IRRI Library Visit

IRRI, which stands for International Rice Research Institute, is a non-profit organization that was built to help farmers and other rice producers to learn more about rice crop management, different rice varieties and how they can improve rice crop yield and quality.

Our LIS 260 class, lead by Prof Esposo, made our visit to the IRRI Library to observe their digitization efforts and to also check the library system that they are using.

It was a 2 hour drive from Manila to Los Banos. Of course, everyone was excited for this trip. Aside from that, everyone was eager to know the kind of environment the IRRI library has to present. When we arrived at our destination, IRRI was a sightful. The IRRI library did not disappoint us as well. Who would not enjoy a special welcome banner waiting for us at the entrance of the library.

The IRRI library is what I think unit libraries in UP should look like. It's got that homey yet professional feeling that I really like about libraries. It also has good lighting and comfy chairs and tables that users can work on. Overall, it is very conducive place to learn for researchers and students.

Their collection is something to be proud of also. From the short library orientation they prepared for us, I learned that the IRRI library has the highest collection relating to anything and everything about rice. Most of their collection is in english, a small portion of it are written in other foreign languages, particularly, languages in Asia. Also, they have an established borrowing system and this is what the library observes at all times to all clients. Their clients range from scientists to researchers, to farmers and students.

Slowly, the IRRI library, just like other established libraries, felt the need to progress and adapt to modern times. They have explored going digital with their collection. Going digital for them was not seen as a fad but as a need and this is to further improve their services so they can reach a wider community. They have incorporated in their system a way for researchers and scientists to have access to their rice literature collection. Sadly, we weren't able to explore and observe how they do their digitizing project. But they did tell us that they are conducting a digitization project, and they have already digitized some of their collections already. On the plus side, we were able to use the library system implemented at the IRRI organization.

IRRI uses a system call the Millenium, an integrated Library System and used by other big institutions like UST and La Salle. If we are to evaluate Millenium, by mere observation, we can say that it works just fine. The systems has no time lags and it is able to retrieve information at a second blink.  It's got a friendly interface, not intimidating to use but I think, for me that is the problem. It's not aesthetically nice, the interface is just really too simple to the point of being bland. I guess that can be one thing to improve on. In terms of data collection stored in their database, they pretty much put all their collections in there and these collections can be searched online through their OPAC. As effective as this system may be, from the management point of view, Millenium is proving to be a little bit costly for a non-profit organization. Apart from spending millions on the software alone, the library has to pay an annual maintenance and if they created changes to the system, it has a corresponding customization fee. This is the reason why, the head library, Ms. Mercedes Vijandre, wnats to migrate to another system. A system that could perform the function of Millenium and still be cost-friendly to the big bosses.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip immensely. It was educational, fun and most of all invigorating. It was such a nice change of view, far from the stresses created by Manila. Also, this class taught me a lot about new knowledge, especially on Information Retrieval Systems (IRs). Now I can say that I have fully grasped the concept of IR systems. Best of all, armed with new knowledge, I wish to be able to create my own IR systems in the future.