FOUR schools in Lanao del Norte recently acquired digital libraries from the Department of Science and Technology-Lanao del Norte office.

These are the Sultan Naga Dimaporo Memorial Integrated High School, Andres Bersales Sr. National High School, Sultan Naga Dimaporo Memorial Integrated School-Elementary School, and Miguela Pogoy Memorial Elementary School.

The local government unit of Sultan Naga Dimaporo led by Mayor Motalib Dimaporo, partnered with the DOST on the installation of STARBOOKS hubs.

STARBOOKS or the Science and Technology Academic Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks is the Philippines’ first digital science and technology library.

“STARBOOKS contains thousands of digitized science and technology resources in various formats (text and video/audio) placed in specially designed “pods” set in a user-friendly interface,” the DOST’s Science and Technology Information Institute said.

Teachers in the four schools were excited and grateful for the setting up of the digital libraries, saying students would be able to do research and have access to more materials.

“Puwede na maka-research ug makagamit puhon kung ma ok na ang tanan (We can finally start research once we complete all the software installations),” Rona Nacua, SNDMIS-HS School principal, said.

The DOST conducted a virtual training on how to use STARBOOKS.

“STARBOOKS will be beneficial to the teachers as an aid in the development of their distance learning programs and to children who have limited access to computers and information. No one will be left behind,” said DOST-Lanao del Norte Director Gerrylou Sweet Pia.