CHED CMO 22 Series of 2021: Minimum Requirements for Libraries (Philippines) PDF

# Minimum Requirements for Libraries of Higher Education Institutions Common to All Programs ## CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 22 **Series of 2021** **SUBJECT: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR LIBRARIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS COMMON TO ALL PROGRAMS** In accordance with the pertinent provision...

# Minimum Requirements for Libraries of Higher Education Institutions Common to All Programs ## CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 22 **Series of 2021** **SUBJECT: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR LIBRARIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS COMMON TO ALL PROGRAMS** In accordance with the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 7722, otherwise known as the "Higher Education Act of 1994," and Republic Act No. 9246 otherwise known as the "The Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003", and by virtue of the Commission en banc No. 927-2017 dated December 4, 2017, a set of minimum requirements for libraries of higher education institutions (HEIs) common to all programs, necessary to harmonize and standardize the different library requirements stipulated in the PSGs of all programs to have a common interpretation of said requirements by all stakeholders, is hereby adopted and promulgated by this Commission. All types of schools under the three horizontal typology of HEls, both in the highly urbanized areas as well as in the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, were considered in the preparation of this set of requirements. All institutions are encouraged to go beyond the minimum requirements to be able to adjust to the needs of the 21st century learners and educators in an ever-changing technological society. This will further improve the status and/or standards of the HEls in terms of programs, resources and services. Moreover, libraries will become more responsive to the requirements of online teaching and flexible learning modalities. With ICT applications, libraries shall be re-defined, re-structured, and re-designed to be relevant and responsive to flexible learning modalities and modern educational needs. Libraries need to shift their collections and services to online medium and in electronic/digital formats. Consequently, librarians shall be competent, proactive, and flexible in managing their libraries by adapting to the global changes in the areas of information aggregation, curation, and dissemination. ## Section 1. Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives (VMGO) The library of an HEI shall have an explicit statement of its vision, mission, goals, and objectives in conformity with the institution's VMGO to serve as the framework for performing its role, functions, and responsibilities. It shall be visibly posted within the library premises and published in the library website. ## Section 2. Administration - The supervision of the library shall be clearly defined within the organizational structure of the institution and shall be under the head of the institution or designated representative. - The library shall be administered by a licensed full-time head librarian with the following qualifications: - A Master's Degree holder in Library and Information Science or any related field; - A member of accredited professional organization; and - With at least two (2) years of library-related supervisory experience - For HEls having several campuses, the presence of a licensed full-time librarian for each campus shall be based on librarian-student ratio as provided in Section 3 a.2 of this CMO. - The library shall have an advisory committee to assist the Head Librarian on matters pertaining to collection development and use. It shall be composed of designated representatives of the different colleges/departments and the student council/organization. - The library shall formulate a development/strategic plan to ensure continuous improvement of programs, resources and services. - The conduct of research to improve library and information services and operations shall be institutionalized. - The library shall have an updated manual of policies and procedures on its operations for both face-to-face and online. - An in-house evaluation of library programs, resources, services and personnel shall be conducted annually (e.g. library surveys, client/customer satisfaction surveys). ## Section 3. Human Resources - The library shall have an adequate and qualified personnel for quality library and information services for face-to-face and online services. - The number of personnel shall be based on the user population, size and scope of collection, services offered, service hours, physical facilities, and programs for the implementation of online teaching and flexible learning modalities. - Ratio of licensed librarians and support staff shall vary depending on the size of user population: - **For 1,000 and below user population (combined students, faculty and staff): ** At least one (1) full-time licensed librarian and at least one (1) full-time support staff - **For every additional 3,000 user population or a fraction thereof:** At least one (1) additional full-time licensed librarian and at least three (3) additional full-time support staff to implement the face-to-face and online professional services and activities of the library. **Note:** Student assistant/s may be an augmentation to provide the necessary support services. However, the number of hours rendered by student assistant/s should be equivalent to the number of hours rendered by the required number of full-time support staff. - The qualifications of library personnel shall be as follows: - **Librarians** - The librarians shall have the required valid license and are members of the accredited professional organization. - **Support Staff** - The support staff are the paraprofessionals who are non-licensed and holders of any Bachelor's degree as well as graduates of grade 12 and associate degree programs. - The institution shall have a continuous library personnel development