Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Privacy Statements
Pao Yue-kong Library Annual Report 2007/2008
The future of any University Library is not pre-determined. It is chosen. It is planned. The choice of the Preferred Library Scenario by the University has been a milestone in the on-going development of the Pao Yue-kong Library. This Scenario is readily available from the Library. It clearly articulates how the Library will appear and perform in three years' time. The construction of this Scenario was a very important outcome for this year.
At the heart of every library's service is its provision of access to information content. The University Library now spends two-thirds of its resources on digital resources enabling the teachers, researchers and students to learn and work more flexibly. With sustained funding commitment from the University, the Library collection continues to grow strongly and has exceeded 2.2 million items. But importantly the access to digital resources is now more impressive. These resources were acquired, organized and managed to support the curriculum and research needs of the University. The number of e-databases has increased to 646 while subscribed e-journals exceeded 32,600 titles. Some 20,000 volumes of E-books were acquired via the ERALL (Electronic Resources Academic Library Link) project, sponsored by UGC's Restructuring and Collaboration Fund. The online AV resources now provides 5,402 online videos, 156 e-learning programs, over 900 online audiobook titles and over 110,000 tracks of online music.
During the year, the Library collection has been enriched with generous donations. Two ceremonies were hosted by the Library in appreciation of the donations of the Qianlong Great Buddhist Canon and a book collection from the PolyU President Prof. Poon Chung-kwong.
As part of the Library's strategy to make more content and services available electronically, access to scholarly resources, not owned by the Library, is being expedited by a new system,RAPIDILL. The turn-around time for the delivery of scanned inter-lending journal articles was reduced significantly with this new tool.The Library also signed collaboration agreement with four new partners. The Library now has partnership arrangements with eight academic libraries in the Mainland and overseas, including Tsinghua University Library, Southeast University Library, Zhejiang University Library and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Special workshops were organised throughout the year to enhance the better utilization of library resources by faculties and students. These included workshops on how to conduct citation analysis, and how to publish in journals. A seminar on the Copyright Ordinance Amendment was hosted by the Library and attended by staff from the eight UGC sponsored universities. To facilitate publication activities in the University, the Library joined the BioMed Central membership which covers the cost of publishing articles by PolyU academic staff in 186 peer-reviewed open access journals.
The Library now has two clear presences: a physical and also a virtual presence. In the Second Life virtual-reality environment, the LibraryBuilding has been erected. A Library Video was also produced and uploaded to YouTube. To enhance its physical fabric, the Library has contracted a space planning consultant to develop a concept design brief which could form the Library's master plan to refurbish to become the learning hub of the University.
The University Library is working and will continue to work steadily towards the achievement of the Preferred Library Scenario.