Book Review: Being Chief And Confidently Able With A Heart

Being Chief & Confidently Able With A Heart

By Roderick Baturi Ramos

Self Published Ebook, 2017

I received a free copy of Roderick “Eric” Ramos’ ebook, Being Chief & Confidently Able With A Heart for an honest review. Here are my thoughts.

1. The intent of the ebook is laudable as it chronicles the journey of a Filipino librarian and his milieu. I think we need to hear more voices and a variety of perspectives from Library and Information Science (LIS) practitoners so we can have a grasp of the authentic events and movements in the profession.

2. The ebook’s content was taken from the author’s blog. As to purpsose, he achieved two things: to blog and to have its content published in an ebook format. Here we see how one medium can be transformed into another. The contents remain the same but looking at the medium on how information was communicated changes the way readers can understand Mr. Ramos’ message to the world. It helped that he started with a study and analysis of his blog’s content and readership.

3. The content and materials are relevant to its intended readers who are LIS Professionals. For the newbie, it offers a glimpse of what the LIS workplace and landscape look like. For the seasoned LIS professional, it will push and move him or her to get a closer look at existing practices on library management, technology use in the library, human relations and dynamics in the workplace and the LIS curriculum. One of my questions on this matter is, how does it prepare LIS students for real life productive work? 

4. Given these good points, what I found challenging to me, as a reader, is the use of language by the author. I found the syntax and sentence structure difficult to understand. It still needs editing and revision. Should Mr. Ramos take on thos recommendation, his book can be a “paper” that may qualify for a national or international conference.

Rating: 3/5 bookmarks