National Library of the Philippines
Encyclopedia
The National Library of the Philippines is the official national library
of the Philippines
. The complex is located in Ermita
on a portion of Rizal Park
facing T.M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History
and the National Historical Commission. Like its neighbors, it is under the jurisdiction of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts
(NCCA).
The library is notable for being the home of the original copies of the defining works of José Rizal
: Noli Me Tangere
, El Filibusterismo
and Mi último adiós
.
Romero resigned in 1893 and was briefly replaced by Tomas Torres of the Escuela de Artes y Ofícios in Bacolor
, Pampanga
(now the Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades), who in turn was replaced by Don Pedro A. Paterno on March 31, 1894. By that time, the library had moved to a site in Quiapo
near the present site of the Masjid Al-Dahab. Later on, Paterno published the first issue of the Boletin del Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas (Bulletin of the Museum-Library of the Philippines) on January 15, 1895.
The Museo-Biblioteca was abolished upon the onset of the American colonization of the Philippines
. By the time of its abolition, the library held around 1,000 volumes and averaged around 25-30 visitors a day. The entire collection would later be transferred at Paterno's expense to his own private library, of which some books would form the basis for the Filipiniana
collection of subsequent incarnations of the National Library.
As the Philippine-American War
died down and peace gradually returned to the Philippines, Americans who had come to settle in the islands saw the need for a wholesome recreational outlet. Recognizing this need, Charles Greenleaf and several other American women organized the American Circulating Library (ACL), dedicated in memory of American soldiers who died in the Philippine-American War. The ACL opened on March 9, 1900 with 1,000 volumes donated by the Red Cross Society of California and other American organizations. By 1901, the ACL's collection grew to 10,000 volumes, consisting mostly of American works of fiction, periodicals and newspapers. The rapid expansion of the library proved to be such a strain on the resources of the American Circulating Library Association of Manila, the organization running the ACL, that it was decided that the library's entire collection should be donated to the government.
The Philippine Commission
formalized the acceptance of the ACL's collections on March 5, 1901 through Act No. 96, today observed as the birthdate of both the National Library and the Philippine public library system. With the ACL now a Philippine government institution, a board of trustees and three personnel, led by librarian Nelly Y. Egbert, were appointed by the colonial government. At the same time, the library moved to Rosario Street (now Quintin Paredes Street) in Binondo
before its expansion warranted its move to the Hotel de Oriente in the same district in 1904. It was noted in the 1905 annual report of the Department of Public Instruction (the current Department of Education
) that the new location "was not exactly spacious but at least it was comfortable and accessible by tramway from almost every part of the city". At the same time, the ACL, acting on its mandate to make its collections available to American servicemen stationed in the Philippines, established five traveling libraries, serving various, if not unusual, clientele across the islands. In November 1905, Act No. 1407 placed the library under the Bureau of Education and subsequently moved to its headquarters at the corner of Cabildo (now Muralla) and Recoletos Streets in Intramuros, on which today the offices of the Manila Bulletin
stand.
On June 2, 1908, Act No. 1849 was passed, mandating the consolidation of all government libraries in the Philippines into the ACL. Subsequently, Act No. 1935 was passed in 1909, renaming the ACL the Philippine Library and turning it into an autonomous body governed by a five-member Library Board. At the same time, the Act mandated the division of the library into four divisions: the law, scientific, circulating and Filipiniana divisions. The newly-renamed library was headed by James Alexander Robertson
, an American scholar who, in collaboration with Emma Helen Blair
, wrote The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, and recognized today as both the first director of the modern National Library and the father of Philippine library science
. Robertson would later abolish the library's subscription fees for books in general circulation in 1914.
Act No. 2572, passed on January 31, 1916, merged the Philippine Library with two other government institutions: the Division of Archives, Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (later to become the National Archives, the Copyright Office of the National Library and the Intellectual Property Office) and the Law Library of the Philippine Assembly, forming the Philippine Library and Museum. In addition, the Philippine Library and Museum was placed under the supervision of the Department of Justice
. However, on December 7, 1928, Act No. 3477 was passed, splitting the Philippine Library and Museum into the National Library and the National Museum (now the National Museum of the Philippines
). The newly-formed National Library was placed under the supervision of the Philippine Assembly
, subsequently moving to the Legislative Building
on Padre Burgos Street in Ermita
. This arrangement continued with the convocation of the National Assembly
at the dawn of the Commonwealth era
in 1935. However, supervision of the National Library would return to the Department of Public Instruction in 1936.
and the subsequent invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese had no significant impact on the National Library, with the institution still remaining open and the government at the time making few significant changes to the library, such as the abolition of the Research and Bibliography Division and the subsequent suspension of work on the national bibliography in 1941. However, by late 1944, with the impending campaign of combined American and Filipino forces to recapture the Philippines, Japanese forces stationed in Manila began setting up fortifications in large buildings, including the Legislative Building. Despite the occupation of the Legislative Building, the Japanese commanding officer permitted library officials to vacate the premises within two weeks of their occupation, with the library subsequently moving into the building housing the Philippine Normal School (now the Philippine Normal University
). Two weeks later, however, Japanese troops also moved to occupy that building as well, with the same commanding officer giving library officials only until that afternoon to vacate the premises. All collections of the National Library were moved into a 1.5-cubic meter vault under the Manila City Hall, the closest building at the time. However, most of the library's Filipiniana collection, having been overlooked by moving staff and due to time constraints, was left behind at the Philippine Normal School.
