DESPITE rapid technological innovation and the growing popularity of e-books, the UST Miguel de Benavides Library is confident that its services remain significant and relevant to its main clientele—students of the University.
Prefect of Libraries Fr. Angel Aparicio, O.P. said the library’s continuous acquisition of both traditional (printed) and modern (electronic) resources keeps it relevant.
“The library is using [a] variety of resources, from the traditional ones to the most modern ones. If the library is not using that, perhaps the library will become irrelevant,” he said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
Moreover, the Miguel de Benavides Library is in the process of digitizing its collections and has scanned and uploaded an estimate one million pages to its website.
“The problem is that we cannot [do it at] full blast because we lack personnel, but we are working on that. I think we already have [online] not only the heritage collection, but also the publications, especially the journals. We are going into that direction,” Fr. Aparicio said.
Pri-ann Tinapunan, a Library and Information Science professor at the College of Education, agreed and noted that the UST Library has a rich collection of rare books as well as printed and electronic resources.
“We are not only holding the latest resources for our students and users, but we are also holding historical and rare materials, which are preserved by the library for the next generation,” she said.
Fr. Aparicio encouraged Thomasians to use the library’s electronic resources like EBSCO, JSTOR, Taylor & Francis Online and Science Direct, all of which can be accessed remotely or on campus.
“Freshmen students receive general information. Throughout the year, we encourage faculty members and students to come to orientations, particularly on databases,” he said.
The library has 64 electronic journals, 19 electronic databases, four e-books databases, two local databases, and one on-trial database.
Thomasians may browse the library’s catalogue online through the UST Online Public Access Catalog. The library holds 265,816 titles and 361,899 volumes of books.
The UST Library is also planning to equip the soon-to-open UST Senior High School with a “paperless” or “bookless” library.
Limited resources
Ma. Theresa Lubang, head librarian of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, said a library’s stable technical infrastructure (website up-time) was of utmost importance, to allow students to use electronic resources effectively.
There are three criteria in acquiring new reference material, she said: the resource should be appropriate for teaching, curriculum development and research. Reference materials for teaching are those used by professors in their lesson plans. Curriculum development reference materials are those included in course syllabi and are recommended reading materials for the students. Research reference materials are for those in the graduate programs.
However, library budgets are limited, she said. Because libraries are not degree-granting institutions, they do not have alumni and therefore, donations rarely come in.
Libraries are also not yet prepared for disasters and recovery, citing libraries lost in the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda, Lubang said.
“There is no local expertise to restore and rebuild [libraries]. Staff lack registered and professional librarians. Sometimes, you will get non-professionals [and] you need to train them,” she added.
Training at UST
The UST Library contributes to the development of future library professionals by serving as a venue for training Library and Information Science undergraduates for one semester, said Tinapunan.
“We are very grateful [to the library] for allowing us to train our [students] there, because when they train for off-campus library practicum, [the students] are on their own. We are helping [the library] because they, too, are helping us,” she said.
Although the UST Library can compete with any academic library in the country, there is still much room for improvement, Fr. Aparicio said.
“We are aware of our shortcomings but given the budget that we have, I think we are working quite well,” he added.
Thomasians pay a library fee ranging from P1,000 to P2,500 per term. Revenues are used to acquire new reference materials as well as pay for electronic subscriptions and the maintenance of the library itself.
The number of books borrowed as of the beginning of the academic year increased to 13,904 from last year’s 13,619, data from the Miguel de Benavides Library showed. The Faculty of Arts and Letters borrowed the most books for the month of August, at 1,989 books or 14 percent of the total.
A total of 130,981 books were checked out in the previous academic year. The highest number of books borrowed was in October 2014, with 19,919 books checked out of the library that month. A cumulative number of 808,156 library users were recorded last academic year.
Built in the 17th century, beginning with the library of Miguel de Benavides, O.P., third archbishop of Manila and founder of UST, as well as those of Fr. Diego Soria and Hernando de los Rios Coronel, the UST Library is considered the oldest library in the Philippines. With reports from Mary Grace C. Esmaya
