Public libraries will benefit from eGovernance

I attended the plenary sessions of last week's LeGoV 05 Conference at the Heritage Hotel with the theme Forging Partnerships in Local eGovernment Ventures: Exemplars, Lessons, and Opportunities. One of the highlights of the conference was the launching of the LeGoV website.

I made the brave forecast for public libraries because there is nowhere for local governments to go but to adopt eGovernance, which is a solution the World Bank is espousing to cut down on graft and corruption. If we were to go by the example of Naga City, their public library, the Raul S. Roco Library, has a link on the city's home page and while the conversion of the library's holdings has yet to be completed, Willy Prilles, Coordinator of the city's School Board told me that yes the site is already searchable. Naga City takes pride in their librarian Rico Vinluan, who is actively part of the city's team. Prilles said that they hope the City Library would become a benchmark for other public libraries in the country.

Upi in Maguindanao, the summer capital of Mindanao, is also an example of a town that has adopted eGovernance but the mayor was vocal in saying that they are in the process of setting up their own municipal library.

We as a profession need to get our acts together, especially for public librarians to actively get involved in their local governments because in five years time, all local government units should have adopted some sort of eGovernance effort and we can't afford to be left behind.