The Battle of Manila would prove to be disastrous to the cultural patrimony of the Philippines and the collections of the National Library in particular. Most of the library's collections were either destroyed by fires as a result of the ensuing battle between American, Filipino and Japanese forces, lost or stolen by looters afterward. Pieces lost from the library's collections included an urn where Andrés Bonifacio
's remains were stored, as well as valuable Filipiniana pieces such as some of the manuscripts of José Rizal
. Of the 733,000 volumes the library had in its collections prior to World War II, only 36,600 remained. However, luckily for library officials, a locked box containing the "crown jewels" of the National Library: the original copies of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere
, El Filibusterismo
and Mi último adiós
, was left intact. Tiburcio Tumaneng, then the chief of the Filipiniana Division, described the event as a happy occasion.
Word of the books' discovery by Tumaneng was relayed to Professor H. Otley Beyer
, then chairman of the Committee on Salvage of Government Libraries, through officer-in-charge Luis Montilla. Having found a new sense of optimism after the books' discovery, Beyer and a group of volunteers began scouring the ruins of the Legislative Building and the Philippine Normal School for any and all books they could find. However, much to their surprise, the entire collection stored under Manila City Hall disappeared, lost to looters who ransacked the ruins of public buildings. All salvaged materials were brought back to Beyer's residence on Aviles Street, near Malacañang Palace
.
With the return of Commonwealth rule, the National Library reopened and relocated to the site of the Old Bilibid Prison (today the Manila City Jail) on Oroquieta Street in Santa Cruz
while the Legislative Building was being restored. In addition, it also sought the assistance of friendly countries to rebuild its collections. According to Concordia Sanchez in her book The Libraries of the Philippines, many countries, mainly the United States, donated many thousands of books, although some were outdated and others were too foreign for Filipino readers to understand. Although rebuilding the General Reference and Circulation Divisions was easy, rebuilding the Filipiniana Division was the hardest of all.
signed Executive Order No. 94, converting the National Library into an office under the Office of the President called the Bureau of Public Libraries. The name change was done reportedly out of a sense of national shame as a result of World War II, with Roxas preferring to emphasize the library's administrative responsibilities over its cultural and historical functions. Although the library was offered its original headquarters in the newly-rebuilt Legislative Building, the newly-convened Congress of the Philippines
forced it to relocate to the old Legislative Building at the corner of Lepanto (now Loyola) and P. Paredes Streets in Sampaloc
, near the current campus of the University of the East
. The Circulation Division, originally meant to cater to the residents of the city of Manila, was abolished in 1955 after it was determined that the city's residents were already adequately served by the four libraries under the supervision of the Manila city government. That same year, it was forced to relocate to the Arlegui Mansion in San Miguel
, then occupied by the Department of Foreign Affairs
.
During this time, much of the library's Filipiniana collection was gradually restored. In 1953, two folders of Rizaliana (works pertaining to José Rizal) previously in the possession of a private Spanish citizen which contained, among others, Rizal's transcript of records
, a letter from his mother, Teodora Alonso, and a letter from his wife, Josephine Bracken
, were returned by the Spanish government as a gesture of friendship and goodwill. Likewise, the 400,000-piece Philippine Revolutionary Papers (PRP), also known as the Philippine Insurgent Records (PIR), were returned by the United States in 1957.
After many moves throughout its history, the National Library finally moved to its present location on June 19, 1961, in commemoration of the 100th birthday of José Rizal
. It was renamed back to the National Library on June 18, 1964, by virtue of Republic Act No. 3873.
, and second, the resumption of work on the Philippine National Bibliography (PNB) which had been suspended since 1941. For this purpose, the library acquired its first mainframe computer and likewise trained library staff in its use with the assistance of both UNESCO
and the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center. The first edition of the PNB was published in 1977 using simplified MARC standards
, and subsequently updated ever since. The library subsequently purchased three microcomputers in the 1980s and, through a Japanese grant, acquired three IBM PS/2
computers and microfilming and reprographics equipment. The Library for the Blind Division was organized in 1988 and subsequently launched in 1994.
Scandal arose in September 1993 when it was discovered that a researcher from the National Historical Institute (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines), later identified as Rolando Bayhon, was pilfering rare documents from the library's collections. According to some library employees, the pilfering of historical documents dates back to the 1970s, when President Ferdinand Marcos
began writing a book on Philippine history titled Iginuhit ng Tadhana (Drawn by Destiny), using as references library materials which were subsequently not returned. Having suspected widespread pilferage upon assuming the directorship in 1992, then-Director Adoracion B. Mendoza sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation in recovering the stolen items. Some 700 items were recovered from an antique shop in Ermita and Bayhon was arrested. Although convicted of theft in July 1996, Bayhon was sentenced in absentia and still remains at large. The chief of the Filipiniana Division at the time, Maria Luisa Moral, who was believed to be involved in the scandal, was dismissed on September 25, but subsequently acquitted on May 29, 2008. Following Bayhon's arrest, Mendoza made several appeals calling on the Filipino people to return items pilfered from the library's collections without criminal liability. Around eight thousand documents, including the original copy of the Philippine Declaration of Independence
among others, were subsequently returned to the library by various persons, including some six thousand borrowed by a professor of the University of the Philippines
.
