Licensing and Library
Legislation:
The Philippine Experience
Thelma S. Kim
Regional Conference on Libraries, Archives
and Museums
in conjunction with the 25th Anniversary of
Brunei Darussalam Library Association
November 30-December 2, 2011


Libraries in the Philippines were established in
the 1500s
i.e. convents and churches e.g. San Agustin
Convent in Manila
Requisites of a profession
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Body of Knowledge
Body of Literature
Professional Associations
System of Education
Ethical Code
Process of Certification, and Licensing
Laws\Library Legislation

Definition: Library legislation is defined as laws
setting up and regulating individual libraries
particular categories of library or the whole
library system of a state. Library legislation is
also laws that define, support or delimit some
particular activity or activities of libraries
(International Encyclopedia of Information and
library, 2003, p 383)
RA 6966 or Philippine
Librarianship Act of 1990.

It provided for the professionalization of Filipino
Librarians, the creation of the Board for Librarians
to regulate the practice of the profession, and to
provide guidelines for the licensure examination
for librarians, and the implementation for the Code
of Ethics for librarians (Versoza, 2003, p. 2319)
 Change
of the old Philippine
Library Association, Inc. (PLAI)
to Philippine Librarians
Association, Inc. (PLAI) but
retaining the acronym PLAI for
SEC registration
RA 9246 Philippine
Librarianship Act of 2003
Objectives:
a) National examination of licensure,
Registration of librarians, issuance of
Certificate of Registration, and Professional
Identification Card
b) Supervision, control, and regulation of the
practice of Librarianship
RA 9246 Philippine
Librarianship Act of 2003
c) Integration of librarians under one national
organization; and
d) Development of professional competence of
librarians
Coverage of the licensure
examination
1.
2.
3.
Selection and acquisition of
multimedia sources of
information
Cataloging ad classification
Abstracting and Indexing
Coverage of the licensure
examination
1.
Reference, Bibliography, and Information
Science
2.
3.
4.
Organization, management, and
development and maintenance of multimedia based library or information services,
laws, trends and practices affecting the
profession; and
Information technology
The “Grandfather’s clause”
 The
grandfather’s clause is a
provision allowing the issuance of
a Certificate of Registration, and
Professional Identification Card
without the licensure examination
PLAI lobbied in both
houses of Congress for
the passage of RA 6966
then RA 9246
PLAI as the integrated national Association of
librarians will continue to be the sentinel and
vanguard in seeing to it that the dignity,
honor, and prestige of the profession is
observed, and that the highest degree of
professionalism among its members is
upheld