Librarians Read Series of 2010

In November 7, 2010, I asked five librarians to guest in the blog and share their reading choices over the years. This blog series was in part, a carry-over of Teen Read Week 2010. From November 8-12, 2012, one Filipino Librarian was featured in the blog. I am re-posting and curating the posts as part of the Filipino Librarian blog series I'll be reviving this month.

The five reading librarians are: Darrel Marco, Ann Grace Bansig, Dean Igor Cabbab, Fe Angela Verzosa, Von Totanes

Would be cool if there's a book discussion group with librarians as members meeting once a month.

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.

The Reading Librarian: Fe Angela Verzosa

Librarians Read Series: Madame Fe Angela Verzosa and her books read as a teenager. 

It took me quite long to make this list (4 hours?), because I had hundreds of favorites during my teen years, when my early life was half-spent in reading good books by great minds. Because you defined the period from 13-18, I had to eliminate the first 3 formative years when I was still in High School and reading a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries plus the required literature readings from my English and Lit subjects, and concentrated on the latter 3 years of my teenhood to come up with this list. My favorite books, in the order of how they affected my adolescent thinking are:

• Platero y Yo by Juan Ramon Jimenez . I fell in love with the book and the author, a Spanish poet, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. This book was given on my 16th birthday by a bosom friend, with whom I had a passionate relationship later in life. From then on, I decided if ever I would write poetry, it would be in the style of Juan Ramon, a prose poem.

• The Little Prince (or Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French aviator, who wrote the novella in 1943. I was so moved by the lines - "One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes." – that for years, it was my favorite motto. My favorite chapter was 21: when the prince meets and tames a fox, who explains to the prince that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one whom he loves. ("It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so important.")

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, is a book written by psychologist and social philosopher, another gift from my first boy friend. I still have the book published in 1956 by Harper & Row and treasures it to this day. This bestseller is a favorite companion to another book he wrote Escape from Freedom, where he postulated 8 basic needs: Relatedness (relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge), Transcendence (creativity, developing a loving and interesting life), Rootedness (feeling of belonging), Sense of Identity (seeing ourselves as a unique person and part of a social group), Frame of orientation (understanding the world and our place in it.), Excitation and Stimulation (actively striving for a goal rather than simply responding), Unity (a sense of oneness between one person and the "natural and human world outside"), and Effectiveness (the need to feel accomplished).

• Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is an inspirational book that I continue to read over and over again, especially during times of soul-searching and agonizing need for peace and solitude. Anne Morrow Lindbergh (known as the first American woman to have a pilot’s license) was an admirable woman, and her stoic character was sharpened by many tragedies in her life.

• The Grass Harp by Truman Capote, a story of youth and loneliness, was among the great books I read in my teens. After reading this novel, I went on to read "Other Voices, Other Rooms,” and into more Capote works, and decided Truman Capote deserves to be among the literary giants in American literature.

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, her first of many novels, about eccentric characters, portraits of the rejected, forgotten, mistreated and oppressed. Needless to mention, after this, I devoured the rest - Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, and the novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.

• Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. I first read the expurgated version, not knowing I was missing some chapters, and after reading it from our school library, discovered that an unexpurgated version was available (from a friend’s library possession), and read it over and over again, graduating to more of his novels, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love.

• Jude the Obscure by Tomas Hardy, another English novelist and poet, who had a profound influence on my literary taste. I was first introduced to Hardy’s novels after reading The Return of the Native (a required reading), and after reading Far from the Madding Crowd , The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I decided the best was Jude the Obscure. I will never forget his precocious child, Little Father Time.

• Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Black Spring by Henry Miller, a revolutionary and controversial writer, whose first of this trilogy was banned in the US for almost 25 years, until the US Supreme Court declared it to be a work of literature and not pornography.

• The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) by another English novelist, Lawrence Durrell, which fascinated me because of its exotic setting in the city of Alexandria. I read the tetralogy in hurried succession, after watching the epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

SLIA's Reply to Public School Librarian In Koronadal City

Madame Fe Angela Verzosa gave a verbose but inspiring message to our letter sender, Arvin Tejada of Koronadal City. Allow me to say my piece as another Dear Librarian series draws to a close. I'm a believer of sweet and short things, so here goes --

Dear Arvin,

Thanks for reading my blog. I'm motivated to continue blogging every time I get feedback like yours. It's amazing how this medium can bridge distances and fill gaps. On top of this, blogs and the act of blogging has allowed us to inspire each other.

And that's my reply to you -- keep inspiring people and keep your self inspired. I have seen many young librarians lose steam on the job. I myself experienced burn out sometime ago. It's a natural cycle, I suppose. But when you know your passion it becomes your mission. In the end you will realize that life has rewarded you because you followed your heart desire.

Good luck to you and to the endeavors you've planned with your colleagues. As you said in Facebook, it's for the love of the hub!

Best,

Ms. Zarah

Dear Librarian Reply to Public School Librarian In Koronadal City

The venerable Fe Angela Verzosa of the De La Salle University provides response to Arvin Tejada who wrote me about the plight of the DepEd Library Hub in Koronadal City. Madame Verzosa gives an inspiring and encourage reply to Mr. Tejada.

Dear Arvin,

The state of our public school library system is sadly dismal and discouraging. So reading your letter to School Librarian in Action about your plight as a public school librarian brought me back to the reality that stabs at the core of school librarianship in this country.

As librarians, we know that the heart of a school is its library. But do our elected and appointed government policy-makers acknowledge this as a fact? A library in every public school was, is, and will never be high on the political and educational agenda of our country for as long as these policy-makers and even our local school officials are under the misguided direction that focuses only on shortages of classrooms, teachers, and textbooks. Do they realize that there are acute shortages of libraries and professionally-trained librarians too?

It is not enough that we pay lip service to the promotion of the value of reading among the young. The order of the day is to ensure that every primary and secondary school has a library with a trained librarian. That a school library is an absolute “must” (just as important as a classroom with a trained teacher) is crucial to the economic, political and social progress of every nation, and the sooner our government accepts this as a reality, the better for our country if it has to survive, prosper, and compete in the 21st century global information society.

If it’s any consolation to the present challenges and difficulties confronting our school librarians, the ongoing 5-year old Library Hub project of DEPED is now doing well in providing assistance to our public school libraries. Let’s just hope that the project will go beyond its present objective of providing “a transitory warehouse for books waiting to be loaned to public schools on a rotation basis” (borrowing the words of Mindanaolibrarian). There is more to learning than having a room filled with books.

They say that “in the middle of difficulties lie opportunities.” With more Arvin Tejadas among the ranks of our school librarians who are doing “missionary work” as teachers and librarians, we can look forward to greater reading opportunities for our young children.

So Arvin, I take my hat off to you and the many “unsung” hero-librarians who, despite great odds, persevere in their commitment and dedication to make a difference. “READ TO LIVE” (Flaubert)

Fe Angela Verzosa
De La Salle Univeristy