Editorial: Resurrect the Cebu City Public Library

ALL systems go for school re-opening. That’s the consensus of optimism that ema-nated from agency representatives during the Kapihan sa PIA forum held last June 2.

According to the June 3 report of Sun.Star Cebu‘s Justin K. Vestil, officials were confident that everything was in readiness for another school year: a 10-percent projected increase in enrolment; adopt-a-school linkages with private donors to provide needed classrooms; minor repairs of existing facilities; inspection of sanitation and health measures; monitoring of the compliance of “smoke-free policy;” reinforcement of safety and security; and price monitoring of school supplies.

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Was there any mention of libraries?

In the June rush, that concern apparently was nowhere to be found in any official list of priorities.

Yet, in the “Speak out” section of Sun.Star Cebu‘s May 29 opinion-editorial pages, Chelo G. Echaves of the Friends of the Cebu City Public Library raised again a long languishing question: “When will the Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Library and Museum or the Cebu City Public Library be taken out of ‘Death Row’ and get fully resurrected?”

Storm over hubs

A neoclassical standout in the modern urbanscape that lines Osmeña Blvd., the pre-World War II heritage site houses the Cebu City Public Library, downsized from two floors.

The diminution is not just spatial. In 2008, Cebu City officials mulled a plan to close the library and open in its stead two library satellites or hubs, located within two public schools.

Proponents argued that the hubs, which will secure from the Department of Education P2 million in pledges and 40,000 books, will serve the needs of students better than the present Cebu City Public Library, allegedly made obsolete by the Internet and a Commission on Audit ruling that prevents the purchase of books and periodicals without bidding.

The decision to close the Cebu City Public Library was opposed by several sectors. Consequently, the Cebu City Government decided in May 2009 that the public library will only be temporarily closed for “three to six months” during the building’s renovation, according to Sun.Star Cebu’s May 25, 2009 article by Linette C. Ramos.

However, it was only in June 2009 that the Cebu City Council passed Supplemental Budget 4 to allocate P11 million for the building renovation.

Site under renovation

With June 19 approaching, the birthday of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal prompted the Friends of the Cebu City Public Library to ask again about the fate of the Cebu City Public Library, still closed more than a year after renovation funds were allocated.

The thread of comments in the group’s Facebook site attests not only to a public interest in the library’s re-opening but testimonials of the library’s use for researchers consulting its collection of rare heritage materials, tourists and residents who want a free and quiet place to read, and students who come from schools with inadequate libraries and cannot afford Internet research or outsider’s fees for library use in the better institutions of learning.

Cebu City officials and Friends of the Cebu City Public Library agree on one thing: the need to generate ideas and suggestions to improve and sustain the library.

As advocate Bea Yap Martinez posted on Face-book: “I am aware that the public library isn’t all that great but the solution isn’t to shut it down. The real solution would be to improve it; to breathe fresh life into it.”

Last June 2, Friends of the Cebu City Public Library held a “Read-Aloud Activity.” Martinez noted that around 130 people use the library; despite renovations, many still walk in daily, taking a side door, to read newspapers, currently the only service available.

Despite the reading sessions, book sales and symposia they’ve organized, the Friends of the Cebu City Library needs others to share and act on the belief that “the community needs a public library.”

For the group’s next meeting at the library on June 19, 4 p.m., they are inviting any member of the public to join and affirm a way of life, not just a building. “We need people who care about books and reading,” posted Martinez. “We need people who believe in reading as a way of life for the community.”