A memorandum of agreement strengthening the distribution of digitized science and technology library-in-a-box to remote areas was inked on Thursday by the Department of Science and Technology and the Office of Civil Defense at the DoST Central Office in Taguig City.

Established in 2011, the Starbooks, or Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks, is a stand-alone information source designed to reach those with limited or no access to S&T information resources. This contains hundreds of thousands of S&T resources in various formats, such as text, video, and audio, placed in specially designed “pods” with a user-friendly interface.

Moreover, a DOST Science and Technology Information Institute key official said that the library also includes basic and advanced education resources, with teaching modules and support activities and the entire curriculum of the Department of Education.

“Starbooks is an idea to bridge the digital divide; we started digitizing our content 13 years ago, and so we made our library collection available to people online, but the perspective of our MIS (Management Information System) head was that ‘what about those students in areas where there is no internet service?’” said DOST-STII Director Richard Burgos.

“We really look forward to working with the Office of Civil Defense, because the kind of [help] that you will provide us could mean life or death to many of our citizens. Because we are almost at risk of national disasters in the entire world, we really need help to make our people understand what they can do before, during, and after a natural disaster,” he added.

In an open forum, the DAILY TRIBUNE asked if the kiosks were provided with a Filipino language option, especially to cater to a wider audience and make them easily understandable to learners from geographically isolated areas, Burgos answered: “The translation of disaster-related information into the local languages is where our partnership with the OCD will kick in.”

Obligations of the DOST through DOST-STII include coordinating with the OCD for the contents of the submitted plan; being responsible for the processing of the contents submitted and the uploading in the Starbooks database; providing the S&T information contents for the Starbooks system; ensuring that proper attribution is duly followed by allotting a module featuring Disaster Risk Reduction and Management-related materials and publications as a special collection; and advocating and promoting DRRM-related activities with the OCD that support STEM education, such as virtual training workshops or webinars, among others.

Meanwhile, the obligations of the OC are providing the DOST-STOI, with the digital copy of the DRRM-related materials and publications without any fee to be included in the Starbooks offline and online database; advocating and promoting DRRM-related activities with the DOST-STII in support of the STEM education program, such as virtual training workshops or webinars, among others; promoting the benefits of the use of the Starbooks program to their institutions; and being responsible for the proper coordination of the use of S&T materials to their affiliated institutions, agencies, and libraries, if any, including their possible inclusion in the Starbooks program.

Among those who graced the event are DoST Usec. for Scientific and Technology Services Maridon Sahagun and OCD Deputy Administrator for Administration Asec. Bernardo Alejandro IV.

According to DoST, there are already 7, 541 units of Starbooks distributed nationwide, and they are stepping up their efforts to deploy more in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.