Money and leadership : a study of theses on public school libraries submitted to the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Library and Information Science

The biggest challenge facing public school librarians in the Philippines today is the thought that there is no money to pay for the improvements that need to be made. This mindset is reflected in the findings, conclusions or recommendations made by graduate and undergraduate students who focused on public school libraries in theses submitted from 1940 onward at the University of the Philippines (UP). Their solution: the government should allot a regular budget for public school libraries. After all of these years, it is time perhaps to accept that the government does not consider public school libraries a priority in the allocation of scarce resources. But why is it that despite government neglect, some public school libraries have flourished, while most have remained the same? Could it be that there are other factors that need to be considered aside from money? As seen in the case of the two most developed public secondary school libraries in the Third District of Quezon City, leadership is also very important. After all, two individuals given similar amounts of money will not necessarily achieve similar goals. The word “leadership,” however, appears in only one of the abstracts of 19 theses on public school libraries submitted from 1940-2005. This lone thesis is the basis for this paper