program to promote career progression and specialization. ## Section 4. Collection Management ### **a. Selection and Acquisition** - The selection of library resources, both print and electronic, including textbooks, shall be undertaken by the faculty in collaboration with the librarians not violative of the Intellectual Property Code. - The acquisition of library resources, both print and electronic, shall be the responsibility of the librarians. - The HEI shall have the right to prescribe its textbooks and other instructional materials in print and/or electronic formats. - The library shall have a written collection development plan/policy to specify the acquisition strategies, ratio of progressive development of both print and electronic resources to support research and instruction, including online teaching and flexible learning modalities. The plan/policy shall be prepared in consultation with the Library Advisory Committee and approved by the administration. - A periodic evaluation of existing collection of print and electronic using various approaches/tools shall be conducted. - A regular weeding or deselection program shall be undertaken to keep the collections of print and electronic relevant and up-to-date. ### **b. Library Holdings** - For newly-established institution, the start-up total library book collection shall be at least 3,000 titles. In the granting of government recognition, the total book collection shall be at least 5,000 titles. These titles shall be in a combination of print and electronic formats. The ratio of the print and electronic resources shall be determined by the institution based on its modalities of flexible learning strategies and may be augmented/supplemented with materials from open educational resources (OER) as determined by curators composed of faculty and librarians. For easy monitoring, these resources shall be listed/recorded and be made available in any discovery tool or an online public catalog. - To promote Philippine arts, culture and local history materials, the library shall maintain Filipiniana resources, both print and electronic formats, equivalent to ten percent (10%) of the current total collection. Acquisition and usage shall be monitored through the library system, both manually and electronically. - Adequate, relevant, and current resources, both print and non-print, shall be provided to support general education subjects. - For each undergraduate program offering, the library shall provide five (5) relevant book titles for each major subject published within the last five (5) years, in combination of print and purchased electronic formats, the ratio of which shall be determined by the institution. For subjects that do not normally come out with new edition/book titles, the required recency of publication of five (5) years may be waived. - For each graduate program offering, the library shall provide additional five (5) relevant book titles for each specialized discipline offered under the program, published within the last five (5) years, in a combination of print and purchased electronic formats, the ratio of which shall be determined by the institution. At least one (1) of the five titles is published by a foreign reputable academic pres. (Refer to CMO No. 15, series of 2019). - For reserve and frequently used books, at least one (1) copy, both print and electronic, shall be provided. Only one (1) copy, either print or electronic, shall be acquired for books that are not to be put on reserve or not frequently used. - A periodical collection composed of local and foreign titles shall be provided by the library. The minimum periodical titles shall be at least fifty (50), in combination of print and electronic formats, the ratio of which shall be determined by the institution. - For each undergraduate program, at least three (3) titles of professional journals, local and foreign publications, in combination of print and electronic formats, shall be subscribed to, the ratio of which shall be determined by the institution. - For each graduate program, at least two (2) peer-reviewed professional journals or internationally-refereed journals shall be subscribed to in addition to the three (3) undergraduate journal titles, in combination of print and electronic formats determined by the institution. Subscription or access (through a consortium, interlibrary basis) to electronic databases of international and reputable journals indexed in internationally recognized indexes of scholarly journals shall be institutionalized to maximize the use of electronic databases (Refer to CMO No. 15, series of 2019). - Non-print/audiovisual materials and electronic/digital resources shall be made available. - Special collections, including theses and dissertations in print and electronic formats, and relevant multimedia, in compliance with the Intellectual Property Code, shall be made available to meet the requirements of the various programs and courses offered. - For institutions with satellite campuses, the minimum requirements for professional holdings for both undergraduate and graduate programs shall be maintained in the said campuses. Sharing of electronic/digital resources from the main to the satellite library or among system-schools or consortia shall be institutionalized to maximize the use and benefits of electronic resources and justify acquisition and maintenance cost. - Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) may share resources with the city/provincial libraries in their localities. Relevant library collection of the city/provincial libraries shall be counted in compliance with the library collection requirements in this CMO. ### **c. Organization** - The library collection shall be organized to ensure efficient identification and retrieval. It shall be cataloged, classified and/or indexed according to accepted standards of bibliographic description and system of classification. - An online catalog or a discovery tool shall be made available for easy access to available resources. - The creation of bibliographic records shall conform to international metadata standards, such as MARC21 or Dublin Core, for