PAASCU Accreditation Visit: Another Way of Learning

Teacher and artist, Rolly Delos Santos

My recent PAASCU Accreditation visit to De La Salle Santiago Zobel (DLSZ) was a learning experience, as all accreditation visits are, at least for me. For newbies to the PAASCU visit, this would seem like an inspection done by experts. For the seasoned ones, the PAASCU experience is an exercise where both parties, the school seeking accreditation and the accreditors, learn from. It is, in one way, a means toward professional development. Looking at the bigger picture, the accreditation process can be likened to a conversation and colloquim of educators seeking ways to learn continuously in an ever changing world.

This PAASCU experience made me think of the future of school libraries and how technology is changing its purpose as fast as drifting sand. How are LIS professionals, the young and especially the seasoned ones coping? This is a question that can't be answered in one sitting. This would require a connect the dots process and tons of research, on the field and in libraries.

I share with you now what I took with me after this PAASCU visit.

For one, reading through the report is an analytical task. One way to develop critical thinking is to look at criteria and read reports that justify, qualify and explain the evaluation rating assigned per criterion. Going through exhibits and conducting interviews are additional tasks that further lead to this kind of thought process. As I tend to think globally on most times, depending on my emotions to make decisions and feeling my gut to take on an action the analysis work of accreditation provides the needed balance in thought and thinking. The brain has the left and the right sides. Learning how to tap into both hemisphere takes time to develop and practice.

Visiting different libraries through PAASCU work gives me a sense of how things are in Philippine school libraries. This is a big data I often file somewhere in my mind. I pull some of it out when the need arises. Like, when I give talks and conduct workshops. I see many kinds of school libraries. I talk to many school librarians. The experience is both amazing and overwhelming. I come face to face with problems of many school librarians. The challenges are huge. I tell myself to hang on because, really, there is no better time to be a school librarian in the Philippines but today. A lot of things are happening. Giving up is not an option.

Jay Diola, Librarian of DLSZ

Meeting friends and making new ones are experiences I enjoy during a PAASCU visit. In DLSZ, I met librarian friends and colleagues. I met Tito Rolly Delos Santos, finally. I first learned of him ten or eleven years ago during the first iBlog. He attended the iBlog conference as a newbie. We both were green horns in the conference among younger bloggers who have taken into blogging like fish to water. Thank God for the blogosphere and social media, we are able to keep in touch. I asked him for how long he has been with DLSZ. With a proud smile, he said he has been teaching in DLSZ for three decades already. That is a lifetime! It was nice of him to bring me to the grade school library to meet another good friend of mine. We did not miss the collage of St. John La Salle in the high school library though. This work of art is his masterpiece!

I have also picked up some marketing ideas along the way. Asking permission from librarian friends there, I will adapt and modify these strategies.

Since DLSZ is subscribed to Overdrive, their shelves have bookmakers on books that have ebook versions and audio book counterparts in Overdrive. The DLSZ library also has a Learning Commons. While some may think that this is merely a space or a room for interactivity, there is a philosophy and a pedagogy behind its presence and practice. I think this is another trend that needs thinking through before implementing and adapting it in school libraries. Will I put one in our school library? Study the possibility.

Book Menu of the Day

 What I find cute and easy to do is the Book Menu. This reading promo/display can actually be a bibliotherapy book promotion. What the DLSZ librarians did was to set up the Chicken Book for the Soul series like a menu from a restaurant or cafe. Imagine serving books as food for the soul? Sounds exciting, right? I can get to talk about books I have read that have bibliotherapy value to readers. I will be definitely be blogging about these reading promos and how I adopt and adapt them in my work place. Watch out for it!

Apart from these reflections and experiences, I had a closer look at Blended Learning, UbD and the outreach programs of DLSZ. Big ideas that need to be eaten like an elephant.

When Reading is an Act of Love

When Carla Pacis invited me to do a workshop on literacy development, the importance of reading and storytelling to parents of St. John La Salle Preschool, I immediately said yes -- without second thoughts. The home is a child's first school and the parents are his/her first teachers. And boy, every school MUST collaborate with parents and every parent NEED allies to raise a child. As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

So Carla and I met with Chichi Ferrer, cooridinator of the De La Salle Univeristy-Taft run St. John La Salle Preschool. If you put three women whose common advocacy is literacy development, there must be good coffee. Plans were laid out and it wheeled along smoothly on the day of the workshop. There were, more or less, thirty parents (five daddies were present) who attended. They were ready and eager to participate.

