School Librarians and 21st Century Literacy (1 of 3)

The last week of April is when most library organizations in the Philippines have their national conferences. The Philippine Association of School Librarians, Inc (PASLI) is one of them. Many school librarians are on summer break in April and PASLI sure knows where to go to offer its members a conference where learning and fun both happen. I have had participated in many summer conferences of PASLI in the past and I always felt welcomed.

In 2009, I conducted a Storytelling Workshop in the PASLI Conference at Teachers' Camp, Baguio. They went back to the same venue in 2013 where I first presented the idea of BIbliotherapy and ran a workshop. Three years after, I was back with PASLI friends to run two workshops namely, Work Life Balance and Building Professional Learning Networks. The PASLI Conference that year, 2016, was held in IloIlo City. A few days after, I had a stroke. That is why, in 2017, I missed the annual conference at their invitation but I Darrel Marco and Ann Grace Bansig conducted the session on my behalf. They also received the plaque of appreciation that the association conferred to me. It was a surprise! I only managed to post in my blog my "acceptance speech". When PASLI celebrated its Ruby year in 2018, the officers asked for a video relaying my message of good wishes for the association.

And so, when Cris Laracas and Jude Gorsope sent me an email to join them for dinner to meet Diljit Singh, former President of IASL last July 2018, I said yes. Turned out, it was a dinner to begin initial talks on a  regional IASL workshop in Manila. In less than a year, PASLI pulled through!

Last April 24, 25, 26, more than 150 school librarians in the ASEAN region and in the Philippines attended the 5th IASL Regional Workshop and Annual Summer Conference of PASLI cum National Assembly at the Century Park Hotel, Manila. Present were past officers of PASLI imcluding Madame Leony Galvez who was also there as the assigned monitor and observer of the Board of Librarians (BFL) and the Philippine Regulations Commission (PRC). The regional workshop and conference was a success as it gathered school librarians in Southeast Asia with resources speakers and paper presenters from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and even in the US!

The three day IASL Workshop and PASLI Conference was fun, friendly and full of learning insights!