In 1995, the National Library launched its local area network
, consisting of a single file server and four workstations, and subsequently its online public access catalog (named Basilio, after the character in Rizal's novels) in 1998, as well as its website on March 15, 2001. Following the retirement of Mendoza in 2001, Prudenciana C. Cruz
was appointed director and has overseen the continued computerization of its facilities, including the opening of the library's Internet room on July 23, 2001. That same year, the library began digitization of its collections, with an initial 52,000 pieces converted into a digital format. This digitization was one of the factors which led to the birth of the Philippine eLibrary, a collaboration between the National Library and the University of the Philippines, the Department of Science and Technology
, the Department of Agriculture
and the Commission on Higher Education
, which was launched on February 4, 2004 as the Philippines' first digital library
. The Philippine President's Room, a section of the Filipiniana Division dedicated to works and documents pertaining to Philippine presidents, was opened on July 7, 2007.
On September 26, 2007, the National Library was reorganized into nine divisions per its rationalization plan.
In 1954, President Ramon Magsaysay
issued an executive order forming the José Rizal National Centennial Commission, entrusted with the duty of "erecting a grand monument in honor of José Rizal in the capital of the Philippines". The Commission then decided to erect a cultural complex in Rizal Park with a new building housing the National Library as its centerpiece, a memorial to Rizal as an advocate of education. To finance the construction of the new National Library building, the Commission conducted a nationwide public fundraising campaign, the donors being mostly schoolchildren, who were encouraged to donate ten centavos to the effort, and library employees, who each donated a day's salary. Because of this effort by the Commission, the National Library of the Philippines is said to be the only national library in the world built mostly out of private donations, and the only one built out of veneration to its national hero at the time of its construction.
Construction on the building's foundation began on March 23, 1960 and the superstructure on September 16. During construction, objections were raised over the library's location, claiming that the salinity of the air around Manila Bay would hasten the destruction of the rare books and manuscripts that would be stored there. Despite the objections, construction still continued, and the new building was inaugurated on June 19, 1961, Rizal's 100th birthday, by President Carlos P. Garcia
, Magsaysay's successor.
The current National Library building, a six-storey, 110 feet (33.5 m) edifice, was designed by Hexagon Associated Architects and constructed at a cost of 5.5 million pesos
. With a total floor area of 198000 square feet (18,394.8 m²), the library has three reading rooms and three mezzanines which currently occupy the western half of the second, third and fourth floors. Each reading room can accommodate up to 532 readers, or 1,596 in total for the entire building. The 400-seat Epifanio de los Santos Auditorium and a cafeteria are located on the sixth floor. There are also provisions for administrative offices, a fumigation room, an air-conditioned photography laboratory and printing room, two music rooms and an exhibition hall. The library's eight stack rooms have a total combined capacity of one million volumes with ample room for expansion. In addition to two staircases connecting all six floors, the National Library building is equipped with a single elevator, servicing the first four floors.
Part of the National Library building's west wing is occupied by the National Archives.
The collections of the National Library of the Philippines consist of more than 210,000 books; over 880,000 manuscripts, all part of the Filipiniana Division; more than 170,000 newspaper issues from Metro Manila and across the Philippines; some 66,000 theses and dissertations; 104,000 government publications; 3,800 maps and 53,000 photographs. The library's collections include large numbers of materials stored on various forms of non-print media, as well as almost 18,000 pieces for use of the Library for the Blind Division. Overall, the National Library has over 1.6 million pieces in its collections, one of the largest among Philippine libraries. Accounted in its collections include valuable Rizaliana pieces, four incunabulas
, the original manuscript of Lupang Hinirang
(the Philippine national anthem), several sets of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, a collection of rare Filipiniana books previously owned by Tabacalera
, the Spanish tobacco monopoly, and the documents of five Philippine presidents. The most prized possessions of the National Library, which include Rizal's Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi último adiós, three of his unfinished novels and the Philippine Declaration of Independence, are kept in a special double-combination vault at the rare documents section of the Filipiniana Division's reading room.
A significant portion of the National Library's collections are composed of donations and works obtained through both legal deposit
and copyright deposit due to the limited budget allocated for the purchase of library materials; the 2007 national budget allocation for the library allocated less than ten million pesos for the purchase of new books. The library also relies on its various donors and exchange partners, which numbered 115 in 2007, for expanding and diversifying its collections. The lack of a sufficient budget has affected the quality of the library's offerings: the Library for the Blind suffers from a shortage of books printed in braille
, while the manuscripts of Rizal's masterpieces have reportedly deteriorated due to the lack of funds to support 24-hour air conditioning to aid in its preservation.
