Thursday, January 15, 2009

Hermie Salazar, Filipino Librarian


This is my friend Hermie Salazar.

She is currently the University Librarian of the University of North Eastern Philippines. I met her in 2004 and we were together during the IFLA-UNESCO sponsored workshop in Bangkok, Thailand on Information Literacy (IL). At that time, IL was the new buzz word particularly in school librarianship. We presented scholarly papers and country reports together with other librarians of the Southeast Asian region. Needles to say, we had a blast and promised to keep in touch. We did. Over the years, we'd meet and exchange news, going ons in the profession and share a sliver of our personal lives with each other.

Just recently, Hermie whipped up a Storytelling Workshop which I conducted for her learning community in UNEP. The visit was enough for us to finish the whole gig and business of the workshop. Fortunately, a little time was left for some catching up.

I've always wondered why she chose to work in Iriga, of all places, when work for a librarian of her caliber abound in the city. So she claimed that she is out there on a mission. Now that is one thing I've learned from Hermie. Maybe it's about time for me to revise and revisit my views, dreams and purpose on this career. Perhaps, it's about time for me to see beyond the profession.

Advocacy is good. But living out a mission is another.

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