SLIA Essay Writing Contest Winner

Congratulations to Jason Balaqui for winning the first SLIA Essay Writing Contest. His essay on blogs, blogging and librarians opens the reader to his mindscape and personal views on the LIS profession in general. Jason graduated high school from Roosevelt College, Cainta.

Below is his winning essay (unedited).

The Blograrians: An Essay
By Jayson Balaqui

In every known human society, presumptions are often said and done in such a way that it misleads the public to what is really true or not. We cannot really state the exact definition of something unless we try to make a deep understanding about it.

As I have observed, librarians face the world as first class professionals but they are quite misunderstood in some ways. Why is this happening? Well, first of all, librarians are always prejudged as ill tempered individuals who become irritated by even the slightest sound in the library. Though, I must admit that I am one of those people who have this notion, but still everyone knows that there are really some librarians who are quite unentertaining or not enticing and sometimes they are the reason why some students who express interests in libraries even regret it after being abashed by some librarians for the noise that he never meant to do. On the other hand, because of those common notions and presumptions, some of the new bred of librarians who are active and much more accommodating also becomes a victim of that impression.

“I can’t change Filipino librarians, but I can change the way you look at us”. This is one great quote that I have read most especially when I was browsing the internet and landed into the blog site of Mr. Vernon Totanesof the filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com last January. The site really caught my interest because of the words “librarian” and “blog”. I love reading different blogs of different genres but it was my first time to see such a blog run by a full-fledged librarian. I never thought that there is a person like him, as a librarian, would be utilizing Blogs and the Internet to propagate his ideas. I also found their purpose for doing this as a very useful method. Now, even though I am only a student, I am beginning to understand the current situation of LIS professionals.

As I move on through the web page, I found out that there are also other blogs like his which are all aiming to transform the ideas that the common people had inscribed in their minds about LIS professionals. Blogging helps them reach out to more people most especially to those who do not favor the conventional type of reading. It also challenges them to strive more, think critically and creatively and develop themselves in the process.

Internet is a very powerful tool and Blog, as one of its product, provides an excellent way in sharing ideas. It does not only attract adults but also fascinates teenagers to write and to share their ideas. Blog, which is an online version of a static library, poses a great potential to the digitalization of libraries and this might as well as improve library services in schools and offices, help them to expand, and entice more and more people to embrace the love for reading and acquisition of new ideas including those who love new technologies.

One may consider his profession noble, if he no longer considers his work as an obligation, but as a motivation to live and to serve. This is what LIS professionals should put in their minds to continue with their lifelong journey as propagators of intellect and goodwill. They should act as versatile individuals who seek not only a good life but also