cebuano studies center

My main reason for coming to Cebu was to visit the Cebuano Studies Center (CSC), housed at the University of San Carlos (USC). Opened in 1975, CSC is the oldest of the local studies centers. It primarily collects materials on the province of Cebu--its history, people, and traditions. It also collects some materials on the Visayas region. In large part due to the center, USC now offers graduate certificates in Cebuano heritage.

Here are some pictures of the center. (I apologize for the fuzziness. My camera lens was fuzzy during the first part of the morning.)

I met with the Director of CSC, Erlinda Alburo. I had been interested in meeting her for over ten years, way before I ever thought of going to library school. My first graduate degree is in folklore, and Linda pretty much has written most of the books on Cebuano folklore. So you can see why I'd be interested in meeting her.

Because we have the same last name, even back then, people always asked if we were related. When I was preparing for this trip and when I visited the first few local studies centers, everyone kept asking me if we were related. And I always answered that I didn't know. So I thought that I'd finally get the answer to this question, too, once we met. I'm not sure that I really got a clear answer to the question. It turns out that Alburo is her married name, and it seems that her husband and my father may be related.

Anyway, here is a picture of the two of us.

After talking with Linda about the center, I met with the librarian of CSC, Mary Alan Mae Oral, who told me about how she goes about acquiring new materials.