Mapúa Institute of Technology, which has more than 60,000 books, at least 90 periodicals and over 400 e-books, is fully utilizing today’s technology to enhance its services and disseminate information.
Mapúa Institute of Technology’s library is set to launch a redesigned website and new integrated library system to provide its users a more interactive and faster access to all its collections and resources.
Emerald L. Lansangan, the Institute’s chief knowledge officer, said the move complements Mapúa’s outcomes-based approach to education and its “I Go For Value” initiatives, the school’s 10-year action plan that is aimed at achieving its vision of becoming a global center of excellence in education.
Lansangan said the library is fully utilizing today’s technology to enhance its services and disseminate information to as many people as possible in a faster and efficient manner.
“Mapúa is a technological school so it is only fitting that the library is also updated with the latest technology,” she said.
One of the salient features of the redesigned library website is the chat box that will allow the librarians to directly and immediately address the queries of the users.
“The library is supposed to give the needed information. If a student, for instance, cannot come here in person and he needs the answer right away, then we can provide that instantly through chat,” said the chief knowledge officer.
Videos, virtual tour, faculty publications and online submission of forms, among others, are some of the other new features of the redesigned website.
Improved online public access catalog
But Lansangan is particularly enthusiastic about the library’s new and improved online public access catalog (OPAC).
The library has tapped The Library Corporation’s Library.Solution to enhance its OPAC service. Starting this school year, Lansangan said students and faculty members can browse all collections and resources of the library anywhere and anytime as long as they have an Internet connection.
“In the old system, access to resources is only confined within the library. With the new integrated library system, the Library.Solution, they can search anywhere, 24/7, as long as they have an Internet connection,” Lansangan said.
Access to Mapúa’s more than 60,000 books, at least 90 periodicals and over 400 e-books are still IP-based. This means that users should be either within Mapúa grounds or in the campuses of the Institute’s two subsidiaries before they can access any of the library’s online resource such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, CINAHL Plus, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Britannica Online and Proquest 5000.
Mapúa’s wholly owned subsidiaries are Malayan Colleges Laguna (MCL) in Cabuyao and Malayan High School of Science (MHSS) in Pandacan, Manila. The same integrated library system is already being used by MHSS students.
Through the new system, librarians will also be able to keep track of library materials easily and catalog all the resources efficiently.
Easier and faster access
Users may also opt for either classic browsing or through the “book river” when searching for a particular material. Lansangan is expecting that the book river, an eye-catching representation of book jackets in the library’s collection, will be a hit to students given that youths of today are more visual.
Students and faculty members may now also reserve a book online, Lansangan said. “Puwede mo siyang i-hold. Just come here in the library and borrow. Kung after a week you still need the book and due date na niya, you can renew online. You don’t have to go to the library anymore. As long as walang naka-hold o walang naka-reserve for that book, you can renew.”
Other online features include tagging, user reviews (to be moderated by the librarians), list sharing, RSS result feeds and predictive results.
When asked for future improvements, meantime, Lansangan said: “We want one search tab for all, that’s one. Another is a remote access, so, anywhere, even though they are not in Mapúa, they can access the library’s resources online. They’ve been clamoring for remote access.”
Ultimately, Lansangan hopes that students, when doing their research, will prioritize going to the library’s online portal for their research materials instead of using popular search engines such as Google.
“All the library is giving is the authoritative, scientific and peer-reviewed information,” she said. “We’re working on the ‘I Go For Value’ premise. Our 10 programs are also ABET accredited. Dapat globally ready na din ‘yong students natin in terms of information gathering and in terms of the available information.”
The new system and redesigned website will be launched during Frosh Week.
Emerald L. Lansangan, Mapúa Institute of Technology’s chief knowledge officer, said the library is set to launch a redesigned website and new integrated library system to provide its users a more interactive and faster access to all its collections and resources.