The UP Diliman (UPD) University Library (UL) won big at the 2025 Philippine Association of Academic and Research Librarians, Inc. General Assembly (PAARL 2025) on Jan. 30 at the National Library of the Philippines in Manila. The UL was recognized for its research output, extension work, and infrastructure projects.
According to its website, PAARL is a major “association of academic and research librarians in the Philippines that upholds the profession of academic and research librarianship in the country.”
For its research output, the UL, through its staff members Chloe Maeve L. Domingo and Nicole R. Zulueta, received the PAARL 3rd Best Research Award for their paper From Research Made Easy to TALASIK: A Mixed-Methods Assessment of the UP Diliman University Library Instruction Program. TALASIK—a portmanteau of the words talas (keenness) and saliksik (research or exploration)—is the UL’s library orientation and instruction program.
The UL Librarians Empowerment Action of Diliman (LEAD) program also won the PAARL Outstanding Library Program of the Year.
Launched in 2018, LEAD is the UL sustainable extension program that provides information literacy programs to communities beyond the university. According to the UL, this “upholds the principle of providing timely access to information that can transform lives, especially for communities with limited resources.”
PAARL also awarded the UPD College of Engineering (COE) Library Learning Commons (Learning Commons) with the Innovative Library Design Award under the large size library category.
Inaugurated in March 2025, the Learning Commons features technology-rich spaces for research and collaboration such as discussion rooms, hybrid-flexible faculty areas, conference spaces, and exhibit spaces.