This Is My Story

I was honored to be invited as one of the panelists in the 2009 National Conference on Library and Information Science Education held last April 13-14 at the Ortigas Foundation Library. This event, sponsored by the Philippine Association of Teachers in Library Science (PATLS), is my very first time to speak in a crowd within my profession, outside school and outside church.

My co-panelists were also topnotchers in the Librarian’s board exam, formally called the Librarian Licensure Examination (LLE). We spoke of ways on how to improve performance in the LLE for the profession and the LIS academe has been quite shaken by the lowest passing rate of the 2008 LLE. We did emphasize that we are not giving tips for the participants to become topnotchers themselves. We only gave our experiences on what helped us hurdle the exam.

Prior to the conference, my co-panelists decided that we should meet to discuss and coordinate what we will be talking about since we cannot just share our experiences. It may cause some overlapping ideas which may result to a waste of precious time. I didn’t attend that pre-conference meeting since I was tied to work at that time. I just shared some pointers that worked for me. Here’s my talk:

I am very delighted and pleased to be with you today to discuss some of the measures that can be accomplished to improve the performance of future examinees of the Librarian Licensure Examination. I know there are a lot of factors involved and a myriad of cases to explore. In the recent 2008 Board exam, there are around 1,003 of these cases. These are a thousand stories of a thousand individuals who have gone through the exam. Some made it and some sadly did not. But I will not speak on their behalf. I’ll just share what I had gone through. I’m not saying that this is the only way to pass the exam and get a license but I do hope you may pick up some points and learn from my God-given experience. This is my story.

Preparation for the examination, like in all other ventures in life, is of prime importance. C.S. Lewis once said “If you give me ten minutes to chop down a tree, I’ll spend the first two minutes sharpening my axe.” In getting ready for the exam, I had read through Mr. Totanes’ past entries in his blog filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com related to the Licensure Exam to get to know the ins and outs of applying for, planning, and taking the test. His tips were very helpful in presenting a clear picture of what I will be getting into. I also made myself endure lengthy sample exams and reviewers and diligently attended review classes in my university. But after all the going through the entire process, I have come to realize that there’s one major factor that helped me in surviving the 2008 Board Exam. It is by having a strong foundation in Library and Information Science courses, practicum training and research work.

Getting ready for the Licensure exam starts in the first day of the first semester of a Library and Information science student. Ang paghahanda para sa pagkuha ng propesyunal na lisensya sa pagiging laybraryan ay nagsisimula sa unang araw ng unang taon ng isang mag-aaral ng Agham Pang-Aklatan. Remember the story of the wise man who built his house upon the rock. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall”.

I always thank Almighty for I had been blessed with learned and diligent instructors and professors. They had been generous enough to share their knowledge and expertise in the field to make us students more prepared not only in acquiring the professional license, but more importantly, to the actual playing field of the profession.

My once classmates and now officemates expressed their disappointment on not acquiring the needed skills in a certain subject area in the Board exams. They mentioned that they had a hard time in going through one part of the exam because they did not have enough knowledge in the subject area. One of them even mentioned that they did not perform well sadly because their instructor did not teach the subject well. Fortunately, they are now both licensed and employed.

On-the-job training and thesis work also delivered for me what it was designed to accomplish. The two experiences exposed me to what is happening to real world of libraries, letting me apply what I have learned in class lectures. The application of theories and the practice of the skills acquired in the classroom reinforce the information into knowledge and polish the skill to almost-perfection.

I quite remember the practicum and volunteer experiences I had in The Children’s Library in Robinsons Place Novaliches, the Quezon City Public Library and in Data Gateway Philippines, all in Quezon City. In The Children’s Library, I spent a large majority of my summer term cataloging children’s books of various topics. There I had a taste of a myriad of topics for children, coming in different formats including multi-volume materials and audio books. Cataloging and classifying them made me familiar in the rules governing bibliographic description and assignment of headings. I also had an exercise of selection since there was once a time where we had to sort out books to select which ones are for elementary schoolchildren and weed out the ones which are for teens.

The experience in Quezon City Public Library was quite similar. Although we were there only to assist the library in its daily operations as a requirement in the Civic Welfare Training Service, I had been assigned in the Technical Services Section to catalog newly-acquired books. These materials range from fiction novels, university textbooks and professional reference works, all in the nature of a public library collection. It was again another experience of AACR reinforcement for me.

In my last OJT, I entered into an indexing and abstracting company. Data Gateway Philippines is one of the Filipino companies that specialize in off-shore data processing services for its corporate and academic clients. There I had a try of being a full-time abstractor. For a day’s work, I was required to write 14 company profiles. Called business descriptions, these write-ups are based on company filings in the US Securities and Exchange Commission website. Not only did my abstracting skills were put to the test, my English language skills were also quite polished there since we were to write technically. Luckily, I had extra income during that training. Nakapag-OJT na ako, nagkaroon pa ako ng extra income.  In the same company, I also was exposed to indexing since they also trained me to be a part of the indexing team for INSPEC indexing database of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). I know my practicum in Data Gateway was God-sent since it greatly helped me in deeply understanding the details in indexing and abstracting.

My undergraduate research work also made me become conscious of current management systems applied to secondary school libraries. Background research work had me flipping through the pages of Koontz, Stueart and Weirich and books on management and leadership. More importantly, it helped me comprehend the situations faced by librarians in library management, particularly the toils and difficulties in public school library leadership.

I am not saying that I had an easy time reviewing for the exams but I would like to highlight that my review for the exams was easier because of what I had learned and gone through before. The word “review” is quite synonymous to the terms “brush up”, “go over” or “have another look at”. Taking a review class is just recalling what one has learned in his or her four or more years in college. Over-all, I believe that my schoolwork, internship and research work are all placed by God so that in the end, it will be easy for me to brush up on all that is needed to be reviewed and pass the Board Exam with flying colors. I may plan my course but I have faith that my steps are ordered of God.

Moreover, it is really by God’s grace that I passed the exam. Spiritually preparing for the exam also helped me since the faith-building experience made me realize that I am nothing without God and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I clearly remember I said to my mom, “Ma, blessing na lang talaga na pumasa ako…” since that time I felt that I would potentially fail the tests. God truly is faithful to his promise that if anyone of us lacks wisdom, we can ask of God (James 1:5).

In the end, one quote says that “the success of tomorrow depends on the work today” so I challenge all of you teachers of Library and Information Science to work persistently in educating our future librarians. British art critic John Ruskin underscored the eternal outcome of what you are developing and can develop today. “When we build let us think that we build for ever.” I believe that by God’s abounding grace, the success of future information professionals depends on how our educational institutions shape and mold today’s students; for them to become well-equipped, if not the greatest and the best of our kind.

Elijah John F. Dar Juan. April 14, 2009.