COA: Starbooks a noble program

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has praised the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)’s STARBOOKS, or Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosk Station, the first digital science library in the Philippines which can run without Internet connection.

In the final report on its 2014 audit, the COA declared that the STARBOOKS program was an innovation that merits praise because it provides opportunities to deprived but deserving students in the countryside and gives them access to information on S&T for free.

“Looking at this program, bringing this library to far-flung areas is very noble as far as COA is concerned,” stated Karlo Almonidovar, Commission on Audit supervising auditor assigned at the DOST.  

He said the social impact of STARBOOKS is important because it addressed poverty alleviation through education.  

 “This is the essence of bringing education to far-flung areas. The program is worth pursuing because of its accomplishment as the program has already been distributed nationwide and has gained significant milestones,” Almonidovar said.

The DOST bagged the  2015 American Library Association Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects last June for the STARBOOKS project. The American Library Association is an international organization of library associations in the United States.

STARBOOKS is a technological innovation on the traditional library, transforming books into digital format. It contains knowledge products and research materials such as scientific journals, audio-video productions and film clips, tutorials and detailed information on Filipino scientists and inventors and their works. It covers varied topics such as food and nutrition, health and medicine, energy, environment and livelihood technologies. In 2013, its content was further beefed up by the addition of the Britannica Ultimate Encyclopedia 2013 Edition.