History

Sto. Niño Catholic School Library started its operation when Rev. Fr. Wilfredo M. Jundis founded the Sto. Niño Formation Center in 1988 with about 50 preschoolers, he was the School Director up to 1997. In its second year, it was officially registered as STO. NIÑO CATHOLIC SCHOOL, INC. The Library caters the needs of the Pre-School, Elementary and High School enrolled in the institution as well as the alumni. From 1989 – 1994, the library was operated under the supervision of the Principal, Mrs. Ma. Era Enriquez.

In 1994, the school transferred to the new building located at Sampaloc St., Zone 1, Signal Village. It is the time the school hired a professional librarian, Ms. Milafe Pagaran. She stayed for a year. Then a professional teacher was assigned temporarily to manage the library, she was Mrs. Malenda M. Encarnacion. The Principal then was Mrs. Adela Sapalo up to S.Y. 1996. The library is formerly situated at the Ground Floor (Audio Visual Room now).

In S.Y. 1996-1997, the school had a new Principal, Mrs. Helen S. Losbañes. In the mid-April of 1996, the school library was transferred to the 2^nd floor (the present location). They hired a full time librarian, Ms. Salvacion B. Cadenas. She was not a professional librarian; despite she was not professional in the field of librarianship still the school hired her because of her experience for four years as a working student assigned to different sections of an academic library. It was only during this time that the library collections were organized and systematically managed. The records of collections were computerized for easy access. After one year of service she resigned.

In S.Y. 1997-1998, Rev. Fr. Amando N. Litana became the School’s Director from 1997 to August, 2005 and Mrs. Ma. Era Enriquez was back again as the School Principal.

For the meantime, Mrs. Malenda M. Encarnacion was pulled out again in teaching position to temporarily manage the library for she was the only one with a library background in the institution. All the mechanical & technical processing of library materials was stopped for only professional librarians could do these tasks. Luckily, in S.Y. 1998-1999, Ms. Salvacion B. Cadenas went back again to the school. At first, she finds difficulty in managing the library, implementing systems, organizing the materials because of one year absence and lack of professional tools. The books were organized and arranged by subjects on the shelves so that the lending of books could start soon. From then on everything goes smoothly. In the second semester of S.Y. 1999-2000, the librarian enrolled in Post Baccalaureate Degree in Library and Information Science at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines to professionally practice the craft of librarianship and apply what she has learned in school in the SNCS Library. Through the help of her classmates and professors, the SNCS Library was managed properly. One of her classmates, Mrs. Elizabeth Marasigan of Xavier School gave her software in production of library card catalogs (LH5). By just encoding the main entry, all the cards will be reproduced in just a minute. It was only in August 2001 the library used the system. At least now the library has all the general references materials and some special collections catalogued, classified using Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) and filed in the card catalog trays wherein all the author cards, title cards and subject cards are filed separately .

It is very hard to maintain library records and keep doing it again and again. The librarian really encountered a lot of problems in maintaining all the records, making library reports without sacrificing the quality of the services given to the library users.

Rev. Fr. Salvador O. Yun took over as the new School Director in September, 2005 and Dr. Bienvenido V. Santos, an Associate Professorial Lecturer at De La Salle University Manila and an Educational Management Consultant, became the School Principal in June, 2005. The librarian upgrades herself in the field of librarianship through further studies and to be acquainted with the latest trends in librarianship for the world’s knowledge lies on her hands and she is the source of power of information on the community where she belongs.

On December 14, 2007, the librarian obtained her masteral degree in Library and Information Science. In the mid of 2008, the library used the Iconium Library System in organizing its collection. Then it was upgraded into Libro System: Luna Edition in summer of 2010. The system developer introduced an update for Luna which is Platonixz where SNCS Library used for 2 years (2011-2012) and updated it again to NewPlatonixz (2012-2014). Until such time that it is updated again into MyRizal (March 2014). Since RDA became an international mandate, the librarian contacted the system developer and inquired him regarding the said changes in cataloging rules. Since the system developer had a MyRDA+Plus, it was recommended by the librarian for the administrators to adopt. March 17, 2015, the librarian as well as the library assistant were trained by Mr. Romeo Sebastian in the new platform of the updated system. He does the migration of data from previous programs to the recent one with a minimal fee of five thousand pesos only (Php 5,000.00). Online troubleshooting and support is also obtained from time to time through call.

Rev. Fr. Paulino G. Balagtas was assigned as the new school director of Sto. Niño Catholic School on May 19, 2009. Various improvements were introduced like the expansion of the library reading area. The school applied for an accreditation in FAPE. The preliminary result of the library based on the interview of the evaluator with the librarian was: 1) the library is not spacious and 2) it is an eyesore in the sense that the books are not properly shelved. May of 2011 Fr. Balagtas decided to renovate the library. The partition was taken and the shelves were replaced so that it could really fit the client user’s needs based on the standards they set under school libraries. June of 2011, the library-client experienced the changes in the library's physical set-up and new modifications in the library program.

April of 2015 was a memorable day for us because we have a new school director in the person of Rev. Fr. Orlando B. Cantillon. He handles the Cluster B of Pasig Diocesan Schools System which is composed of Sto. Niño Catholic School, Colegio de Santa Ana, Bicutan Parochial School, Sto. Niño Parish School and Holy Family Parochial School. Until this date, July 8, 2020, he serves as our school director.

This library is dedicated to serve all registered students, administrators, faculty members, academic and non-academic staff, and alumni of the SNCS Library as well as visiting users with referral letters and proof of payment of library fee. The library was organized to make the materials available to the client-user for easy retrieval of information. They are qualified to borrow and check out books in the core collection. To check out books, they have to fill-in the necessary information required in the book card located at the back of the back cover and they should return the books on the due date stated on the back of the book or else there will be a fine imposed on the books returned late.

To adapt to the new normal education, SNCS library innovates its library services by providing online reference services, developing its library website and developing its Open Educational Resources to be shared to the entire SNCS community especially in time that face to face education isn’t permitted by the government.

(Written and Updated by: Dr. SALVACION C. DIMZON)

THIS IS SUBJECT FOR REVISION AND APPROVED BY THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL

modified: September 8, 2020 @1:51pm.