Professionalization of Philippine Librarianship for National and Global Competitiveness*

1. Professionalization of Philippine Librarianship for National and Global Competitiveness* by: Prof. Edelin A. Columnas Faculty, MILS (Master in Information and Library Systems) Graduate School, MSU-IIT Iligan City • Paper read during the 2nd Conference of the Mindanao Alliance of Educators in Library and Information Science (MAELIS), held on May 15-16, 2008 at the University of Mindanao Learning and Information Center Bolton Street, Davao City.

2. Paper Abstract • This paper discusses the attributes/ dimensions/ models of professionalization against which embryology of Philippine librarianship is assessed for national and global competitiveness.

3. Paper Outline I. Introduction Definition of concepts – Professionalization, Philippine Librarianship, National Competitiveness, Global Competitiveness II. Matrix of Professionalization of Philippine Librarianship for National and Global Competitiveness • Standards for National and Global Competitiveness • National • - RA 9246 • - CPE of PRC • - CHED • - Individual standards • of each of the 5 • types of libraries • International • - GATS • - AFAS • - MRAs Some Strategies to compete nationally and globally Phil. Librarianship Attributes/ Models/ Dimensions of Professio- nalization • Historical • overview • Current Status • III. Conclusion – • Is Librarianship an occupation or a profession? • Is Philippine Librarianship ready to meet national and international competition?

4. Definition of Concepts • Professionalization – a conscious act of fulfilling the inherent attributes of a profession. (Webster) • - is the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." This process tends to involve establishing acceptable qualifications, a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members of the profession and some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs. This creates "a hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities in the professions and a deferential citizenry." This demarcation is often termed "occupational closure", as it means that the profession then becomes closed to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified. • - the professionalization process tends to establish the group norms of conduct and qualification of members of a profession and tends also to insist that members of the profession achieve "conformity to the norm." and abide more or less strictly with the established procedures and any agreed code of conduct, which is policed by professional bodies, for "accreditation assures conformity to general expectations of the profession “(Wikipedia)

5. Definition cont….. - an attempt of an occupational group to become independent, autonomous work organization. It involves the safeguarding of perceived occupational rights and privileges; covers all the attributes of a profession plus the skill of doing things all else cannot. (Winter, Michael F.) - is partly a process of social definition by the occupation themselves and by the concerns of clients and the public in general (Terence Johnson) - it can be viewed in the context of the different dimensions of professionalization discussed in this paper.

6. Definition cont….. 2. Librarianship – Webster – the principles of library maintenance and administration, including bibliography, cataloging, etc. Abraham Kaplan - an occupational sector or a field of study and practice whose subject is the organization of knowledge itself. - in this paper, it includes the Library and Information Science schools throughout the country, the libraries of all five types, and their corresponding professional associations.

7. Definition of Librarianship cont….. RA 9246, Sec. 5 items 1-9 summarized as follows: selection and acquisition, cataloging and classification of information sources; development of computer-assisted/computer-backed information systems which would permit online and network services; establishment of library systems and procedures; dissemination of information; teaching, lecturing and reviewing; abstracting, indexing, cataloguing and classifying; or the preparation of bibliographies, subject authority lists, thesauri and union catalogues/lists; preparation, evaluation or appraisal of plans, programs; provision of professional and consultancy services or advice on any aspect of librarianship; and organization, conservation, preservation and restoration of historical and cultural documents and other intellectual properties.

8. Definition cont….. 3. National Competitiveness – using other libraries within the country as gauge in delivering expected services, as well as the library service provider of other countries that may enter the Philippines under the provisions of GATS (General Agreement on Trades in Services).

