SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES : SHAPING AND SHARING THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL LEARNING Rina Hemedez Diaron / Marilou L. Pasion One of the missions of Saint Louis University Libraries is to support student pursuits for academic success as faculty endeavors for knowledge creation and classroom instruction. While digital technologies continue to transform the environment for teaching, learning and research, library patrons information needs are evolving steadily. To best serve these needs, SLU LIBRARIES serve not only as a repository of print but also a repository of knowledge which has no physical existence but exists electronically textual, graphical, audio and video components which will be of intellectual benefit to library patrons. The libraries electronic journal subscription continues to improve and update to satisfy library patrons information needs. EBSCO Academic Search Premier that is now Academic Source Premier was adopted to attain flexibility to better enhance the database which continues to grow through the full text content additions. This database offers indeces and abstracts, publications including monographs, reports and conference proceedings. It also covers scholarly collection with unmatched full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study. In addition, the Inside This Issue: Editorial / Thinking Sideways p.2 Director Diaron Spots Potential Officers-in-Charge p.2 Library Building Houses Digital Arts Laboratory p.5 SLU Administrators Phases Out Textbook Section p.5 Dr. Vanhoutte Expounds on Library-Business Relationships p.6 US Cultural Affairs Officer Visits SLU p.7 The Latest Book in the Rack! p.8 Kudos p.8 Web interface of Librisource and EBSCO (Continued on page4)
Editorial Thinking Sideways Library automation has brought about diverse opportunities for libraries and librarians. One of these opportunities is that a library can truly be an entrepreneurial event. To make this happen, librarians are to think sideways. Thinking sideways according to an author, is thinking beyond our habitual frameworks to come up with innovations and new directions. The author says that this involves four thinking tasks. The first task is to think analytically about what we notice in our work contexts. This means analyzing which issues and tasks most often attract our attention and act on them in a way that our patrons are comfortable with them. Another task is to think about library services in terms of change, that is, on the technologies of librarianship and on innovation adoption. Thinking creatively is a task wherein we check our assumptions and strategies because we are to focus on brains more than books, response more than restrictions, partnership more than power and performance more than promise. Another task still, is to think creatively about just about everything in the areas of terminology and roles in the academic institution. As an example, transformation terminology has come up with terms for the librarian like information specialist and reference librarian. For the roles of the librarian in the academe, he/she is named as guidance counselor, trainor and information disseminator. The SLU information specialists have been employing these four tasks but were not very visible due to lack of emphasis. Giving a deeper attention to these four tasks, integrating and emphasizing them in the daily routine, much more, coming up with a kind of evaluation as to the application of these tasks in the work, will undoubtedly make each member of the staff aware of his/her potentials, and the potentials of the patrons in making the library an entrepreneurial event to strongly support the university. DIRECTOR DIARON SPOTS POTENTIAL OFFICERS-IN-CHARGE Director Rina Hemedez Diaron must have an eagle s eye and a strong sense for the future of the library for having spotted two members of her staff who are potential officers-in-charge and made them take the director s chair during her absence to prove their mettle. The two are Mrs. Emily Gumangan and Mrs. Elizabeth Gumanlaw. Obvious to the majority of the library staff, Gumangan and Gumanlaw are esteemed for their knowledge, skills and management abilities in their respective assignments: Gumanlaw for the Technical Services and Gumangan for the Reader Services. Mrs. Gumanlaw, Chief Cataloger and overseer of the Technical Section was appointed by the director as the Officer-in-Charge from August, 2007 until February, 2008. Gumanlaw graduated in SLU with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (BSE) major in Library Science and minor in Pilipino in 1989. She was a Library Working Scholar in the different sections of the library for four years while studying. Upon graduation, she landed a job as a substitute librarian at the SLU Laboratory Elementary School then was taken in as a Reference Section Head Librarian of the SLU Libraries. The development of the Reference Library from a close stack into an open shelf system and the creation of the Geographical Services room are her notable contributions for the improvement of the section. Before leaving the Reference Library, she took and passed the very first Board Examinations for Librarians in 1992. She was then transferred to the Science 2 Elizabeth D. Gumanlaw OIC, Libraries August 2007-February 2008
