Review of Existing Standards

A REVIEW OF EXISTING STANDARDS IN PHILIPPINE LIBRARIES by ELNORA L. CONTI Director, Thomas Jefferson Information Center, U.S. Embassy, Ermita, Manila Member, Board for Librarians, PRC

What are Standards?

National Standards Policy Advisory Committee

A prescribed set of rules conditions, or requirements, concerning definition of terms, classification of components; specifications of materials, performance or operations; delineation of procedures; or measurements of quantity and quality in describing materials, products, systems, services or practices.

What are Standards?

American Library Association (ALA)

Policies which describe shared values and principles of performance for a library

- tend to be comprehensive covering a broad scope of programs and services provided by a library

What are Standards?

- may define both qualitative and quantitative criteria

- present goals toward which the profession aspires

- may include statements expressed in relative terms; that is by relating library performance to norms derived from a reference population

- set criteria for the decisions and actions of those concerned with the planning and administering and accrediting library services

Why standardize?

Republic Act 9246

An act modernizing the practice of librarianship in the Philippines thereby repealing RA 6966, entitled: “An act regulating the practice of librarianship and prescribing the qualifications of librarians”

Article I, Sec. 5 Scope of the practice of librarianship

(1) Selection and acquisition of multi-media sources of information which would best respond to clientele’s need for adequate, relevant and timely information;

(2) Cataloguing and classification of knowledge of sources of information into relevant organize collections and creation of local databases for speedy access, retrieval or delivery of information;

(3) Development of computer-assisted/computer backed information systems which would permit online and network services;

(4) Establishment of library systems and procedures; dissemination of information; rendering of information, reference and research assistance; archiving; and education of users;

(5) Teaching, lecturing and reviewing of library, archives and information science subjects, including subjects given in the licensure examination;

(6) Rendering of services involving technical knowledge/expertise in abstracting, indexing, cataloguing and classifying; or the preparation of bibliographies, subject authority lists, thesauri and union catalogues/lists

(7) Preparation, evaluation or appraisal of plans, programs and/or projects for the establishment, organization, development and growth of libraries and information centers, and the determination of library requirements for space, buildings, structures or facilities;

(8) Provision of professional and consultancy services or advice on any aspect of librarianship; and

(9) Organization, conservation and restoration of historical and cultural documents and other intellectual properties

Article II, Sec 8 Powers, Functions and Duties of the Board

The Board shall exercise executive/administrative, rule making and quasi-judicial powers in carrying out the provision of this Act. It shall be vested with the following specific powers, functions, duties and responsibilities:

(a) To promulgate and administer rules and regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act;

(e) To look into the conditions affecting the practice of librarianship, and when necessary, adopt such measures as may be deemed proper for the enhancement and maintenance of high ethical, moral and professional standards of librarianship

(f) To adopt policies and set the standards for all types of libraries, librarians and practice of librarianship

(g) To ensure, in coordination with the Commission on Higher education (CHED), that all institutions offering library, archives and information science education comply with prescribed standards for curriculum, faculty and facilities for course offerings of library science, or library and information science;

(h) To adopt and prescribe a Code of Ethics and a Code of Technical Standards for Librarians;

(j) To prescribe guidelines in the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) in coordination with the accredited and integrated association for professional librarians

(k) To prepare, adopt, issue or amend the syllabi or terms of specification of subjects for the librarian licensure examination consistent with the policies and standards set by the CHED

(l) To discharge other powers and duties as the Board may deem necessary for the practice of librarianship and the continued growth of librarians, libraries and library education in the Philippines

What has been done?

Some Facts:

Elementary Schools (2005-06)

Public 37,161

Private 4,788

Total 41,949

Some facts:

Secondary Schools (2005-06)

Public 4,915

Private 3,372

TOTAL 8,287

Some Facts:

Higher Education Institutions (2005)

W/S W/0

Public (SUC’s,LUC’s,CSI) 424 175

TOTAL 599

Non-Sec Sec

Private 1,033 330

TOTAL 1,363

GRAND TOTAL 1,962

What has been done?