9. Definition cont….. 4. Global Competitiveness – • Readiness of professionals to compete internationally may be viewed from several perspectives. First, the facility of Filipinos to work abroad and compete with foreign professionals with similar skills and competence. Second, the ability of professionals to compete with foreign professionals entering the local economy. The third perspective is focused on the ability of professionals to meet the standards and human resource requirements of foreign enterprises as well as domestic companies in their use of various services. • Through the advent of GATS, liberalization and deregulation in allowing foreign players to establish and expand various operations in the country and vice-versa, demand for general and specific competencies and various works which include other than educational qualification, skills and competencies in communication, analytical skills, computer literacy, and personal characteristics such as ethical integrity and honesty, industry and high emotional quotient

10. Various Models/Attribute/Dimensions of Professionalization I. The Trait or Attribute Model (Goode) II. Functionality View (Abbott) III. Occupational Control or Power Model (Terence Johnson) IV. Composite Model (Reeves)

11. I. The Traits/Attribute Model (Goode) • The process of an occupation acquiring the following set of attributes of a profession: 1) Legitimate monopolies over certain body of knowledge/Body of literature 2) Formal Training Programs or Education through Library Science schools 3) Professional Associations 4) Standards/Regulatory Procedure 5) Code of Ethics 6) Service Orientation 7) Community Sanctions/Recognition

12. II. Functionality View (Abbott) • An occupation having displayed a set of functional characteristics or a technical competence – holds that professionalization is not primarily a matter of acquiring attributes, but concerns rather with those characteristics of an occupation which play some consequential role in society at large, or more narrowly, in the professional/client relationship. What really matters about an occupation is its relationship to the work that it does. In other words, what is important is how well can one deliver the expected services of his claimed profession to his clients. Features: 1) Formal technical training in a field whose core is cognitive knowledge rather than intuitive. 2) Developed skills related to the knowledge 3) Institutional framework controlling the application of these skills.

13. III. Occupational Control or Power Model (Terence Johnson) • It is a process of attempting to gain and keep control over certain types of work routines. A tri-partite model of occupational control (professionalism) • Collegial control – procedures define the consumer’s needs and the best manner of satisfying them • Typically rely on fellow professionals exclusively for help when problems arise. • Public recognition of an occupation’s activities is a central fact of its position in the social structure.

14. IV. Composite Model (Reeves) • All the attributes of models I-III and the skill of doing things all else can not.

15. Philippine Librarianship • Historical Overview . . . . . • Full profession Professionalization Process (Occupational Development) Occupation

16. Brief History of Philippine Librarianship 1) Pre-Colonial Period – • Records keeping (semblance of librarianship) can already be seen in the Filipino-Chinese trading. 2) Spanish period (1780) – • Modern library trends were introduced through the establishment of the Sociedad Económica, but did not influence Philippine library culture until the later part of the 19th century.

17. Brief History cont…. 3) American Period (Late 19th Century – early 20th century) • In the 20th century, the United States introduced innovations in sciences and practice. The foundation of Philippine librarianship was largely due to the enthusiasm of a few American librarians and Filipino scholars. After the devastation of World War II, the newly established Philippine Republic helped strengthen academic and cultural institutions in the country. Since then Philippine librarianship is nurtured in library schools and consolidated through association and cooperative effort (Hernandez, V). 4) 21st Century • The extraordinary potential of micrographics and computer science began to be realized in the storage and retrieval of information (Hernandez). • This period marks the massive development of ICT impacting on librarianship.

18. Brief History cont…. 2.) Formal Training (Education – LIS Schools) • In 1914 - the foundation of Philippine librarianship was forged by Lois Osborn, Mary Polk, and James Robertson, through the establishment of library courses in the University of the Philippines and the Philippine Normal School. • In 1961 – UP established the first separate library school in the country, the Institute of Library Science, a former department of the now defunct College of Liberal Arts. • In 1919 - Lois Osborn and Mary Polk worked to obtain fellowship grants from the US government. Four fellow scholars or pensionados (Gabriel Bernardo, Eulogio Rodríguez, Cirilo Pérez, and Jose Munda) left the country to continue their studies in the University of Wisconsin.

19. Brief History cont…. 3) Professional Associations – • In 1923 - PLA was established through the initiative of Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, intended to be a forum and a regulatory body. • In 1934 - the first national convention for librarians and the first national book week celebration was organized. PLA gave priority to the need for professional librarians, funds, and library services in libraries under government control and was then unable to reach a poorly represented private sector. • Other library associations were established to reinforce the Philippine Library Association (PLA), such as the Association of Special Libraries of the Philippines (ASLP), the Philippine Association of School Libraries (PASL), the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU), the Philippine Accrediting Association of School, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU), and many other emerging local, regional and national library associations/networks until today.

