The Library.wah!

John Rey M. Oclarit                                                                 ENGLISH 1

BSA-1A                                                                                    AUGUST 23, 2013

A Short Glimpse in the Library!

            Ateneo De Davao University has a five-floor, fully-air-conditioned Library located at Gisbert Hall, mainly from 2^nd floor up to the 5^th. Each floor is provided with Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) terminals to locate the books they are looking for in a more convenient manner and Wi-Fi access is available within the whole area. It was said that the AdDU library serves primarily the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business and Governance and the College of Nursing. Furthermore, students are not allowed to bring food inside the library and observing silence is predominantly implemented. I can say this because, based on my observation to other Schools, students have freedom to speak a lot, even in a rough manner.

          From the 2^nd floor of the main library on my observations, Depository is located nearly the entrance door also beside the American Corner Library. Moreover, I found a Circulation Counter, where general circulation books are loaned out and returned. I observed that on the 2^nd floor, there is a favorable study and reading area with a seating capacity of more or less a hundred of students. In my opinion, 2^nd floor can be considered as the most occupied student-area compared to other floors of the library especially when spending time for studying and making assignments. Upon entering the second level of the library, there is somewhat a ‘Bar Coder’ or let’s say ‘Scanner’ for I.Ds in order to be accessible inside. Also, there were computer units, only for making Projects or Word Pograms such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint as well as the Microsoft Excel. But before we can use those computers, we were acquired to log in our names on the librarian’s Log Book.

However, talking about the third floor of the library, I saw a Rizaliana Corner and a General Circulation Book Stacks where different kinds of books are located. It contains books that may be borrowed for home use. This covers the graduate and undergraduate collection and theses. The books in the stacks are arranged according to Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. These are some of the symbols I have seen there: FIB, Fac.-Faculty, SIB-Students Inspirational Books, ENG.-Engineering, F-Fiction, GRAD.-Graduate. During my walk, I have seen numerous of Encyclopedias with different volumes as well as variety of dictionaries. Within this area too, it has a Study and Reading Areas for both Graduate and Undergraduate students.

Now on the fourth level of the library, this is my favorite area ever because Internet is accessible. I tried to get accessed with Youtube, Facebook, Google, Twitter and whatsoever websites. When I counted the number of computer units, there had been (50) fifty units in which don’t give a sufficiently amount to be used for by the students, in my opinion. J

 Also, Filipiniana & Reference Section is located within the 4th floor from the Main Library. The Filipiniana Section contains Filipiniana books which are publications on or about the Philippines, written by Filipino or foreign authors published in the Philippines or abroad. Reference Section contains a large collection of reference books such as encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries, yearbooks and others. It also houses smaller collections such as the Vertical Files, Rizaliana, which are books about Dr. Jose Rizal and the Davao Studies, which are collection of materials about Davao. I tried to look for the book and painting history of Leonardo Da Vinci somewhere in the Filipiana Corner  and happily, I Had seen the art of it and of course I was learning to make use of the 4^th Floor.

Here comes the last level from the Main Library, the 5^th floor. I have seen a label of Periodical Section in here. It was said that the main purpose of it is to keep current issues of newspapers, magazines and journals that are subscribed or donated to the university. Some periodicals are displayed in an open rack and library users are free to browse them.

 Moreover, I like the view from this floor out of the school premise. I guess I can point out my place here in davao.  Waa! J Throughout my life, this is my first time to encounter such a huge Library.