Councilor pushes for additional mobile library services in QC

An outreach program for students through a mobile library has been proposed by a Quezon City councilor to help rekindle an interest in books.

“It would be easier for us to take the books to students rather than for them to go to us,” said Fifth District Councilor Julienne Alyson Rae Bernal, noting the decline in literacy among the city’s youth.

Medalla said her proposed resolution would allow the Quezon City public library and information center (QCPLIC) to provide mobile services to those with no access to books and other educational resources or “who would rather spend money on food than on books.”

She noted that while steps have been undertaken to address the problem through the “Kariton Klasrum” (classroom in a cart) and the second district’s mobile library, these were not enough.

QCPLIC administrative officer Mary Ann Bernal said that in the pre-Internet years they had over 500,000 public library users annually, compared to the  200,000 in recent years.

Visitors to the libraries came by the hundreds particularly on weekends, Bernal said.

“Now, we hardly see more than a hundred users,” she added.

Bernal attributed the decline not only to growing Internet accessibility, but lack of means to go to these libraries.