National library
A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books...
of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. The complex is located in Ermita
Ermita, Manila
Ermita is a district of Manila, Philippines located halfway between Intramuros and Malate.-History:Ermita was founded in the late 16th century...
on a portion of Rizal Park
Rizal Park
Rizal Park, also known as Luneta Park or colloquially Luneta, is a historical urban park located in the heart of the city of Manila, Philippines, adjacent to the old walled city of Manila, now Intramuros. Since the Spanish Colonial Era, the park has been a favorite spot for unwinding, socializing,...
facing T.M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History
Museum of Philippine Political History
The Museum of Philippine Political History is a museum in Manila, the Philippines. It is located on the grounds of the National Historical Institute.- External links :*...
and the National Historical Commission. Like its neighbors, it is under the jurisdiction of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts
National Commission for Culture and the Arts (Philippines)
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines is the official arts council for the Philippines.-History:In 1987, then President Corazon C. Aquino penned Executive Order No. 118 creating the Presidential Commission on Culture and Arts...
(NCCA).
The library is notable for being the home of the original copies of the defining works of José Rizal
José Rizal
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
: Noli Me Tangere
Noli Me Tangere (novel)
Noli Me Tangere is a novel by Filipino polymath José Rizal and first published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany. Early English translations used titles like An Eagle Flight and The Social Cancer, but more recent translations have been published using the original Latin title.Though originally written in...
, El Filibusterismo
El filibusterismo
El filibusterismo , also known by its English alternate title The Reign of Greed, is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere and like the first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891 in Ghent, Belgium...
and Mi último adiós
Mi último adiós
"Mi último adiós" is a poem written by Philippine national hero José Rizal on the eve of his execution on December 30, 1896. Although the poem was untitled, this title served as an artifice useful as a quick reference. This poem was one of the last notes he wrote before his execution...
.
Beginnings (1887-1900)
The National Library of the Philippines can trace its history to the establishment of the Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas (Museum-Library of the Philippines), established by a royal order of the Spanish government on August 12, 1887. It opened on October 24, 1891 at the Casa de la Moneda in Intramuros, then home of the Philippine Mint, with around 100 volumes and with both Julian Romero and Benito Perdiguero as director and archivist-librarian, respectively.Romero resigned in 1893 and was briefly replaced by Tomas Torres of the Escuela de Artes y Ofícios in Bacolor
Bacolor, Pampanga
Bacolor is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Pampanga, Philippines.-Demographics:According to the latest census, it has a population of 25,238 people in 3,029 households.-History:...
, Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
(now the Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades), who in turn was replaced by Don Pedro A. Paterno on March 31, 1894. By that time, the library had moved to a site in Quiapo
Quiapo, Manila
Quiapo is a district and city square of Manila. Referred as the "Old Downtown", Quiapo in known for where cheap buys or goods are being sold at rock-bottom prices and was the home of the Quiapo Church, where the feast for the Black Nazarene is held, with over millions of people attending...
near the present site of the Masjid Al-Dahab. Later on, Paterno published the first issue of the Boletin del Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas (Bulletin of the Museum-Library of the Philippines) on January 15, 1895.
The Museo-Biblioteca was abolished upon the onset of the American colonization of the Philippines
History of the Philippines (1898-1946)
This article covers the history of the Philippines from 1898 to 1946. It spans the Spanish-American War which resulted in the United States acquiring sovereignty over the Philippines from Spain via the Treaty of Paris which ended that war, the Philippines as a U.S. territory and later as a U.S...
. By the time of its abolition, the library held around 1,000 volumes and averaged around 25-30 visitors a day. The entire collection would later be transferred at Paterno's expense to his own private library, of which some books would form the basis for the Filipiniana
Filipiniana
Filipiniana, based on the definition by Isagani Medina from “Collection Building: Filipiniana,” in his In Developing Special Library Collections, Filipiniana: Proceedings , refers to Philippine-related books and non-book materials...
collection of subsequent incarnations of the National Library.
Birth of the modern National Library (1900-1941)
Philippine-American War
The Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine War of Independence or the Philippine Insurrection , was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the United States which arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following...
died down and peace gradually returned to the Philippines, Americans who had come to settle in the islands saw the need for a wholesome recreational outlet. Recognizing this need, Charles Greenleaf and several other American women organized the American Circulating Library (ACL), dedicated in memory of American soldiers who died in the Philippine-American War. The ACL opened on March 9, 1900 with 1,000 volumes donated by the Red Cross Society of California and other American organizations. By 1901, the ACL's collection grew to 10,000 volumes, consisting mostly of American works of fiction, periodicals and newspapers. The rapid expansion of the library proved to be such a strain on the resources of the American Circulating Library Association of Manila, the organization running the ACL, that it was decided that the library's entire collection should be donated to the government.
