library will be a dynamic place where ideas are born and bred with the aid of technology tools without librarians "shushing" or in our case, ringing a bell.

So what's a library without books? I guess it depends on which part of the globe you're at.

The Coach Carter In Me

The loss of and difficulty of Internet access at work and at home respectively has set me back in my postings in my blogs. It kind of took me off tangent and for a while was at a loss as to what to write about. But while walking to the wash room today, the light bulb in my head suddenly turned on and Coach Carter came to mind which I watched last night.

I'm not sure if the movie has been screened in the country already so it means that I watched a pirated DVD copy. It's a sports movie in the league of Remember the Titans, which drove me to tears. The movie is based on the true story of Ken Carter who coached a high school basketball team. He was not the average basketball coach who only cared about shooting percentages and defense but he wanted his players to be students first before they were athletes. He couldn't have said it more clearly: "Student comes first in "student athlete". So what he did was to let his players and their parents sign a contract that the players had to maintain a grade point average of 2.3, attend all their classes and sit at the front rows, and wear coat and tie on game days as a sign of respectability. He gained popularity or notoriety, depending on which side of the fence stakeholders were, when he benched his undefeated team when they failed to live up to the contract by cancelling the most important games and locking the gym. This is as far as I go with the movie. but the sub plots were also interesting which I will save for later.

If there's a group who should watch this movie, its the varsity players in our schools. I couldn't agree more with Coach Carter 's principle of academics first before playing because there is so much more to life than just playing ball. I don't even have to look far for an example because I have a nephew who's a college ball player.

My nephew (my bro-in-law's son) is 21 years-old and he's no different from the characters portrayed in the movie. Basketball to him is everything. Four years ago, he came from the province where he was also in the varsity team, hoping to make it to the UAAP. But as luck would have it, he made the rounds of the universities and he wasn't good enough for them plus the fact that he had no clout to back him up. Yes, there's politics in sport too, if you're not aware of it. He wasted an entire year loafing around, trying out in different schools hoping that his talents would be appreciated. A year later and with my hubby's right connections and pressures, he was able to make the team for NCAA.
To make a long story short, he's still in college but I can only guess how long he stays there or if he'll graduate at all because he's not exactly taking his academics seriously. Last sem, he enrolled in two subjects. He failed one and was incomplete in the other. To think he dreamt of being drafted in the PBA. But I guess he has accepted the fact that he will never make it to the PBA.

I also recall the student athletes I had when I was a university instructor. I had to be and was told to be extra lenient to them but I share Coach Carter's views so even if they had games and were absent in my class, they had to catch up with the lesson. I remember failing a couple of them but it's not something I'm particularly proud of. They did beg me as well as their coaches to reconsider but I already bent over backwards to accommodate them early on but they simply were too busy playing. I guess they lost their scholarships after I failed them.

Maybe there is a Coach Carter in all of us. Let us not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in even if it means facing the ire of an entire community and change the culture of leniency to athletes, after all they are still students. Because sports is not supposed to be an end but a means to an end.

I'll save my reflections on the sub plots tomorrow.

Two Groups of Librarians

The Philippine Normal University Library and Information Science Alumni Association, Inc. just wrapped up a workshop on "Cataloging in a Networked Environment" with Ms. Estela Montejo and Ms. Michelle Panti as resource persons.

As emcee of the workshop, I can group the participants who are mostly school librarians into two: the net-savvy and the not-net-savvy librarians. For the net-savvy participants, the topic of the workshop was nothing new to them but for the not-net-savvy participants, it was an all together new experience because there were hands-on exercises. Some of those who belong to the latter group were hesitant to browse the Internet and were clearly not used to handling computers. There was this one particular librarian I assisted who was not familiar with using a mouse and had difficulty controlling the cursor. Some do not even know where the address bar until it was pointed out to them.

Over all we conducted a successful activity but judging from the evaluation of the participants, some commented the content was basic and should have been more complex but on the other hand there were those who commented that it was a first time for them. Given this scenario, I cannot help but notice a dichotomy. And for someone involved in the continuing education of librarians, I began to ask how can we as an Association help bridge the gap between these two groups in terms of offerings without any group feeling left out?

