Library is a necessary piece of any educational institution. Relating it to a human composition, it is the heart which serves as the pumping station of the body. A person could not live without a heart because this organ is liable for pumping blood althroughout the body in order to function well. Library, as the heart of the school, have a huge impact on the total functionality of the said institution. Indeed, a library is more vital than a school since the it can work without a school, but a school cannot perform well without a library as stated by Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma in Lanzuela, (2008).Furthermore, there can be no school without ample library facilities, services, and resources that could provide necessary knowledge for the production of quality education, Aggabao, (1991). Libraries are service-oriented organizations established for the provision of appropriate information resources and quality services to meet the users information needs (Howard 2003).This states that a library is an organization that is built for the people to benefit. It is for everybody regardless of age, color, race and other categories that have diversities. It also provides variety of literacy materials that are needed to meet the different welfare and educational needs. Libraries also can give the users with continuously altering consistent, and interesting reading, and literacy materials to sustain the establishment of an optimistic outlook towards literacy, making it a fun place to spend time with.
Text Box: 1Young and Belanger (1983) defined library as an established structure that convene the information requirements of students. The services offered by the libraries are needed to elevate an individual to develop ones skills, interest, and potentials. The purpose of building or constructing a library is to sharpen, expand, and extend an individual’s mind. And also to make a person’s mind function more vital and imaginative.
Liberty is the keyword for the libraries. Readers comprehend what they covet and also the books according to their individual ways. Nobody would outline them or interrupt them. Everything is organized and the environment enables students to save more time, study more in less time and effort in using and learning in the library (Singh, 2013). Students must not be frightened or reluctant in using the library because it offers free services. They don’t charge money at all. Because of that, everybody must maximize their time and use the library often. Using the library will leave an encouraging impact among those who use it often. It never causes any pessimistic effect on a person.
Forsyth (2005) said that libraries are essentials in mounting a community through the information it provides. Having a library in a community is a great aspect to regard as in improving and promoting that community through the use of the information which is provided by the library.
Text Box: 2In research, the library contributes a lot. It is one of the most frequent places to stopover whenever someone conducts researches because it provides a lot of information on approximately every topic from its least detail up to the principal features. All information can be found there. Hopkins (2007) highlights sources of research information to consist of personal letters, papers, newspaper article, speeches, minutes of meetings, oral histories, news footage, narratives, diaries and journals, photograph and paintings, advertisements, sketches, maps, posters, banners, material artifacts, computer software, wed documents, and e-mail achieves. These sources of information are necessary in carrying out and conducting any form of research.
Library is considered an advantage of the school for quality education. Its main purpose is to carry on the curriculum or programs offered by the school. Also, it was believed that the foremost objective of a university is to maximize the users’ needed accomplishment and satisfaction. Through the school libraries, the stated goal of the university is somewhat achieved, Tabianan (2003). Library helps in bringing quality education and triumph of students. In 1989, Keith Curry Lance studied about the effect of Scholastic Research and Results (SLP) on the students’ achievement. He used quantitative research methods. The study resulted to an “affirmative relationship between a good, strong student achievement and school library program” (Kaplan, 2006, p. 23). This states that the library helps in forming the students into well-rounded individuals in the future.
An educational institution could not reach their two-fold mission of distributing knowledge and extending its research progress without first elevating and enhancing library resources and services (Khan and Bhatti, 2012). Without enrichment, improvement and substantiation of data and resources, a library would be considered useless and worthless.
Text Box: 3A library is a treasure-house of knowledge. A library is a benefit to the university, the school environs or college. A library has a librarian to attend and channel to the readers. There are district libraries and vicinity libraries. Information technology has helped in civilizing the library facilities. A library is a place where not only books but also newspapers, magazines and journals are well-stocked for the benefit of the readers. Beside this one can also get the entire atlas, Encyclopedia, etc. It is an accumulation of knowledge. It helps to widen the scope of education. Users can borrow the book of his choice and take it home or read the in the library. The library is a known place in the academic curriculum (Rajkoomar, 2013). The library is the most prominent academic constitution that can be found in schools, universities and offices.
Our society is experiencing a process of speedy moving toward, change what is called the knowledge society, the network society, the information society or the informational mode of development (Castells, 1996;Inglis et al, 2002) refer to the following features of the present period: impulsive, incessant change and metamorphosis; the non-accomplishment of great theories such as Marxism to locate and foretell directions of change. It is known that knowledge and information are classifying features of this modern society and the primary driver of this change is the communication technologies and (ICT and increasing use of information). Because of the swift improvement of technology, most libraries are now internet based. Because of this, information can be processed faster.
Text Box: 4 A library is reckoned as storage of wisdom. Merriam-Webster dictionary defined library as a place where books, magazines, and other materials such as videos and musical recordings are available for people to use or borrow. It plays a big role in elevating the progress of knowledge. It is also practical for students who can’t afford to purchase all the books they need in their studies. Achitabwino (2007) said that libraries have a big role in advancement by providing support to the educators and giving relevant information to the people. He argued that all professional skills are outputs of information dissemination progress through different libraries.
Library offers every user a healthy environment for learning and research. The library’s atmosphere helps the students a lot to focus more and finish tasks at school, which they may find difficult to get done at home, apartments, and boarding houses due to some factors such as noise. That is why a well-kept library provides maximum effect to all its users.
Saint Mary’s University, a CICM Catholic educational institution, envisions itself as a community committed to forming persons exemplifying excellence, innovation, and Christ’s mission (SMU Handbook, 2016 edition).This vision statement provides the objective of the school of continuously building bridge between individuals and their learning opportunities. Jim Rettig President, (2008) described libraries as the only providers of universally reachable lifelong learning opportunities. Therefore, libraries pave a way in obtaining most of the school objectives.
Text Box: 5 Jubilee Library, one of Saint Mary’s University’s libraries, is therefore a key to obtain a vision of producing excellence and innovation among the university’s stakeholders. Jubilee Library contains reading materials such as thesis, researches, newspapers, and books for all stakeholders of the said institution. This building provides resources and services to the users as they look for references and some important information related to their own fields and conduct of study. Thus, this library is essential in obtaining development and improvement on users, specifically the students.
Among all the students of Saint Mary’s University, the School of Accountancy and Business occupies of a large number of population compared to other departments. The School of Accountancy and Business can therefore contribute to the betterment of the school’s image. Their contributions can directly affect the entirety of the school’s performance. Also, they would use their investigative and mathematical skills to contribute a lot not only to the world of business but also to the world itself.
Due to large number of accountancy students, greater percentage of the users of the Jubilee library can be obtained from them. This suggests that the Jubilee Library has an important role in providing quality education to every student, specifically the accountancy students. The information gathered by the accountancy students enables them to gain more knowledge, to sharpen and broaden their minds, and to open opportunities for their education and soon be a Certified Public Accountant. The Jubilee Library is a gateway to build excellence and innovation among Marian accountancy students. It acts like a bridge that binds all students of all courses with their field of choice. Using the Jubilee Library saves all the time and effort that the students exert because it lightens the burdens and the concerns of the learners because it provides the learners with all the information that they need in improving their academic performance. The Jubilee Library is home to a lot of research and thesis books. These thesis and research books contain a lot of information with citations from different people from different parts of the world. All students from all professions are free to use the services of the Jubilee Library.
The objective of the study is to know the importance of the Jubilee library to the accountancy students of Saint Mary’s University with the services it offers to them such as its books, learning materials, internet connection, thesis or dissertations, and the ambiance or environment it has. This chapter will show the results from the survey conducted by the researchers, analysis, and discussions of the answers of the respondents.