BFL-PRC Task Force on Library Standards:

Formulation of Standards for:

1. Academic libraries

2. Public libraries

3. School libraries

4. Special libraries

BFL Recommended Format

I. MGO (Mission, Goals, Objectives)

A. General Statement

B. Specific Statement

II Administration

A. Legal basis (Place of the library in the organizational structure

B. Role of the Library in the organization

C. Social Responsibility

D. General Policy (Library manual)

E. Special policies for each component

III. Human Resources –

A. Size and Qualification

Professional

Non-Professional

B. Recruitment and Selection

IV. Collection Development and Maintenance

A. Collection Development

1. Scope

2. Size

3. Growth role

B. Organization

1. Technical processing

2. Physical Arrangement

V. Services and Utilization

A. General

B. Special

C. Library Hours

VI. Physical Facilities

A. Location

B. Space allocation

1. Collection

2. Staff

3. Service

C. Furniture and equipment

D. Security and control

VII. Financial Resources

A. Funding Sources

VIII. Linkages

A. Foreign

B. Local

The Standards Matrix

In a separate document:

Academic libraries

Public libraries

School libraries

Special libraries

ACCREDITATION BODIES

Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines (FAAP)

Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) 1941

Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges, Universities (PAASCU) 1957 Formerly CEAP

Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities (ACSCU) 1046 later became ASCU-AA in 1976

ACCREDITATION BODIES

Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) 1950

Founded the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA) 1973 non-sectarian

Philippine Association of State Colleges and Universities (PASUC) 1967 Founded the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACCUP) 1987

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

FINALIZING the STANDARDS –

Creation of a task force/consultants

PRESENTATION of the STANDARDS to the REGIONS and or CONSULTATION WITH LIBRARIANS or LIBRARY GROUPS

PRESENTATION of the FINAL DRAFT to the BFL – for REVIEW and COMMENTS

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

EDITING/REVISING TO INCORPORATE COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS RECOMMENDATIONS

PRINTING OF THE STANDARDS

DISTRIBUTION/DISSEMINATION

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Mission, Goals & Objectives

Shall develop an explicit statement of its mission in conformity with the mandate of the parent institution; the development of library mission and goals shall be the responsibility of the library head and staff in consultation with the school officials; and library objectives shall be reviewed periodically and revised as necessary

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Administration

Supervision and control shall be clearly defined; should be administered by a full time professional with Masters Degree in Library Information and Information Science; has an Advisory Library Committee; shall have a development plan to include development and improvement of library resources

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Human Resources

Shall have sufficient number and variety of staff; size and qualification determined by size & scope of collection, number of hours , rate of acquisition, rate of circulation, nature of processing & nature of service demand

First 500 students: 1 professional, 2 clerical staff; for every 1000 additional students 1 full time librarian

Professional staff – College – BSLS; University – Masters in Library / Information Science

Support Staff –Paraprofessionals – BS in any field of Lib/Inf. Sc. and staff doing clerical work should also be a Bachelors degree holders

Status – Academic or faculty status

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Collection Development and Maintenance

Collection Development should be the responsibility of the Advisory Lib. Com. (ALC); shall have a written collection development policies approved by the ALC; should conduct periodic review of collection

Holdings – Core collection of 5,000 well selected titles for college; 10,000 for university;

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Periodicals : 50 periodical titles (minimum) less than 1000 enrollment; 1000-3000 – 75 titles; over 3000 - 100 titles

Organization : Should be catalogued and classified according to standard accepted bibliographic description and a system of classification

Preservation – Shall have a preservation program

Security –Shall have policies on security, if possible an electronic surveillance system

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Reader Services and Utilization

Reader Services – shall include Reference and information services, Circulation, library instruction, audio-visual, electronic resources, photocopying and other services

Hours – shall open 10 hours daily

Lending policies; Shall adopt an open shelf system for easy access; promote reader services by regular announcement or display of new acquisition

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Physical Facilities

Adequate space should be provided to house the collection, offices for the staff, librarian’s office and storage space; space for special services

Seating capacity of not less than 10% of the total enrollment computed at 2 sq. m. per reader; proper lighting and ventilation; functional furniture and equipment

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Financial Resources

Shall have an annual budget 10% of the total operating budget of the institution; library fee shall be at realistic level

Linkages The Academic library shall explore internal and external linkages; participates in inter-institutional activities and cooperative program or sharing of resources encouraged

Prepared by: L. Gregorio (BFL), A. Santos, T. Moran, T. Hernandez, and N. Claravall

