I Love Libraries: The Quezon City Public Library

Congratulations to the Quezon City Public Library (QCPL) for having a new building that was launched and opened to the public last February 7, 2017. You can read the official press releases from these websites and social media link: the press release found on the Philippine Information Agency website; another one published in the Manila Standard; and this one is from the Quezon City Public Affairs Office. Indeed, the QCPL people and their administrators know how to make themselves visible in print and online environments.

I have written about the many events and programs that the QCPL organized in the past. Their librarians have always been active in many literacy events and campaigns. Their library porgrams for their communities serve young children, families and elders of the community.

Last year in October, I conducted a Bibliotherapy workshop with Darrel Marco as my partner with the staff of the QCPL Main library and the staff assigned in their barangay reading centers. There I discovered the library's cafe! My first encounter of a cafe in a library was when I visited the Iriga Public Library many years ago. I don't know if the cafe is still there for I have not been to Iriga in years.

After our workshop, our librarian friends led us to the site where the new building was being built. How excited were the QCPL librarians! How proud! They told us of the many visitors they welcome and serve in the library every day and the new building will surely attract more people to come and use the library's resources. I won't be surprised at all. Back in 2013, my writer friend, Ime Morales, wrote an article for the blog about her visit to the old QCPL with her son Bowi. Read her guest post by clicking the highlighted link.

What further amazes me with QCPL is their management of the different reading centers in the barangays of Quezon City. Like a hub, the main library functions as its center providing and extending readers services for all ages. In 2009, the QCPL ran a workshop on storytelling for its senior citizens. They do not need a mascot for they have a reading hero and champion in the persona of Heneral Basa. Behind the green mask is Mr. Alistair Troy Lacsamana who, together with QCPL librarians, regularly visit areas and communities in Quezon City where people do not have the means to go to the barangay reading center.

If you are the city mayor, wouldn't you support and invest in this dynamic and service oriented professionals? I would! Visit their website for more information on current news and updates! 

Now, do me a favor. If you are from Quezon City, visit the new library if you haven't yet. Spread the word and support your city librarians. Participate in their events, activities and programs. This will help them get feedback and improve their services. They also do a lot of outreach activities. Donate books. Volunteer to tell stories. Help the library grow! It is not only a place where books are kept. It is a community center where we discover many things about ourselves, the society we belong to and the world we live in!

Books and Coffee at the Quezon City Public Library

During my term break from the Academy, I managed to conduct two workshops for librarians. One was for the librarians of the Quezon City Public Library (QCPL) and the other was at Southville International Schools and Colleges' Effective Librarianship at Work.

For this post, I am going to concentrate on telling you about the workshop I did with the QCPL librarians.

I conducted a basic bibliotherapy workshop with them since they were keen on helping out of school youths in Quezon City. The QCPL main library is supervising 19 Barangay Reading Centers and each has a staff assigned to run programs and services for children, teens, adults and senior citizens. What I did was to give them a 101 Bibliotherapy session. It was a touching moment. The morning was filled with sharing of insights and ideas on how they can put together a homegrown Bibliotherapy program. The QCPL librarians were all engaged.

I was further impressed when they served us coffee from the Library Cafe. Yes, the QCPL has a cafe inside the library. The Iriga Public Library has a coffee shop too. I visited Iriga a long, long time ago and I am mot sure if the coffee shop is still there. Nonetheless, this coffee shop is a sign that more and more, librarians and libraries are beginning to embed itself in the community.

QCPL also had a reading superhero in the persona of Heneral Basa. Their librarians conduct outreach programs in Quezon City and in different provinces. They donate books and help communities establish reading centers. If you have old books, I recommend you donate it to the QCPL! They will surely know what to do with them.

Before I left for home, the QCPL librarians gave me and Darrel Marco (he was with me that day!) a glimpse of their future! They showed us their new building being built with in the compound of the Quezon City Hall complex.

Congratulations on this good news, QCPL! May your example bring inspiration to many!

Bibliotherapy 101

A new presentation on Bibliotherapy which I designed from two previous PPTs. It was made by Darrel Marco and we presented the PPT and conducted the workshop at the Quezon City Public Library, 2016. 

Bibliotherapy101_2016 from Zarah Gagatiga

Ang Mensahe ni Heneral Basa

Nagkita kami ni Heneral Basa sa pagbubukas ng 80th National Book Week noong Lunes, Nobyembre 24, 2014 sa National Library of the Philippines. Ito ang mensahe niya sa mga bata at pati na rin sa mga nakatatanda na may kakayahang magbasa ng aklat para sa mga bata:

Para sa akin, napakahalaga ng pagbabasa sapagkat ito ang mas nagbubukas sa isip sa mga bagong karanasan at impormasyon. Mas personal din ang pagbabasa at may mas pangmatagalan na epekto. Mas malaki ang lamang ng pagbabasa kaysa sa internet at TV, mas malalim ba. 

Sa aking pananaw din, mas nagiging malikhain din at nagkakaroon ng mahabang pasensiya ang tao kapag nagbabasa. May naacquire ka na magagandang paguugali kapag ikaw ay nagbababasa. Nababawasan ang niya, mas nagiging expressive at nahihikayat na magbigay ng opinyon sa mga bagay bagay.