I brought my storytelling stuff, of course, and donated story books to the school so Chichi and her teachers can start a lending library.

At the workshop, parents read stories, told stories and WROTE some too!

They also discussed their views on reading, books and learning in general. I had to emphasize how reading and literacy is a RIGHT that must be claimed and that no child should be deprived of this.

It is always a joy to see grown-ups engrossed in books! I used mostly local books published by Adarna House, Lampara, LG & M and Hiyas. The parents were very attentive and analytical. Some gave comments, good and otherwise on the books they read. We closed the workshop with group presentations on their selected books for read aloud and storytelling.

Love a Librarian: When Given the Chance, Make the Choice!

Madame Fe Angela Verzosa's first love is history. Then again, the LIS profession has given her the opportunity to pursue her first love and has become one of the revered voices in Library and Archives Management and Preservation. She writes so eloquently of that first time when the opportunity to work in the library came a knocking!

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”  William Jennings Bryan

Becoming a librarian was the farthest thing on my mind when I was in college pursuing a liberal arts degree in History.  My ambition then was to follow the footsteps of Herodotus, notEratosthenes. But, admittedly, I enjoyed immensely my short stint as a student assistant at the UP Main Library and at the Student Union in 1964-5.  For two semesters, I carried tons of books for Circulation readers, and dug into the Serials stacks searching for missing periodical issues on request.  And, for one whole summer, I was detailed at the Student Union building, organizing a small book collection at the Lounge’s Browsing Library (where library patrons could eat and drink, even smoke!), and ran after students taking out the current issues of newspapers and popular magazines from the rack.  After graduation, I embarked on a full-time teaching career.

I started working in the library again, in 1967 when I was asked by Dr. Serafin D. Quiason, newly appointed Library Director, to work on the joint project of the University of Michigan and the National Library on the organization and microfilming of the Quezon Papers under the direction of Dr. Isagani R. Medina, who was then on sabbatical leave from the UP Library.  I thought then it was “cool” working in the library again, and with “Sir Gani”, my favorite librarian at UP.  And, who could say no when your former History Professor and Adviser (Dr. Quiason) visits you at home and offers you a job that allows you to work on primary historical sources and to learn new skills in preserving rare manuscripts?  Plus, I had the opportunity to teach History at Lyceum of the Philippines as part-time lecturer in the evening, since it was only walking distance from work.  I had the time of my life - having the best of both worlds!

So everyday for two years, I woke up at dawn to be an hour early at work at the National Library’s Filipiniana Division, and to be surrounded by rare books and manuscripts.  I was completely engrossed in work that on one occasion, I was locked up inside (there was no warning then of closing time) and it took almost midnight before I was fetched by Mrs. Benita de la Rosa, the Chief Filipiniana Librarian (who was the only one who held the keys to the room, and at the time she was notified, she just arrived home from a late movie show).  When the project was nearly completed, I thought I would be going back to full- time teaching, until Miss Marina Dayrit convinced me to help set up the Microfilm Section at the UP Main Library and to organize the Carlos P. Romulo Papers.

From thereon, one opportunity after another, the challenges of working with special library collections and preserving them for posterity were too irresistible to refuse.  There was no looking back.  There was only looking forward.  Whether destiny happens by chance or by choice is of no consequence, because when the chances came, I chose.  And that’s how I became a Librarian, and until now, loving and embracing the profession I chose, with open arms.

This is a picture of me at the top of Mt. Samat, feeling high, because it was taken at the time I just received my new appointment as Library Director of De La Salle University in May 1994.

Love a Librarian: Staying On! Staying Strong!

I have met many Filipino Librarians who became librarians by chance. Ann Grace Bansig is one of them. In this post, she reflects on the many rewards she had been given by being a school librarian.

Grace has been to Belguim to complete a scholarship grant for young LIS professionals. She is now working as the Upper Grades Readers’ Services Librarian in De La Salle Santiago Zobel School. Currently taking Master’s in Reading Education and a volunteer for the ATD Fourth World Philippines. She just started blogging at ispyalibrarian@blogspot.com.  

Becoming a librarian never entered my mind when I started my college education. While filling up the UPCAT application form, I chose the following courses: Chemical Engineering and Journalism, very far from librarianship! I forgot the courses I chose for another campus though. Luckily, I passed and even got in at the College of Engineering! Two years after, I don’t want to stay at the college anymore but I didn't know where to go?

