In line with its mandate to promote evidence-based studies and policymaking, state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) inaugurated its 25th PIDS Corner at the main library of the Sorsogon State College (SSC) last December.
PIDS Vice President Marife Ballesteros, who delivered the remarks of bequest on behalf of PIDS President Gilberto Llanto, said this is the second PIDS Corner in the Bicol Region with the first one installed at Bicol University in Legazpi City in 2009.
Ballesteros noted that by putting up PIDS Corners in select provincial libraries and university-based libraries in areas outside Metro Manila, the Institute will be able to reach and encourage more students to read and use its published studies as references in their research, dissertations, or papers.
“We also hope to influence legislators in making informed decisions and equip them with knowledge needed to formulate effective policies through our publications,” she added.
“The PIDS Corner is our way of helping promote education and research in the country, especially in the localities, as we aim to make PIDS studies and researches more accessible and relevant to both policymakers and the general public,” she explained.
The SSC, on the other hand, was represented by Vice President for Administration Alberto Naperi, who stood in for SSC President Modesto Detera.
In his acceptance remarks, Naperi thanked PIDS for introducing and bringing the knowledge hub in Sorsogon.
“Thank you for delivering these services to the province of Sorsogon and we hope that this will be the start of a new partnership and new projects especially in research,” he said.
Naperi also underscored that SSC shares the objectives of PIDS in disseminating evidence-based studies, not only in economics, but also in other fields of development.
“SSC has the same goals as you; we want to discover knowledge and share it with the people of Sorsogon,” he stressed.
Ballesteros and Naperi, as representatives of both SSC and PIDS presidents, signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the PIDS Corner. The signing was witnessed by Dr. Sheila Siar, director for research information department of PIDS, and Erlinda Enguerra, SCC college librarian.
Siar discussed the various online resources of PIDS during the inauguration, such as the PIDS website, social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the PIDS UPDATES monthly e-newsletter, and the Socioeconomic Research Portal for the Philippines (SERP-P).
As of November 2017, SERP-P contains more than 5,000 socioeconomic materials produced by PIDS and other academic and research institutions in the Philippines, including international organizations. These materials consist of books, journal articles, policy notes, newsletters, and periodicals, among others.
The PIDS Corner is one of the Institute’s strategies to disseminate its research outputs to its target audiences, such as policymakers/legislators, researchers, educators, students, and the public in general.