Nursing Library where she handled mostly the technical part of the work due to the separation of the Nursing Library from the Natural Sciences Library. After her brief stay in this section, she was again transferred to the Graduate/ Filipiniana Library. This time, she focused on the distribution of the Graduate-Filipiniana collection to all the different sections of the library due to the phasing out of the SLU Graduate School. At the beginning of the computerization of the library, Mr. Virgilio C. Fuerte, then Director of Libraries, saw in Mrs. Gumanlaw the quality needed to handle the Technical Section and at the same time the Filipiniana Section. With these assignments, coupled with the incessant problems brought about by computerization of the technical processing involved in the University Libraries, Mrs. Gumanlaw persevered in handling both sections with equal dexterity. With Mrs. Diaron as the Director of Libraries, Mrs. Gumanlaw s role was streamlined into solely handling the Technical Section to concentrate in the organization, supervision and management of the different phases of the work, namely: getting books from the different sections for reclassification, classifying new books, collation of new books, downloading, cataloging, accessioning, labeling, encoding in the Follett Library Management Software, card formatting, checking, covering of books and filing cards. Today, the Technical Section, one of the two main services of the SLU Libraries, is in its true shape. Asked as to what she perceives as an ideal technical section, Mrs. Gumanlaw said that, trained licensed librarians should be employed and that technical processing be fully automated. On the other hand, Mrs. Emily Gumangan was appointed Officer-in-Charge for the period covering October to December, 2006 and June to July, 2007 during the director s absence. Mrs. Gumangan started her career at SLU Boys High School just after her graduation from SLU in 1982. After a one-year stint in the school, she was taken in at the SLU Libraries as a Section Head of the Medical/Nursing and Allied Sciences Library in 1983-1985. As a new library then, the collection of the Medical/Nursing and Allied Sciences Library needed to be well organized for easier access of users. The merging of the collection of the Medical/Nursing and that of the Allied Sciences Library (Medicine, Biology, Medical Technology, Pharmacy and Associate in Radiologic Technology) was an advantage because all the books can be found in one section. After sometime, the Medical students requested for a separate library to house their collection and for a more solemn place to study. Consequently, a medical library was organized at the 2 nd floor, right wing of the library building where the Emily S. Gumangan OIC, Libraries October-December 2006 June-July 2007 SLU Museum is presently housed. Mrs. Gumangan spearheaded the organization of the said library and proposed that it adopts the open shelf system as this would give maximum access to the students. At this point, Mrs. Gumangan took the Board Examination for Librarians in 1994 and passed it. When Mrs. Thelma Kim, section head of the Engineering Library left the library for a teaching position, Mrs. Gumangan was chosen to take over. From the Engineering Library, Mrs. Gumangan was assigned to handle the Law Library. She observed that the law students had a hard time researching about new laws and cases that were not yet published in the Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA). This made her decide to index the Official Gazette and arranged them chronologically by numbers. This is still practiced today. Mrs. Gumangan also moved for the open shelf system for the law students to have more freedom in browsing and in choosing the materials they needed. She left the Law Library more organized and systematic. As Mrs. Gumangan was handling the Law Library, she was simultaneously handling the American Studies Resource Center. She maintained the good services of this library. Upon the retirement of Miss Natividad Manarang, Mrs. Gumangan took over as the Section Head of the Main Library where she initiated the simplification of the procedure in seeking for a clearance from the different sections. At present, anyone seeking for a clearance need not go to the different sections for the signature of each library staff but goes directly to the 5 th Floor Library for a clearance. The 5 th Floor Library houses the collection from 000-599- Generalities, Psychology, Philosophy and Library Science. Interviewed as to what essential traits a reader service librarian must possess, she replied: In addition to knowledge and skills, I go for good personal relationship, keeping the human touch and a good sense of management and organization for these spell out total library service. 3
SLU Libarries: Shaping and Sharing... (Continued from page 1) world s definitive scholarly Business Search Premier which is now Business Source Premier that provides the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content of a scholarly business database with a supplemental Regional Business News. It contains daily updates and comprehensive full text for regional business publications. Aside from these, library patrons who like to access EBSCO Host Research Databases will no longer submit a letterrequest for the said purpose but they only have to sign the ready form for EBSCO account which is available at the Office of the Director of Libraries. Likewise, SLU Libraries is fortunate to have the LibriSource, a tool that was developed by the K.U. Leuven to facilitate management of electronic information sources such as websites, databases and e-journals and to provide an easy way of accessing them in a web environment. Some of the e-journals available contain materials dated as early as the 19 th century, others from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Highwire Sample of EBSCO account request form Press and Chicago University Press. The application makes use of a structured database in which a bibliographic description of electronic sources has been integrated as well as data about access to these sources making information retrieval easy and convenient to the library patrons