Reflection and observations of Lopez Library

DIGITIZATION/INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM OF LOPEZ LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION:

The experience in Lopez library was a good one.  The library is rich in rare collections in Philippines history and pictorials.  The library is conglomerate in nature since a museum is attached to it.

WELCOME ADDRESS AND FEATURES:

We all gathered and our Instructor Professor Sharon introduced us to the head librarian.  She (head librarian) took over and tried to introduce us to the various sections of the library, though most of her talking was in tagalog.  So I could not fully grasped most of the things she said.

My good friend Bryan tried to interpret some to me.  By implication what I saw there was how their rare collections are being kept.

In fact, these rare books are digitized into their computer system.  So the print book is still kept carefully while the digitized formats are made available to readers who come to do research in the library.

The library has a server system which is connected to some few terminals there. Again, most of their digitized collections are stored in the main server.  The server has 4 terabytes memory space (Not very sure).

COLLECTIONS:
we were shown some rare books, pictures, etc which are de-acidified for long storage purposes.  The head librarian showed us their collections which are mostly Philippines materials. What amazed me was that books published in 1900s are there, and they were able to preserve a lot of them.

MUSEUM TOUR:

After entertaining some questions we were further introduced to the different facilities they have in the museum. We practically had test of them, I cannot recall the names of those facilities.  We were given some flyers which introduce the library at a glance.

OBSERVATIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
I observed they used to collect newspaper captions to digitize daily.  But I think if they can lease with the newspaper agency, they may give them the softcopy of those headlines instead of the hardcopy.  This would facilitate accurate and faster digitization and/or indexing processes.

The library/museum space is inadequate. One can see that from their shelving arrangement. They may need more terminals for users to use.  I guess their digitization process is only for in-house purposes and it is not online.  Though the head librarian said they hope to go online soon.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND LUNCH:

We all had some photo shots and collective lunch.  It was so memorable. Thank you Prof for the opportunity to see a digitization processes of the Lopez library.