Philippine eLib

Overview

The Philippine eLib is a collaborative national e-library project providing a unified online portal for access to Philippine heritage materials, academic resources, and digitized Filipiniana. It serves as the Philippines' first public electronic library, integrating the catalogs and digital collections of five major partner institutions.

History and Founding

The project was conceptualized in 2003 through the efforts of DOST Undersecretary Fortunato de la Peña and was launched in 2004 as a government e-fund initiative. The five partner institutions are the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), the University of the Philippines (UP), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). At launch, the portal held more than 800,000 bibliographic records and 25 million pages of Philippine materials.

Collections and Holdings

The Philippine eLib provides access to a union catalog combining the holdings of all five partner institutions, digitized Filipiniana materials including theses and dissertations, special collections and research outputs from the partner institutions, and subscriptions to electronic databases. Filipiniana materials — those printed in or about the Philippines, or written by Filipinos — are a central focus. Preservation copies of digitized resources are maintained in both microfilm and digital format at the University of the Philippines Library and the National Library of the Philippines. A replica data center is maintained at the UP Diliman campus.

Access

The portal is freely accessible online at elib.gov.ph. Access points are distributed across public libraries and satellite offices of the partner agencies throughout the Philippines, from Baguio City in the north to Sultan Kudarat in the south.