The Philippine Commission
Philippine Commission
The Philippine Commission was a body appointed by the President of the United States to exercise legislative and limited executive powers in the Philippines. It was first appointed by President William McKinley in 1901. Beginning in 1907, it acted as the upper house of a bicameral Philippine...
formalized the acceptance of the ACL's collections on March 5, 1901 through Act No. 96, today observed as the birthdate of both the National Library and the Philippine public library system. With the ACL now a Philippine government institution, a board of trustees and three personnel, led by librarian Nelly Y. Egbert, were appointed by the colonial government. At the same time, the library moved to Rosario Street (now Quintin Paredes Street) in Binondo
Binondo, Manila
Binondo is an enclave in Manila primarily populated by ethnic Chinese living in the Philippines. Chinatown, Manila is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594. Historically, this was where the Spanish permitted converted sangleys, their indigenous Filipino wives, and their mixed-race...
before its expansion warranted its move to the Hotel de Oriente in the same district in 1904. It was noted in the 1905 annual report of the Department of Public Instruction (the current Department of Education
Department of Education (Philippines)
The Department of Education , is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the management and governing of the Philippine system of basic education. It is the chief formulator of Philippine educational policy and is responsible for the Philippine primary and secondary...
) that the new location "was not exactly spacious but at least it was comfortable and accessible by tramway from almost every part of the city". At the same time, the ACL, acting on its mandate to make its collections available to American servicemen stationed in the Philippines, established five traveling libraries, serving various, if not unusual, clientele across the islands. In November 1905, Act No. 1407 placed the library under the Bureau of Education and subsequently moved to its headquarters at the corner of Cabildo (now Muralla) and Recoletos Streets in Intramuros, on which today the offices of the Manila Bulletin
Manila Bulletin
The Manila Bulletin , is the Philippines' largest broadsheet newspaper by circulation, followed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It bills itself as "The Nation's Leading Newspaper", which is its official slogan...
stand.
On June 2, 1908, Act No. 1849 was passed, mandating the consolidation of all government libraries in the Philippines into the ACL. Subsequently, Act No. 1935 was passed in 1909, renaming the ACL the Philippine Library and turning it into an autonomous body governed by a five-member Library Board. At the same time, the Act mandated the division of the library into four divisions: the law, scientific, circulating and Filipiniana divisions. The newly-renamed library was headed by James Alexander Robertson
James Alexander Robertson
James Alexander Robertson was an American academic historian, archivist, translator and bibliographer. He is most noted for his contributions to the history and historiography of the Philippines and other former territorial possessions of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.-Life:James Alexander...
, an American scholar who, in collaboration with Emma Helen Blair
Emma Helen Blair
Emma Helen Blair was a United States historian, journalist and editor, whose most notable work was a monumental documentary history of the Philippines....
, wrote The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, and recognized today as both the first director of the modern National Library and the father of Philippine library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
. Robertson would later abolish the library's subscription fees for books in general circulation in 1914.
Act No. 2572, passed on January 31, 1916, merged the Philippine Library with two other government institutions: the Division of Archives, Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (later to become the National Archives, the Copyright Office of the National Library and the Intellectual Property Office) and the Law Library of the Philippine Assembly, forming the Philippine Library and Museum. In addition, the Philippine Library and Museum was placed under the supervision of the Department of Justice
Department of Justice (Philippines)
The Department of Justice , abbreviated as DOJ, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for upholding the rule of law in the Philippines...
. However, on December 7, 1928, Act No. 3477 was passed, splitting the Philippine Library and Museum into the National Library and the National Museum (now the National Museum of the Philippines
National Museum of the Philippines
The Museum of the Filipino People is a department of the National Museum of the Philippines that houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions of the National Museum. It is located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila adjacent to the main National Museum building...
). The newly-formed National Library was placed under the supervision of the Philippine Assembly
Philippine Assembly
The Philippine Assembly was the lower house of the legislative body of the Philippines during the early part of American colonial period. It was created by the Philippine Organic Act, passed in 1902, which also established the Philippine Commission as the upper house of the Philippine Legislature,...
, subsequently moving to the Legislative Building
Old Congress Building, Manila
The Old Congress Building is a building located on Padre Burgos Avenue, Ermita, Manila, Philippines. It is currently home of the National Art Gallery of the National Museum of the Philippines...
on Padre Burgos Street in Ermita
Ermita, Manila
Ermita is a district of Manila, Philippines located halfway between Intramuros and Malate.-History:Ermita was founded in the late 16th century...
. This arrangement continued with the convocation of the National Assembly
National Assembly of the Philippines
The National Assembly of the Philippines refers to the legislature of the Philippine Commonwealth from 1935 to 1941, and the Second Philippine Republic. The National Assembly of the Commonwealth of the Philippines was created under the 1935 Constitution, which served as the Philippines' fundamental...
at the dawn of the Commonwealth era
Commonwealth of the Philippines
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was a designation of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 when the country was a commonwealth of the United States. The Commonwealth was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1934. When Manuel L...
in 1935. However, supervision of the National Library would return to the Department of Public Instruction in 1936.
World War II (1941-1946)
The dawn of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the subsequent invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese had no significant impact on the National Library, with the institution still remaining open and the government at the time making few significant changes to the library, such as the abolition of the Research and Bibliography Division and the subsequent suspension of work on the national bibliography in 1941. However, by late 1944, with the impending campaign of combined American and Filipino forces to recapture the Philippines, Japanese forces stationed in Manila began setting up fortifications in large buildings, including the Legislative Building. Despite the occupation of the Legislative Building, the Japanese commanding officer permitted library officials to vacate the premises within two weeks of their occupation, with the library subsequently moving into the building housing the Philippine Normal School (now the Philippine Normal University
Philippine Normal University
The Philippine Normal University is a public national university in the Philippines established during the early days of American rule of the Philippine Islands. Pursuant to a law passed by the Philippine Congress, Republic Act No...
