A different nightlife

There are two good reasons for me to be happy this week. One is the announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry that it will be opening three fabrication laboratories (FabLab) in Cebu province this year. The other reason is the 24/7 operation starting yesterday of the Rizal Memorial Library, also known as the Cebu City Public Library and Information Center.

Whenever I visit a city abroad, I always try to make sure I visit its public libraries and makerspaces. In Kaohsiung, Taiwan last year, my Taiwanese thesis adviser gave me an exclusive tour to a makerspace or FabLab of a state university.

In Singapore some years ago, I pleaded to my wife to allow me to stay and just wait for her at a public library inside one of the city-state's posh malls, while she was itching to explore a heritage site nearby.There, for hours, in that air-conditioned, cozyspace I snuggled down in a nice chair, eyes wide open, scanning through books about society and politics that probably I could never find anywhere else, not even on bookstores.

Our Cebu City library looks like a much modest version in comparison, but opening it 24/7 is already a good start. According to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who was acting on a suggestion made by netizen and student Mitch Robles, the 24/7 operation comes with an upgrade on the facilities like the provision of additional air-conditioning units, printer, copier, Wi-Fi, and snacks for sale.

"In the long term, other rooms throughout the building will be repurposed to give students doing group work a place to talk. The Sinulog Hall upstairs will also be renovated to give the library more reading space," Osmeña announced in his Facebook page.

It is reasonable to expect that more quality books and journals, both printed and electronic versions, will be offered as time and resources would allow.

Pundits may say that politics could be behind this move, a way to win over young, millennial voters. An accurate observation maybe, but isn't that how politicians should be-being perceptive to the needs of their constituents? The mayor himself or whoever is advising him is doing a good job because he seems to connect well to the younger demographic.

Let me share my experience when I was younger and studying for the bar exam. Back then I wished we had a 24/7 public library and study area, or at least one that closes a couple of hours past midnight. I did not enrol in any review school because I was pressed for time and needed all that time to review on my own. So I did my review at home but at the end of the day I was itching to talk and socialize with human beings who share my misery (a.k.a. fellow bar reviewees).

Back then, and even now, you could only find them during the evening in fancy coffee shops located near call centers or business process outsourcing establishments. The purpose of the talk was not really to study together (focused studying is best done alone), but to gauge one's progress during the review period and casually exchange notes on some important points of the subjects being studied.

With that "nightlife of learning," I now wish that the 24/7 operation of the city library will be kept up by the city's youth and will provide their learning needs. I especially hope it will help foster a subculture of creativity and learning at night and on weekends, pushing Cebu humbly closer to its goal as a competitive knowledge hub.

Not known to many, there is an amazing emerging learning environment and makerspace movement in Metro Cebu. The people behind it are committed to provide a collaborative and creative setting for the city's young and independent learners and makers who share ideas and create their own prototype projects from shared learning and working spaces, 3D printers, software and craft.

Some of their activities are scheduled at night because that is when many of the learners and makers are available after school or work. The Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) of the University of the Philippines Cebu, for example, offers regular Think Make Break sessions and workshops to the public.

On that note, I'm happy to know that DTI-Cebu is set to launch this year three more FabLabs in the province, one in each campus of Cebu Technological University in Tuburan, Danao and Argao. [email protected]