More than 150 teacher and librarians attended the NBDB’s Booklatan sa Bayan program held in Cotabato City and Iloilo City early this year. Series of training events and lectures were held in the two key cities that include readership development, storytelling, and copyright concerns.

The Booklatan sa Cotabato is part of the NBDB and World Bank Knowledge for Development Center Booklatan program partnership in 2009. It was held on March 1-3 at the Notre Dame University in Cotabato City. The participants comprised of faculty teachers and librarians of the NDU and all of its annex campuses, and teachers from the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato, and those from the cities of Tacurong City, Kidapawan City, and Koronadal.

A total of sixty-five that include journalists and day care volunteers attended the Booklatan sa Iloilo training on book-based storytelling. The program was in partnership with the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps Inc. and was held on March 27 at the DepEd Iloilo Division Office.

Invited speakers for the Booklatan program were Dr. Elena Cutiongco for readership development, Tony Yanza for storytelling, and Atty. Mark Robert Dy of Intellectual Property Philippines for the session on Copyright issues.

The NBDB continues to reach out the countryside communities to promote the importance of books and having a lifelong reading habit. The program also aims to promote Philippine-authored books and Filipino authors.