Guiguinto Municipal Library

Guiguinto is a town which can be found at the center of the more urban part of the province of Bulacan. It is famous for its annual Halamanan Festival which features its booming landscaping and gardening industry. This historical town has varied folktales explaining its name but the more famous one is that it got its name from the Tagalog word “ginto”, meaning gold. For this town of 99,730 (2015) people, a municipal library, Guiguinto Municipal Library, takes care of the people’s information and literacy needs.

Guiguinto Municipal Library

This library has had 3 municipal librarians/officers-in-charge: Veronica Manio, Lourdes Añonuevo, and Carolina Guevan. The library has limited availability to public for around 3 years, between 1990 until 1993.

GUIGUINTO MUNICIPAL LIBRARY, FROM THEN UNTIL NOW

Based from the interviews with 

Carolina Guevan (Municipal Librarian, 1998 – Present)

Lourdes Añonuevo (Municipal Librarian, 1993 – 1998)

Veronica Manio (Municipal Librarian, 1989-1990)

The Guiguinto Municipal Library was the brainchild of a private citizen instead of the municipal government, though the latter fully supported the initiative. Mrs. Estela Figueroa, a retired librarian from the United States Information Service of the US Embassy in the Philippines, and a citizen of the town, proposed and spearheaded the preparation for establishing a municipal library for Guiguinto. This was realized in the same year by the passage of Resolution No. 16, Series of 1989 sponsored by Councilor Virgilio Idos. There were two sites considered for the library, the Sangguniang Bayan Session Hall and Guiguinto Central School. For convenience and easy access, the library was placed in the former.

In the same year, Veronica Manio, the first librarian was appointed by then Mayor Pag-asa Estrella. The support of Mrs. Figueroa didn’t stop with the establishment of the library. She also spearheaded the building of the library collection as well as supporting the studies of Manio to earn 18 units of Library Science to help her manage the library better. Many projects were done those times like awarding books to the most frequent library users, and donating books to the different elementary and high schools of Guiguinto. Mayor Pag-asa also contributed much to the library’s development by soliciting donations of books from different institutions and private individuals. Manio’s service as the municipal librarian was cut short when she decided to transfer to the Bulacan Provincial Library in 1990.

Present Guiguinto Municipal Hall that houses the Guiguinto Municipal Library

Carolina de Leon Guevan, the present municipal librarian started serving the library in 1998. She holds the item of Bookbinder IV, an item reserved by the Guiguinto local government for the municipal library because there is no item existing for the municipal librarian position yet. She is an active participant of many different library trainings offered and hosted by the National Library of the Philippines, Bulacan Provincial Library, and Bulacan Public Librarians Associations, Inc. (BPLAI). She is a founding member of BPLAI and served the organization as Board of Directors and Auditor. Lourdes Añonuevo, on the other hand, managed the library from 1993 to 1998. She first worked at the Assessor’s Office before being transferred to the library during the time of Mayor Pag-asa Estrella.

Añonuevo remembers that the main reason why she was transferred to the library is because the municipal government felt the need to reopen it when many students looking for a library or a place where they can study or research often visit the municipal hall just to be disappointed. After almost 3 years since it was left unattended, it was reopened and the service resumed with Añonuevo manning the library alone. During those times, she was directly reporting to the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). In the last years of her library service, Añonuevo would often bring along Guevan when she picks up the library’s book allocation from NLP. She would show her where the seminars are being held, who are the people to talk to, and where to get the book allocations from on those NLP visits. She already introduced Guevan to the NLP so when Guevan took over the position in 1998, she already know what to do.

The library has transferred to 6 different locations since Añonuevo’s time. At first, it was housed in a room serving dual purposes, as the session hall of Sangguniang Bayan as well as the municipal library. Since the session is just once a week, the place functions as a library for the rest of the week. In 1997, the library was transferred to the 2nd floor of the barangay hall of Poblacion to give way to the old municipal hall’s renovation. During that transfer, many people from DepEd, especially Mrs. Erlinda Tolentino, helped Añonuevo in bringing the books and other materials as well as pieces of furniture to the new location. The library was in this location when Guevan replaced Añonuevo as the caretaker of the library.

The last 5 relocations of the library happened during Guevan’s time. From the 2nd floor of the barangay hall, the library was transferred again to a room adjacent to the barangay daycare center in 1999. After around 3-4 years, the library was back in the municipal hall. It was relocated in the former DILG room which according to Guevan is as large as the current library and the furniture used there is still being used up to this day. It stayed there for 2 years. After that, the library was transferred again to the 2nd floor of the building in the room presently used as the Vice-Mayor’s Office. After sometime, the library finally found its home in the 3rd floor of the present building and stayed there until now.

For the past decades, both Añonuevo and Guevan acknowledged the fact that whoever is in position supports the library through professional development. They were allowed and given allowances whenever they have to attend library workshops or seminars so that they will be able to apply them in their work as the municipal librarians. They were also assisted whenever they have to pick up book allocations from the NLP or donations from institutions or private individuals.

Just like Añonuevo and Manio in the past, Guevan started out as the sole library staff. But later, she was joined by Rowena Torres in the library during the 1st term of Vice-Mayor Banjo Estrella. Torres stayed at the library until 2014 when she was pulled out and reassigned as a secretary at the Sangguniang Bayan. At the present, Guevan has 2 library staff, Imelda Cenis and Angelita Capulong, who both started serving the library in 2013. They help her in all the library works especially in inventories and assisting the library clients.

Former councilor Pedro Ramirez is credited as one of the fervent supporters of the library that he pushed for the creation of an item, Bookbinder II, specifically for the library. This item was given to Guevan who was promoted to Bookbinder IV in 2009 or 2010. Notable former user as identified by Añonuevo is the present ABC President Cesar Mendoza. According to her, he was a frequent visitor of the library when he was still studying, and serving as ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Barangay in his capacity as the president of Guiguinto’s SK Chairmen Federation.

At the present, the library is still improving and compared to how it was years ago, Guevan categorically stated that it is much better now. It continues to attract many clients, especially students from the nearby elementary and high schools, and still helps in molding the Guiguinteños minds to be the best they can be.

To listen to the author's whole interview with Ms. Manio, Mrs. Añonuevo, and Mrs. Guevan, you may go to the Bulacan Provincial Library and ask the librarian there about the ORAL HISTORY OF BULACAN PUBLIC LIBRARIES PROJECT. Transcript of the whole interview is also available on site.