I only submitted applications to two other colleges, or rather school as I tried to shift direction in my future career path.  One was the School of Social Work and Community Development and second, the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), then Institute of Library and Information Science (ILIS).  That was the time that I discovered the course. So, to make it short, I made it at the SLIS and right now, I work as a school librarian. Phew! What a way to discover my career. I’d say I am an accidental librarian, but I don’t regret it. During those times, many engineering students are shifting out from Engineering and trying their luck in ILIS. So, thanks to ILIS for accepting me as a shiftee student and for giving me the chance of becoming one of the librarians today. While I was a LIS student, I discovered simultaneously what a paradise the library is and what a joy reading is! Well, that happened maybe because I was deprived of books in public schools that I have attended before. Still, it was never too late to catch up on reading. One can say that I read a lot because of my profession. But the thing is, even if I’m not in this profession I will still read for leisure.

Why I love the profession and still practicing it until now? For one, I really enjoy being a librarian. I like helping children in the library, assisting them if they need a particular book, suggesting books and acquiring books suited for their level. Doing storytelling sometimes is also one of the jobs that I like to do. It is always a joy to interact with kids and discuss some books. I even moderate a book club. In the library, whenever the kids learn that I also read the book that they borrow, they really got amazed! So I can say now that my relationship with books gets deeper and wider the more that I stay in this profession. And I know that I will never get tired of doing my job like selecting books, reading them and sharing them with the patrons. With the emergence of technology, I also take the challenge of encouraging children to read and imparting with them the importance of reading and books. Not only as a profession, but personally I also advocate spreading the love for reading and developing life-long readers. For as long as books exist and there are readers that use the library, I will stay in this profession!

In the future, I would like to blog about books and other interesting stuff about libraries and librarians. I also believe that there are things I can contribute for the betterment of librarianship.

More power to all Filipino Librarians! 

More Blogsights: Web 2.0 Tech Focusing on Blogs and Blogging

Mula naman kay jsdesingano --


Sa bilis ng pag-usong ng teknolohiya  sa panahon natin ngayon kailangan nating makasabay sa takbo nito. Ang paggamit ng Web 2.0 technology at ang pagbablog ay ang paraan para magawa ito. Bilang librarian o library staff maraming bagay tayong kailangang isaalang-alang:

-       Time (time management)
-       Being Responsible
-       Considering ethics
-       Environment (institution or individual)
-       Resources

Ang lahat ng bagay ay kailangang magsimula sa ating sarili, kailangan nating tanungin ang ating sarili kung kaya natin o hindi? At dito magsisimula ang lahat. Ang pagbibigay ng inpormasyon para sa iba, paglalathala ng mga sariling saloobin tungkol sa sarili o para sa institusyong kinabibilangan, mga bagay-bagay na gusting bigyang kasagutan.

Ako bilang library assistant ay napakapalad ko para mabigyan ng pagkakataon para makadalo sa seminar na ito. At kung matutunan ko ang pagboblog, maging responsible ako sa paggamit at paggawa nito. Maraming salamat po, Ms. Zarah Gagatiga.


From Paula Crescini --


As I browse one of the blogs about the Coffee Goddess, I feel so great that there was a prayer for our Maguindanao people who were victims of massacre last year. For me it is of great help, since it is a prayer intended for them, if a million browse and read that blog, then there are millions who prayed for them. Hope their souls are all in peace.


With regards to Philippine news and history, I browsed the Visconde Massacre where I was not able to get through it by the time it was happened before. I don’t have resources to follow the story and how it happened, but through the inquirer.net blog, I was then able to read the past and up-to-date story about that.


About Feathers in the Wind blogs, it gave me an idea to share how am I became a Librarian and also to give back the gratitude to my benefactor, the Peace Corps Alumni Foundation for Philippine Development. The foundation gave me the opportunity to fulfill my dream.


Blogging really involves communication. It is also one way of sharing your ideas and thoughts and especially the gratitude if you don’t have time to talk with those who you wanted to thank for.
Sharing small ideas with will really help some people to lighten their burden, if you share the word of God that give you strength and proven and seen to you. As a blogger you really is of great help to other.

Blogsights: Web 2.0 Technology - A Focus on Blogging

Here are two more reflections from participants of the Web 2.0 seminar-workshop I conducted last November 26, 2010 at the De La Salle University, Dasmarinas, Cavite.       

        From Khatlyn Grace Alcedo -

        Web 2.0 technology is very important to people especially for the librarians because by means of these there’s an interaction between the user and the provider of information. With the help of the technology and media, we are now more aware and updated into the advancement of different technology.

