Summary Library Profile
Our main mission
To instill the love of reading in our children, and other community members, and to make available to them, completely free,a wide selection of books, Internet-ready computers, and other library materials, facilities, services and programs, to both encourage and enable them to adopt reading — and library use — as lifelong habits for their personal development, entertainment, and overall well-being.
Establishment, funding, collection, facilities & services
The Dioso Library was inaugurated on April 2, 2004, and has operated continuously since then, opening its doors to the public six days a week.
It receives annual financial grants from the Provincial and Municipal Governments of Antique and Pandan, respectively, as well as cash and in-kind donations from private individuals, foundations and other institutions in the Philippines and abroad. The Dioso Family makes up the difference between its annual expenditure budget and the total financial grants and contributions received annually by the Library.
The Library is proud to be a full-service public library, offering — for the free use and benefit of the community — a wide and still growing collection of fiction, nonfiction, and “how-to” or self-help books; encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries, and other reference materials; Internet-ready computers; videotapes, DVDs, audio-books; as well as storytelling for children and other educational and cultural programs.
Special research facility
The Library is also proud to be the first library of its kind in the Western Visayas region appointed and equipped by the National Library of the Philippines (NLP) to serve as an official access station of the Philippine Electronic Library (”e-Lib”) Project. The e-Lib project provides post-graduate students and other serious researchers access to the electronic databases of the Philippines’ and the world’s libraries; digitized Filipiniana materials, including theses and dissertations; and the special collections of the NLP, the University of the Philippines, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Agriculture, and the Commission on Higher Education.
Lack of public libraries: A nationwide problem
Because of the lack of public libraries in Antique — a problem generally affecting the entire Philippines — the Dioso Library’s regular users include not only the residents of Pandan but also those of the neighboring towns in the province.
Philippine law (Republic Act 7743) calls for the establishment and operation of a public library in each of the 220 congressional districts, 81 provinces, 131 cities, and 1,497 municipalities — or a total of 1,929 libraries in all — in the country. Currently, according to the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), there are only 861 public libraries of all kinds in the country. Reflecting this nationwide problem, only three of Antique’s 18 towns has a library, and the Dioso Library is the only municipal library in the northern half of the province, an area comprising 7 towns with a total population of about 139,000.) More on the Library
Generally regarded as the greatest of all U.S. Presidents, Abraham Lincoln was born poor and could afford only a total of 18 months’ schooling. However, he was a lover of books, reading every book he could get his hands on, once walking 20 miles (32 kms.) just to borrow one. His wide and extensive reading accomplishments included mastering the Bible, Shakespeare, and English and American history. In addition to being a successful lawyer and politician, he was an accomplished public speaker, often leaving his audience in rapt attention and in awe at the power and eloquence of his words and ideas. As President, he is hailed for, among other achievements, preserving the Union during the American Civil War and for beginning the process, through his Emancipation Proclamation, that led to the end of slavery in the United States. His “Gettysburg Address”, “House Divided Speech”, and “Second Inaugural Address”, which he personally wrote and delivered during his Presidency, rank among the greatest speeches ever made in history.
