A golden age of library development: the social and political context of the Philippine Library in Manila in the early years of the twentieth century

Abstract

In this article I demonstrate that the Philippine Library in Manila fulfilled both public and national library roles during the early years of the American colonial regime. I also link these roles to a wider social and political context. The colonial government was unable to rule as it wished in the Philippines. The heavy resistance it faced at the dawn of its regime, resistance which continued throughout the American occupation, meant that it had to secure allies and make political compromises. It was this tension between American hegemony and Filipino collaboration and resistance that created the enabling conditions for a golden age of library development in the Philippines. The Americans saw a public library as an institution worth fostering for the help it could give in shaping Philippine society in its own image through the mechanism of education. The role of a national library was welcomed for a wider variety of reasons: the inculcation of a particular historical mindset and support for the further development of José Rizal as a moderate national hero. It also gave the colonists satisfaction that like their fellow empire-builders, the British, French, and Dutch, they too had unlocked the secrets of their colony’s past. All these were goals shared by elements of the Filipino elite as well. They also wanted a history and a past. And they also looked to Rizal as a worthy hero for their nation as they strove to wrest power from the colonisers and eventually obtain their independence.