Photo featured: Reading stations at the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. (file photo, taken in February 2022)

Just as with most establishments for the past two years, the UP Center for Ethnomusicology closed its physical doors and instead focused on strengthening and expanding its online services and transactions. Requests for research materials were continuous, and the UPCE staff worked onsite in order to deliver these materials to the requesters through online means. However, with the more lenient guidelines under IATF Alert Level One, onsite visits and services are once again available.

As the UPCE Director and College of Music dean Dr. LaVerne David. C de la Peña relates, the College of Music complex made up of the Abelardo Hall and the Jose Maceda Hall has “received the safety seal and can therefore proceed with limited face-to-face activities and receive [onsite] visitors”. With the prospect of students returning to the campus, it is necessary to prepare to receive them into the facilities. 

“These library spaces are safe and quiet, and a suitable environment for research,” shares Ms. Grace Buenaventura, the UPCE librarian. These are allotted for the use of students and faculty who wish to access the resources of the UPCE Collection. “In order to anticipate onsite visitors to the UPCE, we have arranged the reading spaces and facilities according to the guidelines recommended by the UP Diliman COVID-19 Task Force. Likewise, we have adjusted our service timelines and processes to encourage an appointments-only scheme. Visitors to the UPCE are limited to a maximum of only four (4) people at a time.”

There are some limits to onsite services. First, staff do not report physically to the center all five days of the week. Not all staff are ready to service requests at a single time. Second, urgent requests are harder to handle. Requests should be sent in at least 3 days prior. Third, while visitors are most welcome, drop-ins are difficult to accommodate on the spot. Visits should be scheduled in advance.

There have been several visitors over the past months since the UPCE resumed onsite services. These were for various purposes including film documentation, consultations with the digital media archivist regarding audio digitization, and for leisure reading. Just recently, Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University, Noah Rosen visited the center and inquired about the work and the projects the UPCE is involved in, especially those which are ethnographic in nature.

Dr. de la Peña emphasized that the work of the center cannot stop. In administration alone, several reports and documents go through the center for various operational procedures which support all ongoing research projects. As for archival work, he states that “the valuable collection of the center needs to be constantly looked after to make sure it is safe and secure, particularly the digital files. The work of improving access to the library and the collection via the webpage has to go on. The work of organizing information (metadata) is non-stop.”

In research and outreach, remote platforms played a huge role in the continuity of these activities. Workshops on community archives, collaborations with local experts on transcribing and translating recordings, and organization of repatriation of recordings to communities are some key projects. In the past two years as well, Dr. de la Peña says that the UPCE is “active in organizing and participating in ethno-related conferences and seminars.”

In the interview, we asked Dr. de la Peña , what are you looking forward to for the center in the next six months?

“In the next six months, the center will continue work in establishing a community based archival center in Sagada. We are also looking at setting up an exhibit on Jose Maceda and William Henry Scott centering on a harpsichord that they shared. We will be hosting an international gathering of the Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSeas) partners in August. We are also looking to sending some of our staff to various sound archives in Europe in relation to DeCoSeas. Finally, we are continuing to improve our facilities by finally furnishing it to become the truly world class research facility that we have envisioned.”

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Planning your visit? These are the guidelines for onsite services. Email upethno.upd@up.edu.ph to schedule your visit.