3 JANUARY

Old National Library

1908 - The Philippine Public Library (future National Library) is  established during the American colonial period under Act No. 1849  through the initiative of Filipino biographer, historian, bibliographer, and journalist Manuel Artigas y Cuerva; Act No. 1849 contemplates the consolidation of all government libraries, authorizes the creation of special classes of superior instruction for municipal and Insular teachers, and appropriates P50,000 for such purpose; the nucleus of the Philippine Public Library is the colonial American Circulating Library Division that was created as a memorial to the imperialist American servicemen who lost their lives in the Spanish-American War.

1922 - Filipino biographer, historian, bibliographer, and journalist Manuel Artigas y Cuerva is reappointed Director of the Public Library  Filipiniana Division of the American Circulating Library during the  American colonial period; Cuerva's initiative was earlier responsible for  the establishment of the Philippine Public Library (future National  Library) in 1908; Artigas was a Spanish mestizo who worked for the government and engaged in journalism during the Spanish colonial times, writing for Diario de Manila, El Amigo del Pueblo, and later publishing "El Municipio Filipino" and "Diccionario Tecnico-historico de la Administracion de Filipinas"; during the reign of the imperialist Americans, he published or authored works considered lacking in analysis but nevertheless valuable for their historical/document values such as "Los Sucesos de 1872 (1911)," and "Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte," "Historia de la Instruccion Publica en Filipinas" 1914), and "Bibliografia MedicoFarmaceutica de Filipinas" (1915).

Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sdddd.JPG