They give us enough knowledge and skills especially in communication skills. We can communicate with the other libraries and ask what are the new trends we have now that can really help us and also to our valued users. Through this web 2.0 technology, example is blog/blogging; we can now gain insights or thoughts of different topics in different places.

But creating a blog is not an easy task. Though we can do it by ourselves, we should have to know how to manage our time and control the limit of postings. Before we share the information to the users, as a librarian we should have enough knowledge and have patience in sharing information.

From Cholita Clico --

WEB 2.0 Technology was so interesting and knowledgeable to all readers. This technology can give us a lot of information about many things such as giving tips, advertising, posting informative pictures and etc.  That’s why through this technology we can explore our imagination and develop our creativity to produce reliable information and pass this to other users.

  

With regards to the discussion about “Blog and Blogging “I noticed and I learned that creating a blog is not an easy task to do. It needs a lot of time to study and determine what topic or information you are going to blog in your blogging website.  We are also responsible with the information we’re posting in the blog because we always observe ethics and that’s good for the users.   

Thank you very much for today’s seminar-workshop for keeping me in touch about learning the Web 2.0

Blogsights!

Me-anne Jimenez-Salvador writes her insights on the Web 2.0 Technology seminar-workshop I conducted at De La Salle University , Dasmarinas, Cavite last November 26, 2010.

It seems that blogging is enjoyable thing to do. But my question is, do I have time on earth to do this thing?  

First, I don’t have access on the site except today because we have workshop and we need to familiarize ourselves with the different blogs by librarians and hopefully be inspired by it. Second, as a unit head, I do need to ensure that our unit – the Readers’ Services is running well because we are the front liners of the library plus I have monthly exhibit to conceptualize and implement plus I have bi-monthly library newsletter to write. Besides, we have so many paper works to do in preparation for PAASCU and other accreditation.  

Third, after office, I have Espasyo Siningdikato, a not-for-profit  community-based artists initiative to take care of. As President, I have to lead the group and think of creative ideas which we could organize and implement and to look for other organizations and agencies to link-up with. 

Fourth, I am the current director for membership and awards of PAEA. There I am expected to raise more members and encourage them to be active in the group. Also, they asked me to think of awards that we could give to our members to honor, motivate and encourage them to excel more on their profession as art educator. 

And lastly, I also need to fulfill my passion to create and produce artworks for the upcoming exhibits of Grupo Ocho, another art group of mine. This is a pool of artists based in Cavite and we exist to hold group art show in Tagaytay and other nearby towns, our way of propagating Cavite art.

With all of these activities, when could I find time to do blogging and where could I do this? I think  I am the one who can best answer this question and what I better way of answering this but to read and reflect on the passage in theEcclesiastes 3:1-15, A Time for Everything.

I will posting more insights by participants, especially on blogging since this activity is a good example of Web 2.0 technology.

Dear Librarian Reply: Storytelling Program for the Library

For this month's Dear Librarian guest blogger, I have invited Ms. Ann Grace Bansig, School Librarian from the De LaSalle Santiago-Zobel School in Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa. Ms. Bansig is off to Flanders, Belgium next month for a scholarship grant via the STIMULATE 10 Program. Before she leaves Manila, I asked her to participate in this blog's Dear Librarian series which she so willingly accepted.

She lends advise to Mr. Augie Ebreo's question on the planning and implementation of a Storytelling Corner at the library.

Building a storytelling corner in the library is like putting up a playpen for kids in the house. You have to select a very good spot in the library where kids could comfortably read. You also have to select nice bookshelves and additional furniture like carpet and bean bags to make the atmosphere more relaxed and conducive to reading. You could also put a decoration around it. Of course, after that, you have to select books to be displayed in that area. If your purpose is to read aesthetically (leisurely), you could have storybooks both in English and Filipino in that corner. If you have big books, you could also add those. Given all these, your storytelling corner is almost ready.

Now, how are you going to do the storytelling? Storytelling is mostly done with the Lower Grades pupils specifically Kindergarteners up to Grade 3. But sometimes, it is being conducted with the Kindergartens only. To start, you have to coordinate with the Team Leaders (level coordinators) regarding the sessions and schedules. What you can do is to incorporate it with the Library Instruction Program (LIP) if you have one.

In Zobel, the LIP is very much observed and done in the Lower Grades. We conduct it once in a month per level. Coordination is the key word here and also your willingness to implement it. In the beginning, it will look complicated and a little difficult because you have to put a lot of energy and effort to it but once you started, you have to keep it going. The kids will always ask you when they are going to have it again.

