The Theology Library collection in Central Philippine University: Its characteristics and digitized catalog

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to come up with a digitized catalog of the Theology Library collection of Central Philippine University (CPU) in Iloilo and to study its characteristics. Specifically, this research aimed to: 1) characterize the Theology Library collection according to type, size, subject area, and publication; 2) encode the bibliographic elements of each Theology book for the production of a digitized catalog; and 3) determine the usability of the digitized catalog as an access tool. The study used the description method in research, specifically the documentary analysis and survey types. A mechanism for computerization of the collection was installed using the CDS/ISIS-ARALIN Systems. To determine the usability of the digitized catalog, a preliminary assessment was conducted among 20 respondents using the survey questionnaires. The findings reveal that the collection of the Theology Library under study includes several types of books consisting of general references, subject area references and special collections of Filipiniana, Theses and Dissertations, Women Studies and the Seminary Extension Library. Of the total of 9,359 titles in 12,539 volumes, the area of Religion had the highest provision of 7,842 titles in 10,702 volumes. Most of these books were published in the United States. The collections have very few recent editions and need updating. The books were encoded using the CDS/ISIS software to produce a digitized catalog. Database can be assessed and retrieved from access points under author, title, subject and keywords. The digitized catalog was found to be very useful tool for locating materials from the database with ease and speed in information retrieval. The study concludes that the use of the CDS/ISIS ARALIN software is helpful in putting up the digitized catalog, which is found to be useful for retrieving information. Use of this catalog is strongly recommended for pastors, church workers and others as well as for integration with the Main Library on-line public access catalog.