University Libraries, University of Saint Louis

 HISTORY

The College Library traces back its history in the year 1965, the year when University of Saint Louis, then Saint Louis School had its humble beginnings. It was headed by Mr. Rogelio Mallillin, the Registrar at the same time the Librarian of the school. Before 1976, when the school started to offer tertiary courses, there was only one library for High School and College.

Due to the growing number of enrollees in the college in 1976, the library collection for college was transferred from the High School Library to the San Jacinto building which housed the first College Library occupying a space equivalent to two classrooms (now the Unlad Dunong Center). It had only a seating capacity of fifty users with a core collection of 5,000 which included books and serials collection. The only periodicals circulating were the Manila Bulletin, The Modern Teacher, Philippine Journal of Education and Liwayway. During that time, the library was open only from 7:30 until 11:30 in the morning and 1:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. During Saturdays, the College Library opened from 8:00 to 12:00 in the morning.

Mrs. Lucita Y. Casem was the Head Librarian of the College assisted by Mrs. Rizalina Pedroso and supported by six working students who rendered four hours of  service every day.

In 1977, the Graduate School opened with the course Master of Arts in Public Administration. To support the academic need of the newly opened department, the   Graduate School Library was created in 1978. It was housed separately in a room (now the Guidance Office) still under the supervision of the Head Librarian.

When the Constant Jurgens Building was finished, the College Library was transferred there occupying the first and the second floors. The Periodicals Section was not transferred as it occupied the old library.

With the increasing number of the collection and with new course offerings in the Graduate School, the Graduate School  Library was transferred to the third floor of the Constant Jurgens building occupying one room. The Filipiniana collection and the Circulation area for Over Night Books were transferred to the second floor of the Jurgens building. The first floor of the said building housed the General Collection, Periodicals Section, Internet Multimedia Office (IMMO) and Binding Section. Due to the increasing demand from the students and faculty members, a Discussion Room was   created.

The collection rapidly increased to meet the demands of the academic community. The library did not only include print but non-print materials as well.

In 1990, additional support staff were hired to administer the different sections of the College Library. One      Librarian was assigned in the Graduate School, one in the Binding Section, one in the Periodicals Section plus Clerks.

In 2001, the College Library was transferred to the Theophiel Verbist Building. The second and third floors of the said building house the present College Library. It is now fully air-conditioned with a seating capacity of 540 users.

To cope with technology advancement, the   In-House Computerized Cataloging System was created and later in 2001 the university acquired the Follett Software which was a great help in terms of information access and retrieval by the  students and the staff themselves. The Follet Software became operational in 2003.

In June 2005, the Check Point System or the Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) was acquired purposely to secure the library holdings.

In response to the research needs of the academic community, the library started to subscribe to online resources. EBSCO was the first to be subscribed under this type of collection. It was in the same year that the library website was launched to make available the resources of the library through the world wide web. The website contained the OPAC, open access resources and updates about the University Libraries. Further, additional equipment have been acquired to facilitate easy access to the library resources. In 2009, The Internet Multimedia Office (IMMO) became part of the University Libraries, hence, it paved the way to a lot of improvement in the online searching of the library users.

The website became more accessible and additional computer units have been acquired. Aside from the library website, social networking sites like Facebook have been used to further inform users about the library services.

In 2010, the library continued to hire additional staff to meet the growing demands for service from users. Further, additional facilities were acquired to replace the obsolete ones.

In January of 2011, the library made a history in the national scene. The Philippine Association of Academic and Research Librarians (PAARL) awarded the library as the 2010 PAARL Outstanding Academic and Research Library in the entire country, a proof that the library has exemplary service.

In the same year, the CICM Consortium was established in the 2nd floor of the College Library. The Consortium provided a lot of opportunities especially on resource sharing and collaborative acquisition. Additional online resources were acquired. The INFOTRAC 1000 was added and made available through the website.

In 2012, the library, through the consortium subscribed to the National Geographic Online. CICM schools were the first subscribers in the country. In 2013, the library in coordination with the Thomas Jefferson Information Center created the American Collection Area which was launched in August of 2013. In the same year, Director of Libraries Michael Pinto was awarded Outstanding Academic/Research Librarian.

Today, the library is equipped with state-of –the art      facilities, updated and adequate collections and qualified and competent library staff. The USL’s College Library is considered as one among the best in the country at par with other advanced University and College Libraries in the     Philippines.

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