20. Brief History cont… 4.) Standards/Regulatory Enforcements • RA 9246 of 2003, which repealed Republic Act No. 6966 of 1990 regulates the practice of librarianship through a board examination, thereby raising the profession to public recognition and scrutiny.

21. Brief History cont… 5) Code of Ethics • It’s being in place is one thing, meeting of disciplinary actions to erring practitioner is another. 6) Service-Orientation • Generally violated by “infiltrators” who are unfortunately assigned in the library front lines but without the necessary professional training and good practices in librarianship 7) Community Sanction • Up until at present, the general public either does not know yet what librarianship is or has not fully accepted the field as one among the more established fields of eng’g, law or medicine.

22. Current Status of Phil. Librarianship 1)Scientific Knowledge Base – • Most faculty do not have the time to conduct researches. There is hardly any research activity going on in Phil. library schools other than thesis requirement. • Most HEIS offering library science program are privately funded which makes financing research activities difficult. • Both students and faculty in the graduate program are on a part-time basis with no time for research activities 2) Quality of Library Education/Training • There are only few and accredited library schools and are concentrated only in Metro Manila; so far there is only 1 graduate program in Mindanao • Faculty and students are mostly on part-time basis with relative academic inadequacy; only a handful have Ph.D in the Lib. Sci. field. • Curriculum needs updating to incorporate ICT component • Comparatively not as known compared to other established professions • Only one or two schools are cited as Centers of Excellence • CPE was removed in the PRC by the Modernization Act of 2000. 3) Professional Associations • Each type of library has its own established professional association. However, membership of these is “infiltrated” by non-professional librarian as defined in RA 9246

23. 4) Standards • With liberalization, nothing will prevent foreign service providers to offer more and enhanced programs • Modernization Act of 2000 canceled the provisions of CPE (Continuing Profession Education) in the PRC, a requirement of GATS • Existing DECS standards for school libraries is too low. It needs upgrading • Standards for other types or libraries specifically the public libraries and research libraries if there are any are not well disseminated. There is none for vocational and technical school libraries. • While GATS ensures the professional competence of the individual service provider, regulatory functions of PRC, RA 9246 and CHED up to the present seem to have been unable to “sweep” the “inflators” of Phil. Librarianship. • There are needs for reforms in the regulatory powers of PRC and CHED to increase competitiveness advantage of librarians.

24. International Standards as Benchmarks for Global Competitiveness 1) GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) – a framework for promoting global trade in services • Removes hindrances to market entry • Provides equal treatment of foreign service • Providers ensures the professional competence of the individual country service providers and monitors professional performance and disciplines any lapses of professionalism • This implies for Phil. Librarianship to to address issue and concern in human resources: 2) AFAS (ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services) 3) MRAs (Mutual Recognition Agreements)

25. Some Strategies to Compete in the Global Field Benchmarked on the Current Status 1) For CHED and PRC mandates and function to obey GATS provision in article VI:1) – each member shall ensure that all measures of general applications affecting trade in services are administered in a reasonable and objective manner a) Establish and develop accredited library schools and upgrade academic programs b) Strengthen recruitment into the profession c) PRC to service CPE requirement d) Organize/Activate Prof. Associations 2) PRC to continuously enforce CPE (Continuing professional education) which was canceled by Modernization Act of 2002 3) CHED - continued accreditation to monitor meeting of set standard and impose sanctions on underperformance. 4) PRC to conduct info. dissemination program on good as well as underperforming schools 5) Long term faculty-development program 6)Promote research in graduate education through flagship/consortia or sanction/ moratorium on offering programs 7) Revive/upgrade curricular offering 8) Formulate program for recruitment of quality input to library schools and for provision of full-time faculty 9) Use GATS, AFAS and MRAs as benchmark to developing as Center of Excellence in each of the attributes of a profession or in all of the four existing models of a professionalization.

