TO BRING books and learning closer to underserved communities, the City Library and Information Center in Davao City has resumed its mobile library operations, focusing on public schools in far-flung barangays.
City Library and Information Officer-in-Charge Salome M. Enoc said the schedule for the mobile library has been approved by the Department of Education (DepEd) supervisor and runs from January to December, excluding the summer break.
“Our mobile library already resumed its services sa public schools, we have this schedule, which was approved by DepEd supervisor, so ang atoang (our) mobile library goes to public libraries, particularly atong (our) far-flung libraries or I mean schools, from January to December, except summer, of course,” Enoc said during the ISpeak Media Conference on August 14.
She added that the library operates Monday to Thursday, with Fridays left vacant to cater to private school requests and for book cleaning and repairs. On Wednesdays, it holds tutorials in areas such as Quezon and Alambre for pupils struggling to read.
“Ang atoang mobile library is an outreach program… to develop love for books and readings, especially didto sa far-flung barangay (there in far-flung barangays), since we also want to bridge the gap between what we have here and rural communities,” Enoc said.
The program began in 1981 when the National Library of the Philippines donated the first mobile library unit to Davao City. That unit was eventually replaced with a new one for daycare centers.
The city also operates a disaster mobile library, with staff trained to teach students about disaster preparedness.
With more than 200 schools in the city, Enoc admitted that the mobile library cannot regularly visit all institutions.
“In an ideal world, dapat unta nga frequent ba ang atoang pag-adto, but anyway atoang gihimo ana, nagbilin ta’g mga materials, there are mga request, para mapadayon ang ilahang pagbasa (In an ideal world, our visits should be frequent, but what we do instead is give them materials. There are also requests so that they can continue reading),” she said.
Last summer, the mobile library partnered with the Sangguniang Kabataan and visited schools during Brigada Eskwela to extend their help and services to students and kids. KBP