The Cerritos College librarians took the spotlight as they expressed ways to help students save money and track their educational careers.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Librarian Paula Pereira joined the faculty meeting to discuss the Textbook Reserve Collection where students can check out books from the library for a few hours and get the information they need for their classes.

“The traditional way the library acquires the textbooks would be that the instructors bring a copy of their book to be placed on reserve,” she said.

As of last year the library will be receiving $30,000 a year for the next five years.

Pereira introduced the new and innovative way to get a book from reserve.

With that money, the library staff has been able to purchase over 450 books that meet the needs and demands of the students.

The library can now purchase used and new books from the bookstore that will benefit more students in the process.

Later in the meeting, librarian Debra Moore explained a new way students will be able to track their educational career.

Completion Dashboard is the name of the new tool that will be added to MyCerritos.

The dashboard is a bar that will show up on the bottom left of the MyCerritos screen.

Students will be able to see the bar grow for each class they take that is necessary to obtain an associate’s degree.

Students can look even deeper at their educational development by clicking on the bar itself.

By doing so, students will be able to see two separate bars, one that tracks the general education requirements and the second tracking the specific major requirements.

Students will also know if they’re taking too many classes of a certain subject or if they’re missing classes.

Moore said, “The idea stage began about a year and a half ago and I’m hoping it will be live as early as next month.”

A programmer still has to look over some things before it can be approved however.

Moore hopes a way students will find out about this tool will be through instructors.

A video presentation will likely be made to show students how to use the dashboard and it will likely be available to all students to see.

Two dates for commencement have been decided, May 14, 2016 and May 20, 2016.

After a few of the members explained their reasoning for what day they want commencement to happen, it was decided that students will get to choose what day they want graduation.