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Mandate: The National Library (RA 7743 June 17, 1994 PL – 994)

Public library (PL) and information service responsive to the needs of the community; to build within each library an information center about its respective community—its resources, history, people, customs and traditions, etc; and to develop nationally, a network and linkages among public libraries with the National Library as the center in order to facilitate research and reference needs of patrons

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Administration

Shall operate under the administrative supervision of the local government (local chief executive) unit and under the technical supervision of the NLP; a Public Library shall be managed by a professionally trained and competent librarian

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Human Resources

Staff – Professional librarian who is licensed. Size of staff shall depend on the population served and the size of the collection 50,000 an additional one professional and one support staff

Technical staff, support staff, library aids , and others (maintenance)

Salary is according to the Salary Standardization Scheme for Government Workers – Librarian I to V

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Collection shall include books, multimedia and other state of the art technologies, periodicals, pamphlets and other audio-visual materials; shall maintain local history collection; a minimum of 3,000 for region, provinces, cities and first class municipalities; 2,000municipalities, lower than 1st class, 500 for barangay reading center; provision of an annual 10% increase of the collection

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Library service shall be provided with the highest degree of efficiency and integrity keeping in mind that the public library is a service agency of the government; open shelf system; shall have reference and research, circulation, a children’s section, outreach program and services; organization of Friends Group to act as support of the library

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Physical Facilities

Library should be centrally located within the community and should be accessible to all library users by all means of transportation and shall provide access to physically disabled

The size of the library shall be in proportion to the population, collection staff and services, 48-60 regional provincial, city; 36-48 for other municipalities and at least 12-24 for barangay

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Financial Resources

Shall be provided a budget to cover personal services, maintenance and operating expenses (fund for travel expenses, attendance to seminars, training, subscription to periodicals and other reference materials, and furniture

Reports and inventory – an annual narrative and statistical report be prepared; shall develop a monitoring system of its operation and procedures

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Linkages

Public Libraries Information Network (PUBLIN) launched in 1999

Prepared by:

The National Library

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

To provide efficient accurate relevant and timely information service to its respective institution through a systematically organized collection; maintain a proactive role as information provider and disseminator to be globally competitive as well as uphold and promote the principles of high ethical standards of library profession at all times

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Administration

Shall be administered by a librarian with the required expertise, education experience and other qualifications provided by RA 6966 ; other library personnel staff hiring shall be vested on the library administrator; has the authority to select and recommend reference materials to be purchased

Special Libraries social responsibility as center of information shall provide its users equal access to library collection, equipment and technologies

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Human Resources

Depends on the recruitment policy of the office

Professional staff – one (1) with the subject specialization of said library as maybe law, business, banking, etc, must be licensed or a subject specialist in the field preferably with 18 units in LIS; for government agencies, a master’s degree in LIS to become a chief of division as per civil service law; academic and special librarians, a master’s degree (PAASCU) rules

Non-professional staff- college degree holder with knowledge of IT or government eligibility required

Training of staff for continuing education CPE for the professional librarian

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Collection development is dependent on: institutional policy, librarian skill and capability, budget, pertinent laws (copyright, property accountability; networking and resource facilities, library facilities, equipment

Recommend a library committee with the librarian as a member

Application of online information system and other IT must be provided

Organization of the collection must be according to generally accepted standards (DDC, LC); computerization of technical services is recommended

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Must provide materials and services appropriate to the organization’s goal, size, number of staff and institutional responsibilities

Library Hours shall be during office hours and may be rendered beyond as need arises

Technical services – acquisitions, cataloging and classification, mechanical processing, indexing, current awareness services, SDI

Reader services – reference, circulation, periodicals, audio-visual, interlibrary-loan/resource sharing, photocopying

SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Financial Resources

Shall be provided with adequate and continuing budgetary support from the budget of the office depending on the program/project for the year

Linkages

Encourages resource sharing to enrich collection

Prepared by : Com. On Standards for Special Libraries

S. Nava (Chair)

M. Santos-Ong

C. Guevarra

E. Mimay

M. T. Elloso

SCHOOL LIBRARIES/MEDIA CENTERS

DECS Order No. 6 s1998

Ad Hoc Committee Created by BFL

chaired by Ms. Elizabeth Peralejo

DECS

A library is an information center, audio-visual center, and instructional material center whose functions include: systematically collect classify, store and retrieve information; the library is a service center, guidance center, material production center and most importantly teaching-learning center; each elementary and secondary school must have a functional library with the following components:

1. physical facilities

2. librarian

3. materials/collection

4. library programs and services

5. budget funds

AdHocCom:

The fundamental purpose of the school library media center is to help attain the objectives of the educational program (lists 6 specific objectives)

Administration

DECS

Shall be under the supervision of a librarian or teacher librarian and lists 12 duties & responsibilities; monitoring of school libraries done regularly by DECS Central office, regional offices, and or school heads

AdHocCom:

Two or more professional librarians, should have competencies in both school library and audio-visual areas

Human Resources

DECS :

Every complete elementary and secondary must have teacher-librarians and school librarians depending on the enrollment

500 or less – 1 teacher librarian

501-1000 one full time and I part time librarian

1000-2000 one full time librarian and one part-time teacher librarian

2000 above – an additional 1 full time for every 1000 enrollees

Qualifications :

Elementary – BSEEd or BEEd major in LS or at least 15 units in LS

Secondary –BSE major in LS or with at least 15 units LS

Duties /responsibilities of the librarian specified

AdHocCom :

500 – 1 full time print, 1 full time non-print, 1 library clerk (LC) 1 AV technician

1000 – 2 full time, 1 non-print, 2 LC, 1 AV Technician

2000 – 1 Media coordinator, 2 full time, 1 non print, 3 LC, 2 AV technician

DECS:

References to support the different subject areas, magazines, newspapers, etc

Very specific e.g. 1 set encyclopedia, 1 Fil-Eng, 1 Eng-Fil dictionary, etc.

AdHocCom:

Collection shall consists of up-to-date and relevant book, serials, pamphlets, non-books as well as electronic resources, shall contain local history collection about the school and librarian shall be responsible for the selection and acquisition

Books

500-(999) – Basic of 10, 000 or 10 books/student and professional 5/teacher

1000-(2999) –15,000 or 12/student and 10/teacher

3000 above – 25,000 or 15 per/student and professional 15/teacher

Periodicals/Newspapers

500(999) – 15 titles/3 titles

1000-(2999) – 30 titles/4 titles

3000 above – 40 titles/5 titles

DECS: (Library Programs /Services)

Library orientation during opening of classes; lib. Programs included in the curriculum ½ a month library lesson conducted by the librarian; National Book Week, celebration, xerox of needed materials, library serves as information center of the school and the parents

AdHocCom:

The school library should be open before, during and after classes, open-shelf system; acquisition and other promotional activities be made periodically; coordination with faculty in promoting use of the library media center

Services:

Technical, Orientation/library instruction, reference, circulation, reading guidance, story telling and book talks, research, bibliographic as well as audio-visual services; interlibrary loans, Internet, OPAC

Physical Facilities

DECS :

There must be a separate building or room properly constructed, well lighted, ventilated, centrally located and accessible to teachers and pupils, open shelf-system can accommodate at least 50 pupils for library lesson 1/week

Area:

500—72 sq m and an additional 1.2 sq per place for 8% of enrolment in excess of 500; shape preferably rectangular, 2/3 of the area for library users and 1/3 for the library collection

Specified numbers for furniture and equipment (typewriter, computer with printer, projector, TV, radio, etc.)

AdhocCom

Should be centrally located, accessible with provision for expansion, gives specifications for space

500 – 250 sqm and additional of 1.2 sqm per 8% of enrollment in excess of 500

Specific items for Furniture and Equipment for both elementary and secondary, gives provision to security and control.

Financial Resources

DECS :

Library funds shall be 5-10 of the school fund (division office); donations solicitations from civic assoc., alumni, parents and others

AdHocCom:

Should provide appropriate funds but not less than 2% of the total instructional budget annually; Library should be reviewed periodically, school should allocate for new improved mean of information access, new technologies and acquisitions

Linkages

DECS:

Not specified but gave provision for donations and solicitations from civic organizations, alumni, parents, members of the community, “friends of the library,” and others in item sources of library funds

AdHocCom:

May become part of the school consortium, links with other libraries, community, professional organization, NGO’s, Parents, Alumni, Book dealers, agents and foreign libraries