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Lecture Notes on Philippine Toy Library, Collaborations, and Linguistic Diversity Campaign



Part I: Takeaways from PLAI 2018:“Connected Actions, Collective Vision: Libraries Transforming Society”

 1. Lecture Title: “Philippine Toy Library”
  • Website http://www.philippinetoylibrary.org/
  • Partnership page: http://www.philippinetoylibrary.org/donate-share-or-partner-with-ptl/
  • What is it? A special library built by partnerships between and among organizations
  • Toys become tools to reinforce love for reading.
  • Books and toys in the same space.
  • Philippine Toy Library (PTL) transforms idle spaces in barangays, schools, parishes, and partner organizations into fun and educational playrooms for the children in the community.
  • Playtime is associated with library time.
  • The toy library’s popularity has become a beacon for national government agencies (NGAs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) to implement their own programs, e.g., “handwashing day at the PTL” and “storytelling at PTL by community leaders”
  • Children are encouraged to read by being promised a toy after several visits and book readings.
2. 
3. Lecture Title: “Words on the Wall: A Linguistic Diversity Campaign”
  • The author Louise Aquino is a librarian at Metro Dagupan Colleges in Mangaldan, Pangasinan
  • Her study is relevant because among the 187 languages in the Philippines, 4 are dead and 11 are dying 
  • Her goal is to save the Pangasinense language, especially the local dialects/variations, and to promote cultural diversity in her school 
  • How do we know a language is dead or dying? 
    • No more supporting literature 
    • No new speakers, old speakers are dying or dead 
    • Literary works have become obsolete or lost 
    • The original language has been corrupted or changed
  • Why does a language die? 
    • Policies, e.g., EOP (English Only Policy in schools), removal of mother tongue language after third grade 
    • Migration of native speakers 
    • Relative cultural prestige, e.g., the misguided notion that speaking the mother tongue is “barriotic”, while speaking English is “sosyal” 
    • Lack of reading materials Lack of community effort to revive the local language through cultural means
    - How does “words on the wall” work? 
    • Survey in the form of 4 translations for one word (translated in Filipino, English, Ilocano, Pangasinense). Questions include: “which word did you not understand?” “which word is most meaningful?” 
    • Applications: spoken word poetry reading in native dialect, poetry writing, develop materials in local dialect, write story books in local dialect, create a translator app, - She and her library have applied for the IFLA PressReader International Library Marketing Award using their “Words on the Wall” project https://www.ifla.org/node/6922
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