inside the SLU-IP range. SLU Librarians had the opportunity to attend an orientation about LibriSource given by Prof. Raf Dekeyser, the software developer himself. Moreover, SLU Libraries offered a seminar workshop on touch screen technology, electronic journals and electronic books in November 2007 as part of the National Library and Information Month Celebration attended by the different heads of offices and students. As a result, a free trial access of electronic journals and electronic books has been incorporated into SLU Libraries pursuit of expanding information sources powered by Gale/Cengage Learning. To access this, a user will only open the internet connection anywhere within the campus and type the URL http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/phslu and use the password- wellness. Thereafter, the user may type a topic in the search box and start searching the database. For further details, approach a library staff or visit the Office of the Director of Libraries. As part of the programs, services and collections of the SLU LIBRARIES, the same have embraced new, emerging, instructional technologies that have become available, to enhance and fulfill their mission as the SLU Libraries find that the common ground on which they stand is the ever-evolving landscape that represents where, when and how to find and share information towards the goal of shaping and sharing the future of global learning to contribute In the realization of the mission for a transformative education. 4
LIBRARY BUILDING HOUSES DIGITAL ARTS LABORATORY The Digital Arts Laboratory situated at the 2nd floor Library Building Michelle D. Ambloza The Library Building is housing another office- the Digital Arts Laboratory under the College of Information and Computing Sciences (CICS). Dean Cecile Mercado of the CICS and other SLU administrators have chosen the library building, 2 nd floor as the site of the said laboratory. The putting up of a Digital Arts Laboratory was spawned by the approval of the proposal for the opening of a Digital Arts Program in SLU. In carrying out the undertaking, Dean Mercado considered the projection of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) of about 1,383,890 cyber services employment for 2006-2010. According to DOLE, these opportunities include Animation, Back Office Processing, Customer Contact, Medical Transcription and Software Development but the emphasis is on Animation since this is most in demand. Another consideration is SLU s stand for pro-active response to industry needs. Adding to this is the survey result which revealed that 76.90% of the respondents showed willingness to enroll in Animation or digital Arts or any of its equivalents. According to Dean Mercado, the courses will be offered on a modular basis as preferred by the respondents of the survey. Further, the proposed digital animation program will be delivered as a certificate program leading to a diploma program. At present, the construction of the Digital Arts Laboratory is just finished but still awaiting the finishing touches. SLU ADMINISTRATION PHASES OUT TEXTBOOK SECTION Lourdes A. Llanes The Saint Louis University Administration has begun phasing out the Textbook Section of the SLU Libraries to give way to the Digital Arts Laboratory, the latest development in the College of Information and Computing Sciences, this 2 nd Semester, 2007-2008. The Textbook Section was put up to help students and parents who cannot afford to buy all the textbooks they need by renting out the textbooks at the lowest minimal fee. The textbooks which were infrequently rented, however, were already withdrawn from the shelves for proper disposal through a book sale in October, 2007. The unsold copies were donated to the following sister schools of SLU, namely: St. William s College, Tabuk, Kalinga Province; St. Louis College, San Fernando City (La Union); and St. Louis School, Mandaue City. Before the book sale, the department heads of the different colleges assessed the said textbooks if the same were not needed anymore before they were withdrawn from the shelves. At present, the most frequently used textbooks are retained for rent. These books are now housed at the new location of the Textbook Section at the third floor of the library building fronting the IFLIS Office. 5 Textbook Section at the 3rd floor Library Building fronting IFLIS Office
DR. VANHOUTTE EXPOUNDS ON LIBRARY-BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP By: Ma. Teresa G. Del Rosario do business enterprises and libraries have in common? Why organize an exhibit on entrepreneurship in a library? posed guest speaker Dr.Wilfried What Vanhoutte to the audience as he expounded on the relationship between the library and business enterprises and institutional organizations during the ENTREP FEVER held at the 4 th floor, library building, First Semester, 2006-2007. Dr. Vanhoutte pointed out that the library and business enterprises are related in two ways. First, the library is a potential information provider for business enterprises and institutional organizations. Second, the library can become an entrepreneurial event in itself, owing to the influences of business enterprises or institutional organizations as the leaders of these interact with librarians. Explaining the library as an information provider for business enterprises, Dr. Vanhoutte referred to the creative ideas, financial and human resources and hardware that business leaders can gain from using the library. In turn, the library becomes an entrepreneurial event by addressing the users needs using enterprises in response to opportunities. In this regard, the guest speaker mentioned the VLIR-PIUC program between the Flemish universities in Belgium and the consortium of Saint Louis