Practice and exposure in storytelling also help in honing the art of doing it. Our practice is done during outreach program with the Social Action Office where a librarian is asked to do a storytelling with the kids usually in Calatagan, Batangas. Another exposure for me personally is during transfer of our Book Mobile Project in public school where I am mostly tasked to do this. Attending seminars in storytelling also adds confidence and knowledge on techniques and strategies. Be sure to arm yourself with the necessary tools, the wit and the energy to tell stories once you decide to start. Good luck and have fun in implementing your wonderful plan!

Ms. Bansig loves to run, read and do volunteer work. She is currently enrolled in the Master's Degree Reading Education at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City.

Storytelling Using Props

Ended a fun filled storytelling session at De La Salle Zobel, Lower Grades Library for Prep students earlier today. I did not use any book. The gig was not sponsored by Anvil or any publishing house so I had the liberty to choose my stories. Writing Tales from the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories, afforded me this opportunity. My repertorie included Ibong Adarna, folk tales from the Cordilleras, draw and tell stories and yes, The Bandana Man. Shout out to Dianne de Las Casas!



For my telling of the Ifugao tale, Sallak-en and the first pomelo, I used a rainmaker and a drum (bought from Sagada) to chant my way through the story. The kids clapped and joined in the rhythm. One teacher, Teacher Aisa, shook the rainmaker as we rolled along the chant! It was fun!



Towards the end of the session, I used my malong to spice up the retelling of Ang Ibong Adarna. The kids and the adults could not help but laugh and be awed. I should really be doing this more often because, I felt like walking on air. I'm still grinning from ear to ear at the memory of this afternoon's sessions.

There are so many ways to tell stories. With out a book, I felt so free to express and communicate the meaning and relevance of the story to my kids. One teacher realized how novel the style was. Yes, I told her. I'm keeping up with the oral tradition. Our folk tales are dying and we need to resuscitate them.

Library Outreach Program Via the De La Salle Library System

I have been to several De La Salle schools this year. Of the many things common and consistent about them, apart from the green and white colors, is their outreach program that permeates horizontal and vertical departments of their educational system. The libraries of the De La Salle schools I was fortunate to visit include a strong outreach program for their respective adopted and supervised schools.

Once in De La Salle Zobel (DLSZ), LRC Coordinator Carol Ballesteros made mention of their mobile library program designed to help and assist public schools in Muntinlupa develop children's interest in books and reading. I remember seeing her in a PBBY sponsored workshop on Mobile Library Development and Implementation by Museo Pambata President, Nina Lim-Yuson last year. If not for Ondoy, I would have joined the DLSZ librarians in the launching last October at Tunasan Elementary School, Muntinlupa as storyteller.

This initiative is not an isolated case. De La Salle Lipa's mobile library has been touring different barangays in the district. I've heard of this before from co-writer and KUTING friend, Perpi Alipon-Tiongson way back in 2007. In the PLAI STRLC Conference I attended as speaker, Mrs. Lilian Rabino, head librarian in De La Salle Lipa candidly went about sharing the success of this project. I was even more glad to know that she's constantly involved in the improvement of their library mobile. When Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz got hold of a Singaporean book donor for PBBY's book donation project, we've agreed to send books to De La Salle Bukidnon because of its thriving library mobile. If this isn't Library 2.0, tell me what is. Access to books and information does not always have to be technology driven.

Apart from this, librarians of the De La Salle Library System are also involved in training and professional development of librarians and para-professionals of public and community libraries.

When I accredited De La Salle Green Hills last November, GS (Grade School) LRC (Learning Resource Center) Head Mrs. Ching Basagre was very proud to share about the training that she and her librarians conducted in one La Salle supervised school. Provision for books is one thing and accessibility to reading materials is another. But empowering the people who take care of the library and its readers is of primary importance. Mrs. Basagre and her library staff trained the para-professionals of the library who were recipients of their book donations.

Mrs. Sonia Gementiza, Library Director of De La Salle University (DLSU) Dasmarinas, Cavite has initiated training seminars and workshops for non-librarians of public libraries in the locality. A number of these non-BLIS (Bachelor of Library and Information Science) professionals were present during my storytelling lecture-workshop last week At DLSU Dasma. Mrs. Gementiza did not stop there. Together with her staff, they've organized another professional growth activity to help them organize and manage their libraries.

This outreach program may be unique to De La Salle, but it sure tells us a thing or two about collaboration, access to information and leadership in librarianship. There may be a dearth of reading materials and shortage of manpower in the field. Yet, the desire to build bridges and fill gaps is enormous! Kudos to the librarians of the De La Salle Library System!