Faculty members, students, and alumni of the UP School of Library and Information Studies participated in the recently concluded 2023 International Forum on Data Information and Knowledge (IFDIK) hosted by the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and National Central Library, Taipei, Taiwan on December 4-7, 2023. IFDIK brings together three events which are the Asia-Pacific iConference, International Conference on Asia-Pacific Digital Libraries (ICADL), and the Asia-Pacific Library and Information, Education and Practice (A-LIEP) Conference. The forum was attended by educators, practitioners, and researchers in librarianship and information science from all over the world with majority coming from the Asia-Pacific. The forum was mainly an in-person event, but online facilities were set-up to accommodate participants who can not make it to Taiwan due to various circumstances.
Asst. Prof. Kathleen Lourdes B. Obille was among those who welcomed the participants on December 5, 2023, along with Prof. Frank Yung-Hsiang Ying the Executive Vice President of National Taiwan Normal University, Dr. Shu-Hsien Tseng, Director General of National Central Library and co-chair for IFDIK 2023, Prof. Dion Goh of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and PC Co-Chair of ICADL 2023, and Prof. Hao-Ren Ke of National Taiwan Normal University, and Co-Chair of IFDIK 2023. She is the Chair of the A-LIEP Steering Committee since 2019 and is also the co-chair for the Program Committee of the A-LIEP Conference. She has been a member of the A-LIEP steering committee since after the UPSLIS hosted the A-LIEP Conference here in the Philippines in 2015.
Assoc. Prof. Iyra S. Buenrostro-Cabbab is one of the mentors during the Asia Pacific iConference Doctoral Symposium and A-LIEP Ideathon as she was among the first batch of participants for the Ideathon when it was launched during the A-LIEP Conference in 2015 held here in the Philippines. The Doctoral Symposium and Ideathon are both venues for collaboration among postgraduate students and mentors within the region for their research endeavors.
Francis Kim Tanay, Dominique de Guzman, Ian Dominic Sipin, Simon Philip Sacramento, and Aiza Palaya, BLIS alumni; Marvin Factor, MLIS Student; Faye Labiano and April Manabat, MLIS alumna presented their respective papers in the A-LIEP and ICADL Conferences. Asst. Profs. Yhna Therese P. Santos, Mark Antony A. Santos, Dan Anthony D. Dorado, also presented either in parallel sessions or panel discussions. Asst. Prof. Rhea Rowena U. Apolinario co-presented with her advisee and was also there in her capacity as Dean to represent the UP SLIS in the AP-iSchool business meeting. It is also worth noting that the Philippine delegation has the most number of participants for the forum. It was a productive 4-day conference showcasing the contribution of the participants to research and scholarship in LIS within the Asia-Pacific Region with opportunities for networking and collaboration within and among LIS educators and practitioners.
Francis Kim Tanay co-authored with Asst. Prof. Apolinario in their paper The Level of Awareness on Plagiarism and Impact of Anti-Plagiarism Tools of Senior High School Students Taking the Academic Track for the A-LIEP Session on Information Literacy. Digital Literacy, Data Literacy, Media Literacy. The study shows that senior high school students from Naga are aware of plagiarism and its facets along with the tools relating to this. Also, according to the study, their awareness positively impacts their actions in preventing plagiarism. However, there are differences in the level of awareness depending on the tracks of the students, thus the study recommends that further teaching of plagiarism and its effects be done in all tracks.
Dominique de Guzman presented her paper entitled Pet Parents on Spotlight: Information Behavior of Filipino Pet Owners. Her study shows that despite pet owners’ acknowledgement of the authority of veterinarians and animal health journals they still make use of the internet as their primary source of information. This is due to the accessibility of the internet compared to veterinarians, animal health journals, and other more authoritative information sources. She presented in the A-LIEP Session on Information Seeking and Behavior alongside Simon Philip Sacramento and Ian Dominic Sipin who co-authored with Clark Anthony Trovela in their paper Sexual Beliefs of Librarians and Its Impact on the Satisfaction and Healthcare Practice of Users of Philippine Health Sciences Libraries: A Mixed Method Study. Their found that the sexual beliefs of the librarians did not affect the sexual health information offered in their libraries, that the collection is built based on the user needs. The study employed the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale (BSAS), interviews, and collection development policy analysis.
Faye Labiano and Aiza Palaya co-authors of the paper entitled Understanding the Lived Experiences of Displaced Library Workers during the Pandemic using the CHIME Framework. Their paper presents the psychosocial aspects of library work that have affected the workers. It also identified workplace injustices that arose during the pandemic. The study also documented how the affected workers were able to recover amid the challenges and difficulties that they faced.
Asst. Prof. Dan Anthony Dorado’s paper entitled Bridging the Gap: UPSLIS as a Catalyst for Reproducible Research and Data Literacy presented in the A-LIEP Session on Digital Humanities, AI, and Big Data. The paper presents the initiatives of the UPSLIS in making data available for reproducible research. Such initiatives include sharing research data which can be used for further research. Aside from sharing data, producing, and making available high-quality videos in relation to data scholarship was also done. While the paper highlights the initiatives of UPSLIS, it also calls for more efforts for data sharing and upskilling of LIS professionals along these lines.
Marvin Factor and April Manabat co-authored with Josephine Maghari and Yogusto Balasbas for an ICADL paper entitled Emerging Trends in Content Management Systems (CMSs) for Library Websites. A Study of Selected Academic Libraries in the Philippines. They discussed the pros and cons of the CMSs used by selected academic libraries in terms of how these assisted in the research, learning, and information dissemination.
Aside from paper presentations, the A-LIEP conference also featured Panels on LIS Pedagogy, which was started in 2021. The aim of the panel was to bring together LIS educators to discuss matters relating to pedagogy, tenure, promotion, and other matters relating to LIS education. This year, there were two panel discussions one on archives education and another on health literacy instruction. The Pedagogy Panel on Archives include Assoc. Prof. Iyra S. Buenrostro-Cabbab and her fellow panel members Naya Sucha-Xaya, Lecturer from Chulalongkorn University and Nordiana Mohd Nordin, Senior Lecturer from Universi Teknology MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. They discussed about the archives education in their respective countries, their relationship with their respective National Archives, as well as the future directions of their programs. The other panel was on health education literacy with Asst. Profs. Mark Anthony A. Santos, Kathleen Lourdes B. Obille, and Yhna Therese P. Santos discussing programs and courses on consumer health information, health information seeking practices, and health information literacy and how these are supported and implemented within the UPSLIS LIS program. Both panels generated a good starting point for the discussion of these topics in the community.
The UPSLIS, through Dean Rhea Rowena U. Apolinario also placed its bid as the host for the next IFDIK. With the Philippines having the most number of participants during the forum, it would be an honor to welcome the three conferences to the Philippines in 2025.
Published: 2023-12-20 10:20:07