There is so much out there to learn and yet the participants still clamor for learning basic skills like indexing and more cataloging. I guess in the end, whatever activity will be planned, it will be a choice to give one for the haves or for the have nots but never for the two.

Dr. Dylan Dizon, a former student library assistant

Dr. Dylan Dizon is currently the director of Educational Outreach through e-Learning (EDO). They are responsible for producing interactive modules that are being used for the e-Learning project at Smokey Mountain.

When he found out that I was a librarian, he told me used to work at the UP's Main Library as a student assistant when he was in college. He further told me that he learned more from the library that from his teachers saying that of all his college professors, there were only 3 or 4 who were worthy of attending classes.

I have yet to get a copy of his profile but I do admire the man for his dedication and he is so down-to-earth. He's not all what I expected of somebody who has a doctoral degree and I am so honored to have met him. And what's more, I will actually be working with him. I just clinched a deal to prepare a module.

I also found out a very juicy piece of information. He tells me that the CHED and DepEd will be merged because it was found out that these agencies had duplication of functions and that he will be part of the Board of Curriculum that will look into the curriculum of various course offerings. This was something he has done while teaching at Michigan State University. Isn't that good news?

The Irony of Being a Librarian

Yesterday morning my youngest son who's in grade 2 at DBTI Makati asked me for 6 pesos. I don't give them money for baon because they have all the food they need for recess and lunch and there wasn't anything on their diary that said he needed to buy something or pay for anything. So I had to ask what he was going to use the money for.

And I was surprised at his answer. He was going to use the money to pay his overdue books. Note that he was paying for two books.

I didn't readily and wholeheartedly give him the money though it was a small amount because I had to know why he had an overdue when I kept reminding him of his due date. His answer almost made me laugh. He said he didn't forget to return the books but since the line at the circulation desk was long and my son not having the patience to fall in line and wait for his turn, decided to keep the books longer.

All I could think of at that moment was the irony that as a librarian, I can borrow a book from our library for as long I want without overdue so long as nobody needs it and I consider this privilege a perk of the profession and here is my son asking me for money to pay his fines. Karma? Maybe. Probably. Whatever, at least my kids are reading and making use of their library and I can't fault them for that.

GILAS update

I interviewed Mr. Luigi Bernas, program director of GILAS last Tuesday and I must say it was a very productive interview. Without preempting my column for Monday because it will be entirely different from this post, the program has a lot of room for librarians to make use of their talents to help the program in terms of training and monitoring.

Luigi admitted to me during the interview that they are rather liberal with the training of teachers and students and leaves it to volunteer organizations, like Microsoft and NGOs how to conduct the literacy classes and that they have yet to develop an assessment tool. They have consulted with a group of academics with Ph.Ds whose services they have contracted in a previous project but they were not convinced of the tool that was developed and they were being charged tens of thousands of dollars for it. Yup, you read it right, in dollars.

So I told him about my thesis on information literacy and how I developed my own tool to assess the information literacy skills of my respondents and explained to him that maybe their consultants couldn't come up with an assessment tool because they are not aware of the skills that are supposed to be measured, which was precisely what Luigi thought, too. And before the end of the interview he told me he was going to recruit me for the project. I'm so looking forward to the invitation. I might bring in a couple of librarians into the picture.

I mentioned to him, too, about a similar effort being done by IFLA/Unesco in the country and I asked him if he was willing to work with them to which he agreed to.

So where do we librarians fit in? As I wrote earlier, in training teachers and educating students and monitoring their progress. These are the areas they are most in need of assistance since they take care of finding the resources to fund the project. They need an organization with a nationwide reach to monitor the program and who has such a network? None other than PLAI.

I don't know where this is going to lead me to but I hope if I get the chance to bring in librarians into the program they'd be up to the challenge.

Article V Curriculum

Here's the second part of the Policies and Standards for BLIS Program.

Article V Curriculum

xxx...Among its salient features are:

• provision for the mastery of the basic subjects such as Library and Information Organization and Management, including Laws and Related Practices and Trends, Information Technology, Selection and Acquisition of Library Materials, Cataloging and Classification, Reference, Bibliography and User Services, and Indexing and Abstracting, as called for in the library and information professional licensure examination;
• addition of subjects in vital information and communication technologies crucial in the LIS program, like telecommunications, networking, and database design;
• enriched specialization component such as law, health and medical, academic, special, school, and public librarianship;
  
• provision for community exposure through field-based experiences through its library practicum subjects; and
• total immersion in library and information science practice towards the end of the LIS program.