Maraming salamat sa mensahe mo,  Heneral Basa! More power!

Passing on the Love of Reading

Here's a borrowed post from Ime Morales, writer and super mom to Bowi, who wrote about the trip she had with her son to the Quezon City Public Library.

A Visit to the Good Ol' Library

One day he asked me this unexpected question: Mama, what's a library? (As a Waldorf student, Bowi hasn't been exposed to big libraries yet.)

When I was younger, during the pre-Internet era, libraries were a part of my life in a maaaaajor way. I used to go to the British Council, the National Library, Thomas Jefferson on Buendia, and Goethe Institut. These kids are missing a lot, I think. The romance of it all: going through the card catalog, holding the book in your hand, borrowing it from the librarian, returning it late, paying the fee, writing down your notes. It's all part of how I came to love books.

You don't get that by paying Google a visit.

And so I resolved to bring him to a real library. The closest one is the Quezon City Public Library. And guess what? He loved it! He was the only little person there. One of the librarians came up to us to ask what we're looking for.

Oh we're just looking around, I tell him. For his assignment? he asked. No, I said, he just wants to read.

The little guy was literally running around flitting from shelf to shelf like a butterfly darting from one flower to the next.

It was interesting, the crowd that afternoon. There were students, of course, but mostly the library users that day were senior citizens, mostly male. Reading newspapers, listening to audio books (I suppose they're audio books), writing down notes, reading through thick volumes, talking, using their phones. I suppose they were some of those who haven't really transitioned to doing research online.

It was refreshing to see them here. Bowi and all these lolos. Inside this old, not-so-quiet library.

He kept on looking for books on recycling.

I found a book to read, too! :)

Source: http://www.prinsesaimelda.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-visit-to-good-ol-library.html

The Story of Our Libs

Nothing thrills me more than to hear news of younger librarians carrying on the storytelling torch for others to follow the path, or better yet, pave new roads for more librarians to conduct regular storytelling sessions in their learning communities. Ann Grace Bansig and Darrel Manuel Marco, school librarians of De La Salle Santiago Zobel, will be conducting a storytelling workshop on December 8, 2012 at the Quezon City Public Library.

Details in this poster below:

Araw ng Pagbasa (Reading Day) 2009

The Quezon City Public Library (QCPL) system kicked off the celebration of National Book Week with a Reading Day - Araw ng Pagbasa in its selected branches last November 23, 2009. The event was a week long celebration of books, reading, children and senior citizens regaling the young listeners with stories read aloud.



Having conducted a storytelling workshop for the QCPL and the Federation of Senior Citizens Quezon City Chapter on November 20, 2009, lolos and lolas (grandfathers and grandmothers) volunteered to share their time and talent in storytelling in selected QCPL branches the weekend after. Photos of lolos and lolas who voluntered can be viewed here.

I am pleased to see how they took storytelling like fish to water. During the workshop, the lolos and lolas were avid listeners. They enjoyed participating in the workshop activities as well. As far as library services go, this initiative by the QCPL is a stone that hit not one, nor two or three birds - but four!

One, storytelling, especially the read aloud technique, is highlighted as an effective vehicle to motivate children to read. Two, storytelling in the library promotes the books and services it offers to children. Three, the activity was a library service geared towards senior citizens of the community too. And lastly, the whole event emphasized the important role that librarians play in community building. The QCPL librarians have the funding and the support of their local government units. By organizing events and library services such as this, they have shown leadership and dynamism necessary to accomplish roles and responsibilities of the public library to its patrons.

Congratulations to the QCPL librarians and more power!

The Lola Basyang Tradition Lives On

In the Philippines, Lola Basyang is already a metaphor for storytelling. Popularized by Severino Reyes in the 50's as a syndicated radio program and a series of story books that carry a variety of stories from local tales and borrowed lore, it lives on in modern retellings and TV shows.

The Quezon City Public Library (QCPL) joins in the bandwagon as it pushes the campaign for library use through storytelling via the help of its senior citizens. Coordinating with the Federation of Senior Citizen Association of the Philippines QC chapter, QCPL, will be running storytelling sessions by resident lolos and lolas (grandparents) in all its branches.

On November 20, 2009, I will be joining them, sixty volunteers all for a whole day workshop on the art and therapeutic claims of storytelling. I've trained children, college students, parents, teachers and librarians on storytelling but facilitating a workshop for senior citizens as storytellers is a first.

I will definitely post a follow up entry!

Public Library Blogs

I'm squeezing this in before packing my stuff for the Philippine Public Librarians League, Inc. (PPLLI) Baguio conference. This is an exciting discovery that must be blogged about.

I was impressed by the Quezon City Public Library's (QCPL) blog and website. I just found out this morning in my last attempt to source out websites for my talk tomorrow. Their blog presents a good image of their library. It even has a working OPAC running via OpenBiblio. What's more, their library blog covers a good range of reader's services for children and teens. Plus, there are several branches with WiFi connection! What a perfect example for my talk tomorrow on the use of web technology for the delivery of reader's services!

I hope to meet a librarian from QCPL to know more about their automation process and other projects. I am continuously on the look out for such initiatives so I can feature them in this blog. Will blog about Baguio and the PPLI conference soon!