Becoming a Learner for Learners : The Libraries staff seminar-workshop 2014




The year 2014 started off with a bang for the DLSU Libraries family as it welcomed the new term with a day of insightful and fun-filled seminar-workshop last January 3, 2014.

Dubbed as “You and Your Library: Becoming a Learner for Learners”, the staff training also served as a general assembly of all the librarians and staff from The Learning Commons and all satellite libraries. To promote group dynamics and teamwork, the participants were seated according to team color. The members in each team were determined via raffle system to enable personnel from different sections to mingle and get to know each other more.

Each team represented the members of the League of Information Assistants: LORA (Green Team), TOM (Blue Team), RIA (Yellow Team), CORA (Orange Team), EDRA (Violet Team), KIRA (Pink Team), LERA (Gray Team), SCITRA (White Team), ARA (Brown Team), and ASRA (Red Team). These were the also the groupings for the activities during the afternoon session.

Ms. Ana Maria B. Fresnido, Director of Libraries, opened the whole-day affair with her opening remarks and a brief report on the highlights and accomplishments of the Libraries for the year 2013.

Everyone was honored by the presence of Dr. Leonila C. Abella, Associate Vice President for Information Resource Management, and her keynote address. She encouraged the librarians and staff to keep up the good work of providing excellent service to all library users.

Ms. Christine M. Abrigo, Assistant Director for Operations, through her presentation entitled “Your Library as a Learning Organization: Why Not?”, pointed out the importance of evolution and change in a learning organization and why each staff should strive to be a learner for our learners. She emphasized that this can be done best by “inculcating among the staff the essence of imbibing the learning organization culture for vision-setting and effective service rendering”.

To familiarize the staff with the new services and other changes in the library organization, Mr. Perseus Rex M. Molina, Assistant Director for Support Services, reported on “What’s Brewing in Your Library?”. He specifically introduced the newest satellite libraries at the Science and Technology Complex (DLSU­-STC) located in Biñan, Laguna. He also mentioned the newly launched library services such as the League of Library Assistants (LIA) and Graduate Information Literacy Program (GILP).

The morning session of talks had surely filled the minds of the captive audience with new knowledge. To prepare better for the series of group activities and games for the afternoon session, everyone filled their tummies in the boodlefight lunch!

Ms. Marian R. Eclevia, Reader’s Services Coordinator/Information-Reference Head, started the afternoon session with a talk on information literacy (IL) and its importance in the workplace. To make her point clearer, she paired the rest of her presentation with exciting games.

“Are You InfoSMARTer Than a La Sallian Student?” taught the library staff how to identify various types and formats of information sources as they answered the same set of questions asked to two Lasallian students.

By finding answers to the fifteen (15) questions in the “IamInfoSMART Scavenger Hunt” card, the ability of each team to find and locate the needed information effectively and efficiently was put to the test.

In the Libraries’ edition of “Is it a Fact or a Bluff?”, Ms. Ana Maria B. Fresnido, Ms. Christine M. Abrigo, and Mr. Perseus Rex M. Molina, the bluffers, helped in finding out which team is the best in evaluating information sources.

The last challenge for the teams is the “IamInfoSMART Amazing Race”, based on the reality TV show. The contestants performed various tasks in a race against other teams. There were a total of seven (7) pit stops located in the different sections of The Learning Commons. This activity is the integration of all the IL skills learned from the previous presentations and activities.

Team TOM, who got the most number of points at the end of all four games, brought home the bacon. Landing second and third places respectively are Team KIRA and Team SCITRA.

This whole day of fun and learning hopefully has instilled in the staff the value of becoming a learning organization, equipping them with information literacy skills for the benefit of the Libraries’ constituents, and thus, making them learners for our learners.