/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — An official of this province is encouraging Antiqueño pupils to use the provincial library situated just beside the new capitol building here.
Provincial Board Member Errol Santillan, who led a storytelling session to about 30 Grade 3 pupils of the Delegate Angel Salazar Memorial School in celebration of the Public Library Day on Monday, said the library is still relevant even to this time of technological advancement because books have a great impact on learning.
“We should continue to visit the libraries even at this age when almost everyone now have the cellular phones where they could also download their needed information, because the books are still essential to learning,” he said.
Santillan said reading books in the library provides a different experience because the reader is able to turn the pages as they read and are able to absorb more the knowledge because of the time they spend.
“Let us also not forget our traditional way of acquiring knowledge,” he said.
Santillan said that as a provincial board member, he intends to pass a legislation for the Department of Education (DepEd) to encourage schools to a set schedules for their students to visit the provincial library.
After the storytelling, Antique Provincial Government Employees Cooperative (APGEMCO) board of director Ma. Lourdes Fortaleza talked to the pupils about financial literacy to teach them to save out of their daily allowances.
“I also showed them the audio-visual about the Ant and the Grasshopper, which has a moral lesson for them to save for the rainy day,” she said.
Meanwhile, Librarian Evangeline M. Palcat, officer-in-charge of the provincial library, encouraged municipal governments to give priority to establishment of libraries as there is only one functioning municipal library in Sibalom, apart from the provincial library.
There is also one private library in Pandan town.
Santillan also hoped the provincial library could have a permanent space on the second floor of the old Antique capitol building, which is now undergoing retrofitting.
The Public Library Day celebration is anchored on the theme “Public Libraries Click When the Local Officials Lead”.
