PANDI, Bulacan—National and Bulacan officials of Department of Science and Technology (DOST) led recently the turn-over ceremony of the Science and Technology Academic and Research-based Openly Operated Kiosk Station (Starbooks) at the Virginia-Ramirez Cruz Memorial National High School in Barangay Siling Bata in this municipality.
Science Assistant Secretary Manny Galvez and Dr. Julius Caesar V. Sicat, DOST director in Central Luzon, led the event, together with Angelita Parungao, DOST-Bulacan provincial director; school personnel and other guests.
Emelita de Jesus, the school principal, accepted the unit on behalf of the school.
Sicat said Starbooks is an award-winning innovative project developed by the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII). He said it is a virtual library in a box that contains thousands of digitized science-and-technology resources in text, video and audio formats.
It also contains the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as videos of livelihood technologies.
Its stand-alone format makes it possible to access information even without an Internet connection making it ideal for adoption by public elementary and secondary schools, which cannot afford expensive Internet services. Local government units can also put up their own Starbooks in their public libraries, he added.
Sicat said the event is hailed as a step toward improving science education in the country. He also expressed hope that the installation of Starbooks in the school would get more students interested in science research, as they now have a readily available source of information for their studies.
He also encouraged other schools to put up their own Starbooks. The DOST has already provided Starbooks to Santa Peregrina High School and in seven barangays of Pulilan in Bulacan. Another two units will also soon be turned over to the General Gregorio del Pilar Elementary School in the municipality of Bulakan.
Besides Bulacan, Starbooks has also been installed in various local government units in the other provinces of Central Luzon and other parts of the country, as well as state colleges and universities, he said.