standardization. - For purposes of identification, all printed library collections shall be stamped with the name of the HEI, together with the campus owning the collection. ### **d. Preservation** - Preventive measures to protect and preserve the collection shall be undertaken. - The library shall have policies on security and control as safeguards from damage, loss, mutilation and theft. - A disaster preparedness, response, and recovery plan for the collection shall be formulated and implemented. The plan shall include microfilming and digitization of special/archival collections. - Proper environment conditions shall be maintained and good housekeeping practices shall be implemented. - First aid treatments (e.g., mending torn pages, erasing unnecessary writings, binding, etc.) to conserve damaged and deteriorated materials shall be implemented in accordance with existing standards and accepted practices for conservation. Basic treatments (e.g., washing, de-acidification, humidification, etc.) shall also be considered. - Library personnel shall attend training programs on preservation and conservation, including disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, to equip them with knowledge and skills to preserve library collections. ## Section 5. Services and Utilization - The library shall provide a variety of services and tools to support the teaching, research, and extension programs/services, including online teaching and flexible learning modalities of the institution. These shall include, but not limited to the following to be conducted face to face or online: - Reference and information services - Library instruction - Inter/Intra-library loans - Document delivery - Selective dissemination of information - Remote access to electronic resources - Software platforms that support plagiarism detection, reference management (including citation tools), virtual conference or online meetings, media streaming, etc. - Innovative and flexible library services shall be designed to continuously provide students, teaching and non-teaching personnel, and other stakeholders access to information for new learning modalities such as but not limited to the following: - Virtual library (students/faculty and other stakeholders can access the collection through the OPAC). - Circulation services, face-to-face and online, through: - book padala or courier - book pick up and drop off in designated areas - scanning or digitization - photocopying - Electronic database instruction and training - The use of purchased/subscribed electronic resources shall follow the rules and policies stipulated in the license agreement. - The library shall undertake various strategies to promote and inform the users of library collections and services. ## Section 6. Physical Facilities - The library shall be strategically located with adequate space and facilities for students, faculty, staff, and others that can accommodate at least five percent (5%) of the total on-site users. - There shall be dedicated learning spaces for discussion, creation, and innovation. - Adequate space for office use and staff work area, storage of inactive collections and supplies, as well as conservation area shall be provided. - There shall be proper lighting and ventilation in all areas of the library. - Appropriate and comfortable furniture shall be provided. - Facilities for persons with disabilities (PWDs) shall be made available (e.g. ramps, railings, comfort rooms, etc.) and other requirements specified in existing laws shall be made available to persons with special needs. - There shall be emergency exits, fire extinguishers, built-in emergency lights, and other measures deemed necessary and required by the National Building Code of the Philippines. ## Section 7. Information Technology Infrastructure and Services - The library shall have the basic infrastructure to support the IT-enabled operations and services which may include, but not limited to, Internet-connected computers with productivity software, Wi-Fi access points, printers, scanners, and other information appliances such as photocopiers. - The library shall provide adequate computing devices (e.g., desktop computers, laptops, tablets) to access electronic resources and Web services. - A library automation plan to establish and/or implement an Integrated Library System (ILS) shall be in place. The ILS will facilitate the application modules designed to perform the technical and readers' services functions of the library such as acquisitions, cataloging, serials management, indexing, resource discovery (searching), as well as circulation and transaction monitoring. - The library shall have an official website to serve as a gateway to its online catalog and other electronic learning resources (e.g., online databases, e-books, e-journals), and/or online services. ## Section 8. Financial Resources - The head librarian shall prepare an annual budget proposal to support the entire library operation for consideration and approval of the management. - The institution shall set a library fee at a realistic level, to be reviewed periodically and used for library development. - The library shall explore other ways of augmenting its financial resources when the institutional funds are inadequate. ## Section 9. Linkages and Networking - The librarians shall engage in local, regional, and international linkages and networking activities. - The librarians shall participate in inter-institutional activities, cooperative programs, as well as community service learning (e.g., help develop reading habits of public school students). ## Section 10. Repealing Clause This CMO supersedes all previous issuances concerning library requirements which may be inconsistent or contradictory with any of the provisions hereof. ## Section 11. Transitory Provisions All public and private HEls shall fully comply with all the minimum requirements prescribed in this CMO within a non-extendable period of three (3) years after the date of its effectivity. **For immediate dissemination and implementation.** **Quezon City, Philippines November 2, 2021** **J. PROSPERO E. DE VERA III, DPA** **Chairman**