The curriculum outline enumerates 63 units of general education units; 90 units of professional courses: 60 units of basic professional courses, 18 units of specialization, and 12 units of electives; 6 units of NSTP; and 8 units of physical education.


The highlights of the new curriculum are those in red. In the forum that I attended, a respected member of the library science academe strongly rejected the inclusion of the ICT component saying that these are not necessary skills for librarians and that these better be left to engineers.

I say she's not in touch with the times. I had to learn networking and I had to learn programming because my job demanded it. I think her concept of a librarian remains to be traditional.

Of the specialization, she said that library schools should not be forced to offer all the specialization courses and allow them to choose a particular field. Besides, according to her, courses like diplomas in medical and law librarianship were offered in UP before but there were very few enrollees, so she thought it would be a waste to offer all the subjects.

Following her train of thought, wouldn't that be limiting a student's choice on the area of librarianship he/she would want to specialize in?

If you have any comment, I assure you that I will relay them to the PATLS who is responsible for information dissemination.

Print on print

Check out my column at Manila Bulletin in reaction to Mr. Adrian Cristobal's article in the op-ed page of the paper last July.

Also, check out my other blog.

Swan Lake

I braved Friday night's stormy weather and horrendous traffic just so I could be with my mom and a couple of her friends to see Ballet Manila's Swan Lake at the Aliw Theater with no less than prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde dancing to the role of Odette/Odile.

For a change, I allow myself the privilege of watching ballet when tickets are available. Watching ballet offers a refreshing break from work, work, and work, and for two hours, I just allow my senses to take in the sights of ballerinas and danseurs in their bright costumes, the sounds of classical music, and the emotions with each movement. Pinocchio and Don Quixote remain to be my favorites coz its just plain fun to watch them.

Another reason I enjoy going to the ballet is that afterwards I get to enjoy a ride-all-you-can treat at Star City!

Meme

Zarah just tagged me for a meme. I knew this was forthcoming but I'm not ready yet. But I hope I can do it soon enough. I'm just so busy with all my rakets for Manila Bulletin that I have on average two interviews a week for the next two weeks on top of the product reviews I'm doing.

But I'm looking forward to using a WLAN-equipped laptop with a WLAN projector. Watch out for this in Manila Bulletin's Technews.

Finally, the LIS Curriculum

I have finally in my hands a copy of CHED Memo No. 08 Series of 2005 otherwise known as the Policies and Standards of Library and Information Science (BLIS) Program.

I'll skip articles 1 & 2 and go right down to Section 5 of Article III - Program Specifications. Sections 3 & 4 deals with the title of the degree and program description and general objectives respectively.

Section 5. Career Opportunities in Librarianship

A Library and Information Science graduate can be employed as:

• Director of Libraries
• Chief/Head Librarian
• Abstractor
• Archivist
• Acquisitions Librarian
• Bibliographer
• Cataloger
• College or University Librarian
• Community Outreach Librarian
• Bookmobile Librarian
• Documentalist
• Indexer
• Information Scientist
• Information Specialist
• Law Librarian
• Library Science Faculty/Educator
• Library Technician
• Media or Audio-Visual Specialist
• Medical Librarian
• Public Librarian
• Researcher
• School Librarian
• Special Librarian
• Teacher Librarian

During the forum I attended back in July sponsored by PATLS (Phil. Assoc. of Teachers of Library and Information Science), Dean Vallejo noted the inclusion of Library Technician which according to her should be removed from the list as this is more for non-professionals. She likewise noted that graduates do not get employed right away as Director of Libraries or Chief/Head Librarians. I agree with Dean Vallejo on the removal of Library Technician I'm having second thoughts about removing the other two because for me seeing the title is like a motivator to follow a career path and aim for the position.

Reference Librarian is conspicuously missing. Could it be that those who drafted the policy forgot about it? How could they have forgotten such an important position? Circulation Librarian is not in the list either. Me thinks the list needs to be revised. And why such a short list? Surely there are other titles besides those on the list. The Task Force should have exerted effort to provide a longer list so that prospective enrollees can have a broader picture of the employment possibilities of graduating with a BLIS degree.


