Brief History

The Quezon City Public Library started as a small unit, a joint venture of the National Library and Quezon City government during the incumbency of the late Mayor Ponciano Bernardo and the first City Superintendent of Libraries, Atty. Felicidad Peralta by virtue of Public Law No. 1935 which provided for the “consolidation of all libraries belonging to any branch of the Philippine Government for the creation of the Philippine Library”, and for the maintenance of the same.

Side by side with the physical and economic development of Quezon City officials particularly the late Mayor Bernardo envisioned the needs of the people. Realizing that the achievements of the goals of a democratic society depends greatly on enlightened and educated citizenry, the Quezon City Public Library, was formally organized and was inaugurated on August 16, 1948, with Aurora Quezon, as a guest of Honor and who cut the ceremonial ribbon.

As the city grew, the library services have to expand in order to cope with the needs of the increasing library patrons.

When the QC Hall building was constructed in January 1972, the Main Library was transferred to the ground floor of the new building in April 1976, still under the stewardship of Mayor Amoranto and stayed there for ten (10) years.

The Quezon City Public Library (main), during this period, is one of the biggest public library maintained by a city government in Metro Manila. The reading area is composed of the Reference Section, Children’s Section, Law Research Unit, Filipiniana and Local History Collections, the Periodical Section. The former conference room was converted into a technical working area where books are processed for the use in the reading area, a binding section where back issues of important publications and worn-out books and other reading materials are bound for future reference and research, and the Administrative Services which include records and property and supplies and finance.

During the term of Mayor Adelina S. Rodriguez, two (2) branch libraries were opened which increased total number of branch libraries from eight (8) to ten (10) operating in the city.

The administration of Mayor Brigido Simon, Jr. (1986-1991) provided the whole building with air conditioning units making it more conducive to learning. Also, more than one million (1,000,000.00) worth of books were purchased.

During her term four (4) branch libraries were opened to the public. More activities and projects were intensified like book distribution, storytelling sessions, exhibits, declamation contest, etc.

On June 17, 1994, the existence of Public Libraries was improved thru the approval of RA # 7743, which is an “Act for the establishment of Congressional, City and Municipal libraries and Barangay reading centers throughout the Philippines, appropriating the necessary funds.”

The building that was untouched neither renovated nor enhanced, for the past 21 years was fully renovated in 2003.

Thus, for the 3 years of the Belmonte administration, the City Library has continuously updated its book collections by a total of 1089 volumes purchased. It was also during his administration that the vision of the Quezon City Public Library was fulfilled, which is “to provide the library users with facilities where they can use the latest technologies like internet and multi – media to enhance research and facilities information access and retrieval.

Ten (10) computer units were being used by the users for the internet and three (3) units were used for the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), which serves the bibliographic index for the library collections.

Today, QCPL has now its own program/system, the Open Biblio, which has different modules like the OPAC, Circulation and Cataloguing modules, and also has its own website which contains information about the QCPL and its branches, and also about information and history of Quezon City.

QCPL is now intensifying the E-Library project in congruent to Quezon City as Information Technology Capital of the Philippines.

In January 2014, a portion of the former space of the MIS was converted into a coffee shop named “Café@Lib”. It is a concept wherein a reader can read books or magazines over a cup of coffee. The mini conference room was utilized to be MIS section.

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