). Two weeks later, however, Japanese troops also moved to occupy that building as well, with the same commanding officer giving library officials only until that afternoon to vacate the premises. All collections of the National Library were moved into a 1.5-cubic meter vault under the Manila City Hall, the closest building at the time. However, most of the library's Filipiniana collection, having been overlooked by moving staff and due to time constraints, was left behind at the Philippine Normal School.
The Battle of Manila would prove to be disastrous to the cultural patrimony of the Philippines and the collections of the National Library in particular. Most of the library's collections were either destroyed by fires as a result of the ensuing battle between American, Filipino and Japanese forces, lost or stolen by looters afterward. Pieces lost from the library's collections included an urn where Andrés Bonifacio
Andres Bonifacio
Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. He was a founder and later Supremo of the Katipunan movement which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution...
's remains were stored, as well as valuable Filipiniana pieces such as some of the manuscripts of José Rizal
José Rizal
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
. Of the 733,000 volumes the library had in its collections prior to World War II, only 36,600 remained. However, luckily for library officials, a locked box containing the "crown jewels" of the National Library: the original copies of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere
Noli Me Tangere (novel)
Noli Me Tangere is a novel by Filipino polymath José Rizal and first published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany. Early English translations used titles like An Eagle Flight and The Social Cancer, but more recent translations have been published using the original Latin title.Though originally written in...
, El Filibusterismo
El filibusterismo
El filibusterismo , also known by its English alternate title The Reign of Greed, is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere and like the first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891 in Ghent, Belgium...
and Mi último adiós
Mi último adiós
"Mi último adiós" is a poem written by Philippine national hero José Rizal on the eve of his execution on December 30, 1896. Although the poem was untitled, this title served as an artifice useful as a quick reference. This poem was one of the last notes he wrote before his execution...
, was left intact. Tiburcio Tumaneng, then the chief of the Filipiniana Division, described the event as a happy occasion.
Word of the books' discovery by Tumaneng was relayed to Professor H. Otley Beyer
H. Otley Beyer
Henry Otley Beyer was an American anthropologist, who spent most of his adult life in the Philippines teaching Filipinos and other scholars about Philippine indigenous culture...
, then chairman of the Committee on Salvage of Government Libraries, through officer-in-charge Luis Montilla. Having found a new sense of optimism after the books' discovery, Beyer and a group of volunteers began scouring the ruins of the Legislative Building and the Philippine Normal School for any and all books they could find. However, much to their surprise, the entire collection stored under Manila City Hall disappeared, lost to looters who ransacked the ruins of public buildings. All salvaged materials were brought back to Beyer's residence on Aviles Street, near Malacañang Palace
Malacañang Palace
The Malacañan Palace, commonly known simply as Malacañang, is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the Philippines. Located at 1000 J. P. Laurel Street, San Miguel, Manila, the house was built in 1750 in Spanish Colonial style. It has been the residence of every...
.
With the return of Commonwealth rule, the National Library reopened and relocated to the site of the Old Bilibid Prison (today the Manila City Jail) on Oroquieta Street in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, Manila
Santa Cruz is located on the right bank of the Pasig River, on the northern portion of the City of Manila, near the mouth of the river, in between the districts of Tondo and Quiapo...
while the Legislative Building was being restored. In addition, it also sought the assistance of friendly countries to rebuild its collections. According to Concordia Sanchez in her book The Libraries of the Philippines, many countries, mainly the United States, donated many thousands of books, although some were outdated and others were too foreign for Filipino readers to understand. Although rebuilding the General Reference and Circulation Divisions was easy, rebuilding the Filipiniana Division was the hardest of all.
Independence and reconstruction (1946-1964)
In 1947, one year after the independence of the Philippines from the United States, President Manuel RoxasManuel Roxas
Manuel Acuña Roxas was the first president of the independent Third Republic of the Philippines and fifth president overall. He served as president from the granting of independence in 1946 until his abrupt death in 1948...
signed Executive Order No. 94, converting the National Library into an office under the Office of the President called the Bureau of Public Libraries. The name change was done reportedly out of a sense of national shame as a result of World War II, with Roxas preferring to emphasize the library's administrative responsibilities over its cultural and historical functions. Although the library was offered its original headquarters in the newly-rebuilt Legislative Building, the newly-convened Congress of the Philippines
Congress of the Philippines
The Congress of the Philippines is the national legislature of the Republic of the Philippines. It is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate , and the House of Representatives although commonly in the Philippines the term congress refers to the latter.The Senate is composed of 24 senators half...
forced it to relocate to the old Legislative Building at the corner of Lepanto (now Loyola) and P. Paredes Streets in Sampaloc
Sampaloc, Manila
Sampaloc is a district of Manila which is primarily a residential and educational center. Part of the Malacañang Palace is located in Sampaloc. The University of Santo Tomas, University of the East Manila are part of the University Belt to name a few, the famous Dangwa flower market at Dimasalang...
, near the current campus of the University of the East
University of the East
The University of the East is a private nonsectarian university located in University Belt Area, district of Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines. The university was founded in 1946 as a coeducational institution...
