About the Educational Media Center: Mission| Vision| Objectives | Personnel | The Library | The ITC

The present Library started when the Ateneo High School was transferred to its present site in 1956. At that time, the space was enough to maintain the collection and provide services to the more than 900-student population. In the early 70’s, the Audiovisual (AV) Section was established, realizing the importance of the use of audiovisual materials and equipment in the teaching-learning process. A room adjacent to the Library was used as the Projection Room where the small collection of AV materials and equipment were also housed. This section was placed under the supervision of the HS Librarian and a technical assistant was hired to provide services to the users.

Simultaneously since then, the collections and services of both the Library and the AV grew, at the same time that the population being served by the two sections increased. For this reason, a new building was constructed in 1991 during the term of Fr. Jose A. Cruz, S.J. as principal. The new complex housed two projection rooms, one large enough to hold three classes and a second one adequate enough to hold two classes. Likewise, it was also designed to contain a work/stack room, a multi-purpose room, a prayer room and a set of activity rooms for students, which can be converted to classroom use for special Math or tracking classes. Eventually, these activity rooms gave way for the offices of the Parents Union for School and the Home (PUSH) and its adviser/coordinator, the coordinator for Lay Friends of the Lord and the Prefect of Discipline for freshmen.

The creation of the said complex gave way to the expansion of the Library reading area, together with the construction of the Silent Reading Room, the Library Lobby and Foyer as well as the renovation/expansion of the continuous expansion of the student population, the faculty population has also increased which necessitated the conversion of the Faculty Reading Room into a Faculty Computer Room while the latter was moved to the Silent Reading Room in the summer of 1997.

On the other hand, the creation and expansion of the Audiovisual Room required the employment of a media specialist who was tasked to organize, coordinate and put to effective use the resources of the new complex. In 1993, the new complex was named the Instructional Technology Center (ITC) and the new media specialist, being a professional librarian and a master’s degree holder in Educational Technology (with 16 years experience in the field of librarianship), was given the free hand to supervise the Center, reporting directly to the then Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs.

Recent developments in staffing, physical structure and supervision of programs and services once again call for the integration of the two sections. Since the practice among schools, both here and abroad, is towards a unified media program and related services encompassing all formats in line with the development of a multi-media approach to teaching and learning, the re-integration was approved by the School Council in its meeting last February 28, 2001. The new integrated set-up was given the name Educational Media Center (EMC), following the Grade School model. With the retirement of the librarian in March 2000, the former ITC Coordinator was appointed as the EMC Coordinator.