National Book Week 2018: Stories! Stories! Stories!

Darrel Marco explaining the judging mechanics

National Book Week begins on Saturday, November 24, 2018 and will end on Friday, November 30, 2018. NBW Chairperson Darrel Marco shares with us what makes this NBW celebration exciting, why libraries are all the more important in today's globally conflicted world, and compares NBW 2018 to Rhandee Garlitos'  Chenelyn! Chenelyn! (Adarna House)

 1. What makes NBW 2018 exciting?

Stories! Stories! And more stories!!! 

National Book Week 2018 this year is themed "Connected Actions, Collective Vision: Libraries transforming society".

I believe that it is thru the telling of stories that we can transform our society -- stories of struggles and hardships, stories of failures and downfalls, stories of hope and aspirations, stories of collaboration and cooperation, and stories of success and happy endings.

We are opening the 2018 National Book Week with a Reader's Theatre Contest and a Storytelling Festival on November 24, 2018 at the Gateway Gallery in Cubao, Quezon City. This is one successful story of collaboration between the PLAI and an NGO gearing towards the development and promotion of literacy in our society thru books and stories.

Another notable collaboration is among different regional librarian's councils working hand-in-hand with the Department of Education divisions to promote the National Book Week.

This year, we also introduced the nationwide Graphic Novel Making contest. Entries started pouring in from all over the Philippines since August, and this is aside from the usual Poster Making and Essay writing contests. Winners of these contests will be announced on the opening day, as well.

I think what makes this event exciting is the fact that this is not purely librarians' work but a collaborative effort of a community wanting to promote literacy. Some events and celebrations may have the flash and bangs but makes the NBW2018 special are those minute details that make the event more endearing to the public.

Entries for the Poster Making Contest

2. In light of the current political climate in the country and in the world, how do librarians and libraries factor in book development in the country?

The dawn of social media was a double-edged sword, with one side helping us to move forward thru easier and real-time communication, and with the other one shaking up our core value i.e. the truth. We are bombarded daily with deliberate disinformation in the forms of fake news, alternative facts and historical revisionism, and oftentimes people retaliate thru namecalling or smart-shaming. I say, let us go back to the facts -- i.e. the written and verified ones.

As librarians, we are supposed to be the gatekeepers of these facts. The library that is open to everyone -- the innocent, the accused, the victim, the abused and even to some extent, the criminals -- should be a bastion of social justice. We still have a long way to go in developing a learned nation that would go to books to seek for facts instead of social media but I am positive of the steps being taken to have a more media and information literate society. Additionally, there is also a sliver of hope that Philippine children's books today are tackling more radical and sensitive topics that were used to be considered as taboo.

The judges troop together for a photo op.

3. If you are to compare the NBW to a book, what is it and why?

In an ideal world, it would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Who doesn't love a beautiful butterfly as an ending, right?

But looking back, I would rather say, it's Chenelyn, Chenelyn by Rhandee Garlitos. 

Books are there whenever we need a friend or a helping hand, whenever we want to while away our time at the beach or at a coffee shop -- but we just realize their true importance once they are gone. We take for granted those books that are offered in front of us, given that we have social media, Netflix and technology.

I hope that books and technology would co-exist and would not go against each other. I mean if you could go watch one episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, then try to read one chapter of a book too, or even one short story, and you'll see that your life will change.

Book Donations and Library Outreach Activity

Back in November 2016, I received an email from Mariecar Fernando of the Ayala Foundation (AFI). In charge of the education and teacher training arm of AFI, Ms. Fernando asked for books that we could possibly donate to their #MagingMagiting campaign. Looking at the old and grown out books donated by our students, teachers and parents that our library has gathered for donation to libraries who need it, I thought of giving them all to AFI's campaign.

One of the letters by a CENTEX grade 5 student

AFI has an immediate recipient of the books. One of their projects is the CENTEX schools where the books will stay. They have the staff and the manpower to deliver the books to the CENTEX public schools. They also have training programs and operational structures to make sure that the books will end up in the libraries of the CENTEX schools. So, AFI sent their people to get the books from us last January 2017.

A week ago, I received an envelope full of letters from grade 5 students of CENTEX Batangas. Each letter contains words of appreciation, gratitude and prayers of goodwill for me and for the school I work at. I do not know who these children are, but their letters speak of the wonder and the magic that our book donations brought them. In a school community where books and reading resources are scarce, this act of generosity goes a long way.

This inspired me to formally launch the library's classroom library project for a public elementary school and put together a catalog of recommended reads during our school assembly.

The catalog will contain book reviews by our Griffins.

Last 2016, during the Beacon academy Fair, we had a book fair that earned us 30 titles of books to start a classroom library for a K-3 class in a public school. This year, we earned enough money from the school fair to buy 30 more books. But donating a classroom library does not begin and end with a box or a bin of books to a class. It entails knowing the readers who will read the books, the teachers who use the books for instruction and the issue of sustainability needs to be addressed as well.

There is much work to be done.