AHON, Ateneo Rizal Library train librarians

Posted by HERBEL SANTIAGO and SHYLYNNE D. CASTILLO on 13 July 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: library, Ateneo, Rizal library, books, public schools, teacher, librarians,

May 21, 2011, 2:06pm

MANILA, Philippines — Teachers also need to continually grow in their profession to be able to do their teaching duties efficiently and effectively.

It is a good thing that there are organizations, such as Acts of Hope for the Nation (AHON) Foundation, that help keep the flame of education alive.

AHON Foundation is the corporate social foundation of Filway Marketing, aiming to help promote genuine love of reading among Filipino children by helping refurbishing libraries. AHON donates almost half a million worth of Time-Life books and other instructional reading materials. To date, it has adopted 41 public schools all over the country. It also supports training activities for librarians and teachers.

Recently, AHON held a two-day basic librarianship training seminar in partnership with the Rizal Library of Ateneo de Manila University. The seminar trained public school teacher-librarians on the proper organization and management of information services and materials in their libraries.

Among the topics discussed were “The Working Library at Your School,” and “Reading Promotion in School Libraries” where teacher-librarians are urged to promote books and reading to students.

Proactive

Pamela Albania, Ateneo de Manila grade school coordinator, said that a teacher-librarian must be a proactive professional dedicated to generating community of lifelong learners. “They ought to work with others to carry out the goals of the school library program. The librarian also has to increase constructive relationships, whether developing instruction with teachers or buying decisions with the principal, to produce long-term results,’’ Albania said.

By training the trainers and initiating enrichment activities for students, AHON envisions that its efforts would translate to promotion of reading habits and improvement of children’s performance in school.

Harvey Keh, AHON Foundation executive director, steadily believes that the dreams of the children should be egged on within the protection of excellent education. Hence, developing meaningful libraries with the help of competent teacher-librarians is necessary.

Keh also encouraged the teacher-librarians to make the most of what they have acquired during the two-day seminar by implementing it in their respective school libraries.

(AHON accepts donations in kind and cash. All proceeds go into buying books for public elementary schools. It also accepts volunteers. For more information, check AHON Foundation’s facebook page or e-mail ahonfoundation@yahoo.com.)