BORROWING books has become easier than ever.
To speed up the process of borrowing books, the Miguel de Benavides Library has installed a “self-checkout” machine although some glitches are still being fixed.
“Actually, we’re still on a dry-run period. There is a tendency that your friend will use your student number to check out books,” said Madonna Alonzo, head librarian of the circulation section.
The machine, located at the left side of the circulation section, allows library users to borrow books on their own by entering their student or identification numbers and swiping the barcode of the books under the built-in scanner. The machine does not require passwords or IDs.
“That is the first thing we are trying to configure—our ID system,” Alonzo said. “We’ll solve this as soon as possible.”
The circulation section conducts a monthly evaluation of overdue books, to help in cases such as when an ID number is used fraudulently by another person.
The library is also adjusting the barcodes of around 60 percent of the books—they must be placed on the lower right portion at the back of the books—so it they would read properly by the machine.
When scanning a book, the user must position it in such a way that the spine of the book would touch the “v-cut” portion of the machine to deactivate the metal strip inside—the strip that sets off the library door’s alarm when a book is brought out of the building without going through the circulation section.
Materials from the serials and old books sections cannot be borrowed.
The machine, which also displays the user’s library account data, will automatically print a receipt containing the due date information once a book is successfully checked out.
The circulation section can accommodate up to more than a hundred book borrowers per hour, with the queue reaching past the library elevator around 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“[At around] 11:00 a.m., some students are dismissed from their classes. And the Graduate School, in the afternoon. So starting 11:00, we’re already on cue,” Alonzo said.
The central library has 350,328 volumes and 258,310 book titles as of last academic year.
In the previous school year, 359,886 users visited the library in the first semester, while 312,260 did in the second semester.
The Faculty of Arts and Letters was still the library’s top book borrower with 21,630 records or 23.5 percent of book checkouts last semester; it was followed by the Faculty of Engineering with 7,241 records or 7.9 percent of book checkouts. The College of Fine Arts and Design was the third top book borrower with 6.7 percent or 6,135 book checkouts.
The Conservatory of Music borrowed the fewest books, at 0.7 percent or 631 book checkouts.
A student who borrows a book without the proper clearance will be required to sign a warning slip, to be forwarded to the Office for Student Affairs, to discourage the incidents.
“Usually, they (students) reason out that they are in a hurry. But we also have to protect the books,” Alonzo said.
Ever since the warning slip was issued, no student has committed the same offense twice, she said. Daphne J. Magturo
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