I still remember how the news dropped on our laps last year. At school, we were quick to roundup a set of guidelines for transition to Blended Learning and Work From Home modality. What we thought was a three week or a month long suspension of on-campus activities dragged on. Our mental health and personal relationships were greatly affected. It was a traumatic experience.
Surviving the three year lockdown is no mean feat. It has given me so many things to be grateful for despite the grief and loss I still carry every day.
And so, to find myself in UP Diliman at UP SOLAIR, attending the 43rd Gabriel Bernardo Lecture was an emotional moment. For the first time in a long while, I cried while singing UP Naming Mahal. I am proud of my UP ID number but I still yet to earn a Sablay. There you go. This is reason to move forward; to go on and to keep hope alive. There is also that trip to South Korea I promised myself and the ARMY daughter.
There were plenty of good stuff going around from Dr. Danilo M. Baylen's lecture on Visual Literacy yesterday.
1. Children's books published by our local publishing houses were used as the media of analysis. Thank you UP SLIS and PATLS for supporting the local Philippine Book Industry, especially the Children's Book Industry. Libraries of all kinds MUST HAVE CHILDREN'S BOOKS in their collection. Why? I will save that for another post.
2. The concepts presented by Dr. Baylen on Visual Literacy and Visual Literature are not entirely new to me. These are concepts we take on in Language and Literature, Visual Arts and Design in the IB Program. How to apply them in other important aspects of school library services and programming is the challenge.
Does the space and organization of the physical library follow the VL concepts so that the community find meaning and order when they partake and commune with others?
How are we designing our signages in a way that messages are clear and aesthetically appealing?
What VL concepts am I applying in the selection and review of resources?
VL is a way of knowing; of seeing; of perceiving and taking meaning of the world around us. How am I making use of this knowledge and skill to communicate, create and analyse critically the deluge of information I get everyday from all formats of media?
As a teacher librarian, I resolve to include VL principles in teaching comprehension and in the design of reading programs for children and young adults.
3. Since I am in between book projects this year, I put my full trust on my illustrators, layout artists and book designer who make writing and book creation more palatable to the naked eye. We keep forgetting that the book is a technology. It is media. It is an artifact. And those who make this media, this technology, this artifact co-create and collaborate.
4. I really can use those VL principles and concepts in my art journaling!
5. Lastly, the book review activity is nakakakilig!
And that is part 2 of my post on Visual Literacy and Visual Literature! Come back again in the blog for my review of Duyan Pababa sa Bayan (Anvil, 2020) by Gigi Constantino.
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