5 things you may not know about librarians

Insights from Escolarian Library Science Alumni

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Many of us are guilty of stereotyping librarians as bespectacled scolds always telling students to keep quiet.

But what a lot of people may not know, as explained by a librarian herself, “not everyone can be a librarian, you have to earn it, just like being a teacher, a nurse, or a doctor.”

1. Completing a degree is the first step to becoming one

Centro Escolar University (CEU) alumna Alma Mila Degala Prospero, a senior library associate at the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, explains that becoming a professional librarian requires one to complete a degree in Library Science.

CEU is among the institutions in the country offering the course Bachelor in Library and Information Science (BLAIS). The course provides knowledge and skills in the management of library operations; systematic organization; conservation; preservation; and restoration of books, historical and cultural documents, and other intellectual properties. It also includes topics on basic principles and fundamental laws of library science.

2. To practice, a license needs to be secured

Before the early 1990s, a license to practice was not required. But since the enactment of Republic Act No. 6966, or The Philippine Librarianship Act, in September 1990, a license has been required to practice in the field upon completing a degree in Library Science.