SLIA: A Decade of Blogging

The blog turned ten years old yesterday! There is reason to celebrate! So, from here on, I'll be posting throwback posts that consists of Top Ten lists about the blog and topics I have written about the past decade.

For the meantime, here is a screen shot of my first post in 2005.

Von Totanes greatly figured in my blogging life. He remains an inspiration.

At the time I started out, my agenda  was to promote school librarianship; the work I do as a school librarian; advocate reading and literacy; and use the online space as a way to address topics and issues relevant to the profession. Along the way, I realized that blogging helps me learn new things. I am still learning new things. SLIA opened opportunities for me to grow professionally by being a main platform for my own personal and professional learning network. Blogging gave me avenues to be creative.

It has been an exciting ride. It is one where I had encountered bumps along the way and where I was able to pause, to reflect and pick myself up to move on. I've reached a decade of blogging and, perhaps, a "dot com" website is inevitable.

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.

Reunion with the Filipino Librarian

Dr. Vernon Totanes PhD is back in town from his academic pursuits in the University of Toronto, Canada. One colleague asked if he's back for good. Let's wait for further announcement!

SLIA: Going Great @ 8!

Today marks the eighth year anniversary of the blog. School Librarian In Action was born in 2005. To this day, I thank Von Totanes, the blog's "ninong" (godfather), for egging me to step out of the dark and explore the blogosphere. It has been a wild and successful ride. For the next few days, until the month ends, I will be posting eight blogging milestones of School Librarian In Action.

And while I go back to memory lane, brushing off online dusts from the blog's archive, I found an article written by Ronald Lim about my blogging exploits way back in 2006. Here is the link of the full article, Meet the Blograrian, which was featured in Manila Bulletin on 1 October 2006.

I remember being interviewed by Ronald Lim after my talk on blogging for librarians at the Manila International Book Fair. I was, at the time, blogging for over a year and the experience was exhilerating, like I was on uppers. Now I can say that, way back in 2006, I was professionally hungry. In the article, I was quoted as saying --

"I wanted a venue for my voice to be heard. I wanted to communicate with other people," she explains. "Librarianship is a very lonely and routinary profession. I’m not satisfied with my interaction with my fellow teachers and students. I wanted to have a wider reach."

Blogging has been, and still is, giving me opportunities to grow professionally and personally. I will expound on this in another post. But, as Mr. Lim wrote in the article --

Gagatiga says that maintaining her blog has empowered her like never before. When before she couldn’t understand how to manipulate HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) — the codes needed to manipulate and maintain a website and a blog — she has now steadily increased her knowledge, and through her blog, has been able to reach people willing to teach her.

I have reached out to many and developed a professional network and online presence that would have been impossible if I stayed an anonymous blogger.

Lastly, I learned how to manage my time for blogging as well. Indeed, time and technology can be managed. Being constantly online is pretty cool and yes, it connects me to the world but there's also a world I need to connect with first and foremost: my self's own world and my family's. I said in the article --

"When I was just starting out, I almost let my blog run my life," she explains. "If I didn’t have kids, I would have been addicted. Just after I’d post, I’d wait for comments to show up. And if I happen to post at school, by the time I’d arrive at home, I’ll connect to the internet and check the comments I have."

Now, I know better. I still blog and with eight years blogging experience, I can say I am blogger who has grown wiser.

Loving lovealibrarian.blogspot.com

What a pleasant news I got this morning from Cate Newton of Guide to Online Schools. They love my library blog that it is included in their list of Top 50 Librarian Blogs. If anything, it gives me all the reason to continue blogging. An enormous and eternal thank you to Von Totanes for inspiring me to leave the shadows of blogging anonymity and to courageously embrace the light!


Here's what people in Guide to Online Schools said about SLIA --

School Librarian in Action comes from a Philippine librarian who blogs about books, conferences, his personal interests, and more.

The Reading Librarian: Von Totanes

Librarians Read Series: Von Totanes,  PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, licensed librarian in the Philippines and hibernating blogger in cyberspace.
 
Here are the ten that I kept reading over and over again in high school and beyond:

Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman
Airport - Arthur Hailey
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
Doctors - Erich Segal
Evergreen - Belva Plain
The Firm - John Grisham
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon
Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

I was 13 in 1986, when my dad told me that I needed to move up from the Hardy boys and handed me the Bourne Identity. He initially had to force me to read one chapter every week, but eventually I had to plead that he let me finish the book. From then on, I just kept reading what I thought of as grown-up books!

Perhaps the ones that need the most explanation are the lone non-fiction book--adventures--and the one by a woman. Adventures was one of the few new books at the library. I didn't really have any idea what it was about, but it looked interesting, so I borrowed it. And ended up getting hooked on a book that I later learned was THE classic book on screenwriting with the oft-repeated "no one knows anything," in reference to Hollywood.

I never saw the Evergreen miniseries, but I did see a few minutes on TV once and thought maybe I should read the book. After reading so many action-packed bestsellers, you'd think it was really not my style and give up. But back then I thought I HAD to finish every book I began, and eventually fell in love with its very slow pace, and ended up going back to it (i bought my own copy) every now and then. I tried reading a few of her other books, but I don't think i ever finished--and certainly didn't REread--any of them.

Happy 5th Anniversary to SLIA

School Librarian In Action (SLIA) will celebrate it's 5th blog anniversary on April 19, 2010. The date being its birth in the blogosphere. On this note, I have the following blog activities and series of posts lined up in celebration of the blog's anniversary.

Picture! Picture! is a wordless post on topics that SLIA is known for and more. A picture paints a thousand words, so they say. What will make this exciting is that, it is open for readers to interpret and to write about. Guidelines will follow! And yes, dear readers, there will be prizes!

Yan Ang Pinay! will be re-resurrected as well as its banners and logos. In its original intent, Yan Ang Pinay will feature Filipino women who excel in their field of expertise and discipline. The characteristics of Pinays in Philippine Children's Literature will also regain a regular posting.

There will be an advice column entitled Dear Librarian beginning next week. Over the years, I would receive email messages asking for opinion and advice. It's about time I do something about it in light of Web 2.0 and knowledge management. What's more, I will invite colleagues from the profession who can offer their opinion and advice on the issue or topic discussed.

We'll see how far these blog activities will go. But for now, I thank you all who have supported my blog and are continuously doing so! Special mention goes to Von Totanes of Filipino Librarian. If not for his influence and inspiration, I would not have dared to venture into the blogosphere.

Philippine Blog Awards: One Blogging Nation

Winners of the Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) were announced last October 9, 2009 at the PETA Theater in Quezon City. This goes for Luzon blogs and bloggers only. There is a scheduled announcement of winners for the Visayas and Mindanao regions. With the theme, One Blogging Nation, the PBA aimed to cover and unify the Filipino Blogging Community.

Going through the list of winners this year, I was pleasantly surprised to find Jim Paredes' Writing On Air come out as the winner for Best Personal Blog. I love his writing and his reflections on life, parenting, music, art and culture. Since redesigning my personal blog early this year, I have not gotten back to putting the old blogroll. As for the Best Filipiniana Blog, Dennis Villegas beat out my personal favorite for the award. But no matter, there's still next year.

As an added info, Juned Sunido, true blue blogger and Filipino blog mover is part of the board and organizing committee of the PBA 2009. He is also a licensed librarian.