University Library

Brief History

Library-Museum Building, UPV, Miagao, Iloilo

The UPV Library was established as early as April 1947, with the founding of the University of the Philippines Iloilo College (UPIC).  Dr. Tomas S. Fonacier, the first Dean of U.P. Iloilo College (UPIC), requested the University Library (U.P. Diliman) to help him prepare a list of books that would form the nucleus of the College Library and nominate a Librarian who could immediately take over the work on the preparation and organization of the Library. In the second semester of 1947, Mrs. Soledad Mandac-Eugenio was finally nominated and appointed as the first College Librarian of UPIC.

The College Library was located in the former Municipal Court Room of Iloilo City. It had then a maximum seating capacity of about one hundred students. Behind the Court Room, provisions were made for book stacks with an estimated capacity of about 20,000 volumes of books. The library’s initial collection was 522 volumes of books, 8 newspapers, and 73 magazines. In 1967, a mezzanine was built to provide additional space for its increasing number of clients. In 1969, library space was further expanded when another room was offered to the library. The courtroom and the Lozano Hall were then utilized to the fullest.

From 1947 to 1971, the College Library also serviced the needs of the High School students. It was in 1971 when the high school collection was transferred in a separate library quarter and a librarian was assigned to take care of both collections and services.

On October 30, 1980, with the operationalization of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) as an autonomous unit of the UP System, the College of Fisheries Library in Diliman became a unit of the UPV University Library. In Miagao, Iloilo an 800 sq. m. split-level library museum was constructed in the new campus.

As the college grew in terms of its academic programs, so did the library. Improvements of the quarter were made through several re-arrangements of service desks and work areas. In 1983, Room 22 of the Main Building, a classroom then, was converted into a Technical Services Section where new acquisitions were being received and processed.

To better serve the needs of the students, faculty members, and researchers of the College of Fisheries Program in Iloilo, the Brackish Aquaculture Center (BAC) Library in Leganes was re-organized in July 1987.  It was made the seat of fisheries information and library activities.  It now serves as a unit library for BAC, one of the research arms of the Institute of Aquaculture.

In June 1988, the College of Fisheries Library in Miagao became operational.  The existing CF Library materials from Iloilo City and Diliman were gradually organized and transferred to the Library-Museum Building in Miagao campus, in time for the start of classes.  By 1990, the transfer of the CAS Division of Humanities and Division of Social Sciences to Miagao campus started, and soon after followed by the School of Technology and the other remaining divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences. When the transfer of the CAS to Miagao Campus was completed, the transfer of most of the personnel from Iloilo City Campus followed eventually.  The operations of the UPV Library were thus enhanced and the collections were enriched to meet the information needs of the UPV clients.

Currently, the University Library consists of five (5) unit libraries located in Iloilo City and Miagao.  The UP Cebu Library (formerly UPV Cebu Library) was once part of the University Library until October 2016 when UPV Cebu was elevated as a constituent university of the UP System. UP Tacloban College Library was also part of the UPV University Library prior to the elevation of the UP Tacloban College, as an autonomous unit, last April 27, 2023.

University Librarians