. The Circulation Division, originally meant to cater to the residents of the city of Manila, was abolished in 1955 after it was determined that the city's residents were already adequately served by the four libraries under the supervision of the Manila city government. That same year, it was forced to relocate to the Arlegui Mansion in San Miguel
San Miguel, Manila
San Miguel district is a primarily middle-class residential area of Manila. Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of Republic of the Philippines, is located in San Miguel district. Just outside Malacañang Palace's gates lies Mendiola Street, the avenue where most mass protest...
, then occupied by the Department of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippines)
The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs is the executive department of the Philippine government tasked to contribute to the enhancement of national security and the protection of the territorial integrity and national sovereignty, to participate in the national endeavor of sustaining...
.
During this time, much of the library's Filipiniana collection was gradually restored. In 1953, two folders of Rizaliana (works pertaining to José Rizal) previously in the possession of a private Spanish citizen which contained, among others, Rizal's transcript of records
Transcript (education)
In education, a transcript is an inventory of the courses taken and grades earned of a student throughout a course.- United States :In United States education, a transcript is a copy of a student's permanent academic record which usually means all courses taken, all grades received, all...
, a letter from his mother, Teodora Alonso, and a letter from his wife, Josephine Bracken
Josephine Bracken
Marie Josephine Leopoldine Bracken was the common-law wife of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal during his exile in Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga del Norte in southern Philippines, till his execution on December 30, 1896 in Manila. In the early hours on the day of his execution, the...
, were returned by the Spanish government as a gesture of friendship and goodwill. Likewise, the 400,000-piece Philippine Revolutionary Papers (PRP), also known as the Philippine Insurgent Records (PIR), were returned by the United States in 1957.
After many moves throughout its history, the National Library finally moved to its present location on June 19, 1961, in commemoration of the 100th birthday of José Rizal
José Rizal
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
. It was renamed back to the National Library on June 18, 1964, by virtue of Republic Act No. 3873.
Contemporary history (1964-)
Although no major changes occurred in the National Library immediately after its relocation, two significant events took place in the 1970s: first, the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 812 on October 18, 1975, which allowed the National Library to exercise the right of legal depositLegal deposit
Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19 . Typically, the national library is one of the...
, and second, the resumption of work on the Philippine National Bibliography (PNB) which had been suspended since 1941. For this purpose, the library acquired its first mainframe computer and likewise trained library staff in its use with the assistance of both UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
and the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center. The first edition of the PNB was published in 1977 using simplified MARC standards
MARC standards
MARC, MAchine-Readable Cataloging, is a data format and set of related standards used by libraries to encode and share information about books and other material they collect...
, and subsequently updated ever since. The library subsequently purchased three microcomputers in the 1980s and, through a Japanese grant, acquired three IBM PS/2
IBM Personal System/2
The Personal System/2 or PS/2 was IBM's third generation of personal computers. The PS/2 line, released to the public in 1987, was created by IBM in an attempt to recapture control of the PC market by introducing an advanced proprietary architecture...
computers and microfilming and reprographics equipment. The Library for the Blind Division was organized in 1988 and subsequently launched in 1994.
Scandal arose in September 1993 when it was discovered that a researcher from the National Historical Institute (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines), later identified as Rolando Bayhon, was pilfering rare documents from the library's collections. According to some library employees, the pilfering of historical documents dates back to the 1970s, when President Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
began writing a book on Philippine history titled Iginuhit ng Tadhana (Drawn by Destiny), using as references library materials which were subsequently not returned. Having suspected widespread pilferage upon assuming the directorship in 1992, then-Director Adoracion B. Mendoza sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation in recovering the stolen items. Some 700 items were recovered from an antique shop in Ermita and Bayhon was arrested. Although convicted of theft in July 1996, Bayhon was sentenced in absentia and still remains at large. The chief of the Filipiniana Division at the time, Maria Luisa Moral, who was believed to be involved in the scandal, was dismissed on September 25, but subsequently acquitted on May 29, 2008. Following Bayhon's arrest, Mendoza made several appeals calling on the Filipino people to return items pilfered from the library's collections without criminal liability. Around eight thousand documents, including the original copy of the Philippine Declaration of Independence
Philippine Declaration of Independence
The Philippine Declaration of Independence occurred on June 12, 1898 in Cavite II el Viejo , Cavite, Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of Independence, Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the...
among others, were subsequently returned to the library by various persons, including some six thousand borrowed by a professor of the University of the Philippines
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...
.
In 1995, the National Library launched its local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
, consisting of a single file server and four workstations, and subsequently its online public access catalog (named Basilio, after the character in Rizal's novels) in 1998, as well as its website on March 15, 2001. Following the retirement of Mendoza in 2001, Prudenciana C. Cruz
Prudenciana Cruz
Prudenciana Comiling Cruz is the sixteenth director of the National Library of the Philippines, having acceded to the position on December 7, 2001...
was appointed director and has overseen the continued computerization of its facilities, including the opening of the library's Internet room on July 23, 2001. That same year, the library began digitization of its collections, with an initial 52,000 pieces converted into a digital format. This digitization was one of the factors which led to the birth of the Philippine eLibrary, a collaboration between the National Library and the University of the Philippines, the Department of Science and Technology
Department of Science and Technology (Philippines)
The Philippines' Department of Science and Technology , abbreviated as the DOST, is the executive department of the Philippine Government responsible for the coordination of science and technology-related projects in the Philippines and to formulate policies and projects in the fields of science...
