Training Non-Librarians in Tagaytay City

The PhilAgriNet group from Los Banos left at about 2 PM on July 6. We reached the venue, the Hotel Kimberly at about 3 PM, with enough time to relish the scenic Taal Volcano along the way. I shared Room 312 with Connie Saul, the PhilAgriNet Vice Chair. Hotel Kimberly has nice, spacious, clean and comfortable facilities, with an impressive facade and friendly staff. It's located along the road going to Alfonso, Cavite. The hotel lobby is decorated with huge hanging native decors that simply catch the eyes as one enters the building. It has a moderately-sized pool and a smaller circular one (just didn't notice if that was a jacuzzi or a children's wading pool). Beside the pool are 2 huge slides with playground facilities. We had buffet breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for the duration of our stay. The PhilagriNet training workshop aims to equip non-librarians or DA information officers with enough skills which will enable them to document their research outputs and to contribute metadata to the PhilAgriNet database. There were about 30+ participants coming from all over the Philippines. The first session consisted of lectures about PhilAgriNet, the need to document Philippine agricultural literature, agricultural databases, selection and evaluation of materials for acquisition, basic indexing, the Dublin Core Metadata initiative (DCMI). I was assigned to lecture on basic indexing and the DCMI, which I find to be a little bit challenging as my audience were non-librarians. I tried to make my PowerPoint presentation as simple and concise as possible. I borrowed 3 slides from the FAO IMARK training module, which proved to be very effective as they have a very clear presentation of metadata. After my talk and that on subject indexing by Carme Austria, the participants were ready to go into actual descriptive indexing, which they did with minimal problems. The facilitators (I'm one of them) were there to assist all the time. After the day's sessions, the participants boarded 2 passenger jeepneys and a car for a brief tour of Tagaytay City. We visited the Pink Sisters' Convent, the Picnic Grove (for picture-taking with Taal Volcano at the background, horseback-riding, shopping for souvenirs), the Good Shepherd convent (noted for their famous ube jam, peanut brittle, cookies, assorted bread, halo-halo, bocayo, leche flan, etc.) and the Mahogany Market (for beef, dried fish, fruits, veggies, plants, etc.). There was a fellowship night after dinner. Many participants showed their talents in singing (with a videoke) and dancing. There were many surprise talents discovered that night, with lots of food, lite beer, cali, etc. Everybody had fun. The second day was devoted to more hands-on exercises using the newly issued laptops and the DSpace software. The session lasted till noon. After lunch, the closing ceremonies took place with each participant receiving their certificates. As per the response of one participant, they are hoping that a follow-up seminar would take place in the future. We (PhilAgriNet people) felt a sense of accomplishment after the activity. There will be another one slated in October this year, exclusively for PhilAgriNet members.