University and the Benguet State University since 1999, as an example. Making recommendations, the guest speaker said that entrepreneurship through the library and in the library should focus on how to deal with opportunities like the digital revolution and the rapid development of the internet structure to turn all these into good tools in addressing users needs better. He added that Integrated Quality Management can be employed as an inspiring principle to offer only the very best of information sources to the public. The ENTREP FEVER was organized and sponsored by the faculty and students of the College of Accounting and Commerce, major in Entrepreneurship. The event featured a program and an exhibit. One of the main attractions in the exhibit was the Saba Vinegar a major prize winner in the national competition, is now finding its way into the international market, according to the producers. Untying the Ribbon, Dean of CAC, Dr. Reynaldo Bautista with the Director of Libraries, Rina Hemedez Diaron during the Entrep Fever 6
US Cultural Affairs Officer visits SLU Emily S. Gumangan Miss Martha Buckley, the newly appointed Cultural Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Manila, came to Baguio City to attend the Veterans Day on November 4, 2007. While in Baguio City, she took the opportunity to visit Saint Louis University, particularly the American Studies Resource Center (ASRC). A roundtable discussion with the SLU Library Staff, together with Mr. Ernie Roy Azarcon, the newly appointed American Studies Program Committee (ASPC) Coordinator, Miss Reysa Alenzuela, the new Thomas Jefferson Information Center Director and Mr. Tony Perez, Cultural Affairs Assistant, was held at the American Studies Resource Center (ASRC) Library. Miss Buckley discussed some plans on how the US Embassy particularly her office can be of help to the residents of Baguio City and nearby towns. It was suggested in the said meeting that her office can be tapped for trainings and seminars of any relevant topics. She also plans sending educational packets for high school students which will be routed to the different schools in Baguio through Book Mobile program to give chance to all high school students to read and browse these educational materials. After the meeting with the Library Staff, a courtesy call to Rev. Fr. Jessie M. Hechanova, the SLU President, Dr. Noel B. De Leon, the SLU Vice President for Academics and Atty. Arnulfo S. Soriano, the SLU Vice President for Administration, followed. Miss Buckley s visit to SLU was a manifestation of the continuing support of the Americans to the people of Baguio City to foster good relationship. The US Embassy is regularly providing library materials in various formats such as print and electronic resources for the use of everybody who wish to research in the ASRC Library. Meanwhile, in September 2007, the ASRC Library transferred from its former location at the 3 rd floor of the Library building to the 5 th floor mezzanine. The new location of the ASRC can accommodate more researchers and gives a suitable space for library exhibits and displays. Since its transfer last September, the ASRC Library features a paper show every month with different topics to give relevant and informative information to library users. American Studies Resource Center (ASRC) located at the mezzanine of the 5th floor Library Building 7
The Latest Book in the Rack! Nimpha T. Valdez ACentury of Philippines Legislature by Manuel D. Duldulao is one of the newest books that is added to the Law Library collection. The book is very rare to find at the bookstores and very expensive. The book in 2 volumes contains the social history of the Philippines from 1896 to 2007. The contents present the role of Philippine Legislature in nation building. The book also covers the personalities of the Philippine History which are fully illustrated and are chronologically arranged. A Century of Philippine Legislation, Volume 1 Kudos Abraham D. Robles Since the book is historical and it embodies the Philippine Laws, it maybe used not only by the students of the College of Law but also for the students of the different Colleges who are currently studying Social Sciences. The book also serves as a guide for those who are vying for politics. A Century of Philippine Legislation, Volume 2 Sa Isang Religion Class: Guro: Bakit tatlong beses tinanong ni Hesus si Pedro, kung mahal siya ni Pedro Osting: Ma am parang sa eskwelahan yan... kahit alam ng guro ang sagot, tanong pa rin ng tanong. A Police man saw a man on the top floor of a building: Police: Wag kang tatalon! Marami pang nagmamahal sa yo Man: Tumahimik ka dyan! Wag mo kong pakialaman! Di ako maka-send! Ano ang kaibahan ng Pulitiko sa Magnanakaw? Answer: Ang Pulitiko tatakbo muna bago magnanakaw,...samantalang ang Magnanakaw, magnanakaw muna saka tatakbo. Bitoy: Dagul, bakit ang pandak mo? Dagul: Kasi bata pa lang ako, ulila na ako. Bitoy: Ano kaugnayan nun sa pagiging pandak mo? Dagul: Sira pala ulo mo eh!wala nga nagpalaki sa akin. SLU LIBRARIES NEWSLETTER Editorial Board BATAKAGAN is the official publication of the SLU Libraries and published bi-annually. To improve this newsletter suggestions, contributions are most welcome. Tel No. : 444-8246 to 48/443-2001 Local 282 Fax No. 442-2842 E-mail : librarydir@slu.edu.ph Editor-in-Chief : Rina Hemedez Diaron Managing Editor : Aurelia L. Bang-otan Computer Layout artist-encoder : Michelle D. Ambloza Photographer : Rhodyl A. Ambloza (MIS Office) Gerardo V. Claveria Writers / Contributors: Michelle D. Ambloza Ma. Teresa G. Del Rosario Rina Hemedez Diaron Emily S. Gumangan Lourdes A. Llanes Marilou L. Pasion Nimpha T. Valdez Abraham D. Robles Printed by: SLU Printing Office : Blas Anthony Cacanindin Printing Operations Officer 8