26. Conclusion • Is librarianship an occupation or a profession? • Goode J. William – librarianship falls short in each of the attributes of a profession. It lacks the much needed knowledge base. • Elizabeth Stone – An underdeveloped knowledge base coupled with law commitment to scholarly work stimulates a cyclical process of occupational underdevelopment. [Such is the case of Philippine Librarianship (Italics mine)]. • Wilson Pauline – It lacks collegial support for research. • Andrew Abbott - Textbook sociology calls librarianship a semi-profession. The textbooks define a full profession as an organized body of experts who apply some particular form of esoteric knowledge to particular cases. In this textbook view, semi-professions differ from the full professions in that their members are bureaucratically employed, often lack lifetime careers, and do not use, in the eyes of certain sociologists at least, knowledge as esoteric as that of law or medicine. The major semi-professions are social work, teaching, nursing, and librarianship. .·.Philippine librarianship, within the context of the different dimensions/attributes/models of professionalization is in the process of evolving from an occupation to full professionalization. • Is Philippine Librarianship ready to meet International Competition? • It is comparable with that of ASEAN counterparts [PIDS (Philippine Institute of Development Studies, Policy Notes Series Aug. 2001)], but hardly, among the more developed arenas in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

27. References Abbot, Andrew. Professionalism and The Future of Librarianship. Library Trends. Winter 1998. Douglas. "The Sociology of Professions: An Emerging Perspective." Sociology of Work and Occupations 5(Aug. 1978):259-83; and Larson, The Rise of Professionalism. Edralin, D.M. 1999. Continuing professional/technical education in the Philippines. Trade and Investment Policy Analysis and Advocacy Support (TAPS) Project. Unpublished. Ennis, Philip. Seven Questions About the Profession of Librarianship: Introduction. Seven Questions About the Profession of Librarianship: the 26th Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School, June 21-23, 1961 Ed. By Philip H. Ennis and Howard W. Wenger C1962. University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Goode, William. "The Librarian: From Occupation to Profession?" Library Quarterly (Oct. 1961):306-20 (was published later in American Library Association Bulletin 61(May 1967):544-55); Grimm, James W. "The Structural Limits of Professionalization: Academic Librarianship as a Test Case." Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1970. Hodge, M.N. "Occupations and Professions." In Professions and Professionalization, edited by John Archer Jackson, pp. 17-50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Howard Vollmer and Donald Mills, pp. 265-75. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966. See also International Encyclopedia of The Social Sciences, s.v. "professions." Mallea, J. 1997. International trade in professional and educational services: implications for the professions and higher education. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Marie R. "Deprofessionalization: An Alternative Hypothesis for the Future." In Professionalization and Social Change, edited by Paul Halmos, pp. 195-211. Keele, Staffordshire, Eng.: University of Keele Press, 1973; and . "The Deprofessionalization of Everyone?" Sociological Focus 8(Aug. 1975):197-213. Newmyer, Jody. "The Image Problem of the Librarian: Femininity and Social Control." Journal of Library History 11(Jan. 1976):44-67.

28. References cont…. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 1997. International trade in professional services: advancing liberalization through regulatory reform. Paris. Peritz, Bluma C. "Research in Library Science as Reflected in the Core Journals of the Profession: A Quantitative Analysis (1950-75)." Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 1977. An abbreviated version, summarizing a part of the study, was published. See. "The Methods of Library Science Research: Some Results from a Bibliometric Study." Library Research 2(Fall 1980):251-68. R.A. 9246 Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003 Reeves. Librarianship as Professionals. Pp. 43-44 Stone, Elizabeth. The Professional Development of Librarians. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1969, p. 197. Tullao. Tereso, Jr. 1998. The liberalization of professional services. Trade and Investment Policy Analysis and Advocacy Support (TAPS) Project. Unpublished. Tullao, Tereso, Jr. An Evaluation on the Readiness of Filipino Professionals to Meet International Competition. Center for Business and Economics Research and Development (CBERD). Working Paper Series 2000-2001. Vallejo, Rosa M. "Philippine Librarianship: A Historical Perspective" Journal of Philippine Librarianship 5 (March-September 1981): 56-74. Webster’s 3rd International Dictionary Wikipedia Wilensky, "Professionalization of Everyone?" pp. 137-58; Goode, William J. "The Theoretical Limits of Professionalization." In The Semi-Professions and Their Organization, edited by Amitai Etzioni, pp. 266-313. New York: Free Press, 1969. Wilson, Pauline. "Factors Effecting Research Productivity," Journal of Education for Librarianship 20 (Summer 1979) : 3-24.

29. -end of show- Thank you!!!