I think I have to find out the composition of the Task Force.


BTW, thank you Zarah, Arnold, Liz, and Von for the support. I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot from you guys.

Tomorrow the curriculum.

On Blogging

I never thought I would become a blogger thinking that I am not brave enough to bare my soul.  But when I began reading the blogs of Zarah, Von, and Clair I began to think otherwise.  And when Von, Zarah, and I went out for dinner and coffee last August 1, I was encouraged to create my own blog and that was what I did first thing Tuesday morning.

And I haven't looked back since.  It's as if a floodgate was opened in my mind and all of a sudden ideas poured out one after another that I had to bring out my old PDA from retirement just so I could keep track of those ideas before they disappear into oblivion.

Now I'm mulling on creating another blog for my Technews column.

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Besides watching movies

I work with two technicians at the Audio-Visual Center. They take care of the technical stuff like audio/video/multimedia setup and operating, troubleshooting, maintaining, and repairing all the equipment that includes OHPs, slide projectors, LCDs, mixers, amplifiers, speaker systems, and computers. I, on the other hand make sure that the Center runs smoothly: approving reservations for venue and equipment; acquiring, processing, cataloging, and encoding into the database AV materials; providing guidance to students and consulting services to faculty on the appropriate AV material to suit their needs; and from time to time become a technician myself when their hands are full.

Before my stint at the AV Center, the only thing I knew about AV equipment was to operate them. But ever since the transfer, I haven't stopped learning. Now, I can sit inside the control booth of our mini-theater and be able to operate everything in it - consoles, mixers, and all - without the help of a technician; convert analog recordings into digital using a converter; set up multimedia equipment; and best of all, produce AV materials. And best of all, I now know the difference between brightness and resolution in projectors; a VGA and RCA cable. And with the variety of projectors I've seen, consider me an expert on LCDs.

I used to think that I wouldn't be able to handle all these equipment but I had to force myself and I haven't looked back.

Outside of this, I teach Library and Information Science subjects (Info Tech & AV Resources) at Philippine Normal University where I graduated with my bachelor's and graduate degrees and write a bi-weekly column and product reviews for Manila Bulletin TechNews Supplement.

This is me and these are what I do on top of being a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, and a Catholic.

What I Do

I love reference work. And it goes without saying that I love reference books. For the last fourteen years of my professional life working in different libraries, I have dealt with reference books and reference work. It has always been a challenge journeying with clients as we go from one book to another in search for an answer. And it fills me with joy when my client and I successfully find the elusive information.

But a year ago I was plucked out of my comfort zone to become the Audio-Visual Librarian of Assumption College. Never one to back out on a challenge, I readily accepted the appointment not that I can do anything about it. And it took me the whole school year to adjust to the work and to the collection. I found myself reading AACR2 and using the DDC, something I haven't done for over a decade. Books on library media center management, instructional technology, and collection development of non-print materials became part of my reading list.

Ranganathan said "Every book its reader" but I couldn't say the same for nonprints. One movie can be used in a variety of context and so now I view movies not for entertainment but for finding content. It certainly has taken the fun out of watching. But I really can't complain can I because I get paid to watch videorecordings and I can't think of any other job besides those working in the theaters who get paid for watching.

Alas, I do not just sit in front of the TV and watch. There's more to being an AV librarian.

A work in progress

I finally decided to put up my own blog as a result of Adrian Cristobal's controversial (at least for us librarians) article on the 105 'useless' librarians published in Manila Bulletin which have received a lot of feedback in the PLAI's e-group and the blogs of Von, Zarah, and Clair. But I won't be writing on the issue anymore coz I believe I've said my piece about it in my comments to the above mentioned blogs.

This is going to be a work in progress as I improve on the site. It's been some time since I used HTML and I seriously need to review my notes.

Anyway, I will be writing about my experience, insights, and ideas on library education in my capacity as a teacher of library and information science, on information literacy as an advocate and as one who has done research on it, on media librarianship as an AV Librarian, and feature profiles of Filipino librarians. From time to time, I will also be sharing my experiences as a techwriter for the nation's oldest newspaper, Manila Bulletin.

I also hope to update the links soon.

See ya.