, the Department of Agriculture
Department of Agriculture (Philippines)
The Philippines' Department of Agriculture , abbreviated as DA, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for boosting the income of farmers as well as reducing the incidence of poverty in the rural sector, as stipulated inthe Government's Medium Term Philippine...
and the Commission on Higher Education
Commission on Higher Education (Philippines)
The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines, , abbreviated as CHED. The CHED is attached to the Office of the President for administrative purposes...
, which was launched on February 4, 2004 as the Philippines' first digital library
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
. The Philippine President's Room, a section of the Filipiniana Division dedicated to works and documents pertaining to Philippine presidents, was opened on July 7, 2007.
On September 26, 2007, the National Library was reorganized into nine divisions per its rationalization plan.
Building
Ramon Magsaysay
Ramón del Fierro Magsaysay was the third President of the Republic of the Philippines from December 30, 1953 until his death in a plane crash in 1957. He was elected President under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.-Early life:Ramon F...
issued an executive order forming the José Rizal National Centennial Commission, entrusted with the duty of "erecting a grand monument in honor of José Rizal in the capital of the Philippines". The Commission then decided to erect a cultural complex in Rizal Park with a new building housing the National Library as its centerpiece, a memorial to Rizal as an advocate of education. To finance the construction of the new National Library building, the Commission conducted a nationwide public fundraising campaign, the donors being mostly schoolchildren, who were encouraged to donate ten centavos to the effort, and library employees, who each donated a day's salary. Because of this effort by the Commission, the National Library of the Philippines is said to be the only national library in the world built mostly out of private donations, and the only one built out of veneration to its national hero at the time of its construction.
Construction on the building's foundation began on March 23, 1960 and the superstructure on September 16. During construction, objections were raised over the library's location, claiming that the salinity of the air around Manila Bay would hasten the destruction of the rare books and manuscripts that would be stored there. Despite the objections, construction still continued, and the new building was inaugurated on June 19, 1961, Rizal's 100th birthday, by President Carlos P. Garcia
Carlos P. Garcia
Carlos Polistico García was a Filipino teacher, poet, orator, lawyer, public official, political economist and guerrilla leader...
, Magsaysay's successor.
The current National Library building, a six-storey, 110 feet (33.5 m) edifice, was designed by Hexagon Associated Architects and constructed at a cost of 5.5 million pesos
Philippine peso
The peso is the currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 centavos . Before 1967, the language used on the banknotes and coins was English and so "peso" was the name used...
. With a total floor area of 198000 square feet (18,394.8 m²), the library has three reading rooms and three mezzanines which currently occupy the western half of the second, third and fourth floors. Each reading room can accommodate up to 532 readers, or 1,596 in total for the entire building. The 400-seat Epifanio de los Santos Auditorium and a cafeteria are located on the sixth floor. There are also provisions for administrative offices, a fumigation room, an air-conditioned photography laboratory and printing room, two music rooms and an exhibition hall. The library's eight stack rooms have a total combined capacity of one million volumes with ample room for expansion. In addition to two staircases connecting all six floors, the National Library building is equipped with a single elevator, servicing the first four floors.
Part of the National Library building's west wing is occupied by the National Archives.
Collections
Incunabulum
Incunable, or sometimes incunabulum is a book, pamphlet, or broadside, that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe...
, the original manuscript of Lupang Hinirang
Lupang Hinirang
Lupang Hinirang is the national anthem of the Philippines. Its music was composed in 1898 by Julián Felipe, with lyrics in Spanish adapted from the poem Filipinas, written by José Palma in 1899....
(the Philippine national anthem), several sets of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, a collection of rare Filipiniana books previously owned by Tabacalera
Tabacalera
Tabacalera is a Spanish tobacco monopoly which was established in 1636, making it the oldest tobacco company in the world . In 1999 the company merged with SEITA of France to form Altadis. Its brands included Ducados and Fortuna....
, the Spanish tobacco monopoly, and the documents of five Philippine presidents. The most prized possessions of the National Library, which include Rizal's Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi último adiós, three of his unfinished novels and the Philippine Declaration of Independence, are kept in a special double-combination vault at the rare documents section of the Filipiniana Division's reading room.
A significant portion of the National Library's collections are composed of donations and works obtained through both legal deposit
Legal deposit
Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19 . Typically, the national library is one of the...
and copyright deposit due to the limited budget allocated for the purchase of library materials; the 2007 national budget allocation for the library allocated less than ten million pesos for the purchase of new books. The library also relies on its various donors and exchange partners, which numbered 115 in 2007, for expanding and diversifying its collections. The lack of a sufficient budget has affected the quality of the library's offerings: the Library for the Blind suffers from a shortage of books printed in braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
, while the manuscripts of Rizal's masterpieces have reportedly deteriorated due to the lack of funds to support 24-hour air conditioning to aid in its preservation.