Library Strategic Plan 2019/20 - 2024/25

Vision

As the learning hub of the University and a dynamic scholarly gateway, the Library strives to facilitate and inspire students and faculty to acquire, create and share knowledge and to excel through education and scholarship.

Mission

The Library actively supports the University’s mission by providing integrated and timely access to high quality scholarly resources, an inspiring environment for intellectual growth and discovery, with responsive and outreaching services delivered by knowledgeable and innovative staff. It commits to empower the University community with deep expertise and high aspirations essential to academic excellence, knowledge advancement and life-long learning.

The Five Domains

  1. Quality of the Student Experience of Teaching and Learning
  1. Instil in students the desire to learn and strengthen their ability to ‘learn to learn’
    Strategic Actions
    1. Facilitate the development of “learn-to-learn” abilities and digital literacy among students:
      1. Strengthen information literacy instruction through the adoption of best pedagogical practices and latest technologies. Develop open access information literacy learning objects including the “InfoLit for U” MOOC to support self-directed learning anytime anywhere. Integrate the information literacy instruction into the University curriculum, especially through the Learning Management System (LMS).
      2. Facilitate experiential learning with emerging technologies and development of a creative and can-do mindset, via i-Space and its MakerMindset@i-Space programme. Collaborate with i-Space industrial partners to provide free theme-based workshops for students to enhance their digital literacy.
      3. Promote reading culture through the READ@PolyU Programme, the PolyU READ good reads collection and book exhibitions.
    2. Showcase and build pride in outstanding student work:
      1. Collect, digitize and archive Outstanding Work by Students (OWS). Facilitate these students to reflect on their learning experiences, and support them to share their reflection to the PolyU community in videos and other new media.
      2. Set up a new designated exhibition area on the Podium level of the Library to display outstanding work by students.
      3. Create a new designated online portal to showcase outstanding work by students to the global community.
  2. Enhance student learning experience and prepare for the onset of digital transformation in tertiary education
    Strategic Actions
    1. Build a new Open Educational Resources (OER) portal to facilitate the discovery and incorporation of quality online and public domain teaching and learning materials including MOOCs, into the curriculum.
    2. Enhance the e-preferred Library collection development policy and provide media-rich learning resources to support blended teaching and learning.
    3. Provide current digital facilities to support the diverse needs of students from all disciplines to build multimedia and digital applications.
  3. Transform physical and virtual learning spaces to facilitate new teaching and learning pedagogies
    Strategic Actions
    1. Transform the physical library with the Library Extension and Revitalisation Capital Works Project to meet the evolving needs of Library users. Construct an additional floor (6/F) on top of the existing library building with a Net Operational Floor Area (NOFA) of around 2,080 m2, and revitalize other levels (G/F to 5/F) with a total affected area (AFA) of about 14,600 m2.
    2. Withdraw obsolete non-archival materials from the Library collection to permit conversion of stack space into study space, and to ensure the collection stays current and relevant.
    3. Adopt a new course readings management system ‘Leganto’ which couples tightly with the Library System Alma, the Library’s discovery tool Primo, and prevalent learning management systems (LMS), to streamline the integration of Library resources and services into LMS.
    4. Provide an online library with e-resources accessible anytime, anywhere.
    5. Outreach to the University community via social media.

  1. Quality of Research Performance and of Research Postgraduate Experience
Strategic Actions
  1. Support research needs with relevant Library collection, open access materials and complemented with interlibrary loan and document delivery services.
  2. Provide consultancy and tailored support on relevant research matters including research data management, management of author profiles (ORCID, Scopus, etc.), citation search, and use of tools for research performance measurement.
  3. Organise publishing seminars to facilitate publishing.
  4. Equip research postgraduate students with relevant research and information literacy skills through topical and customized workshops and seminars that target different subject groups.
  5. Facilitate information use with a variety of enquiry services, including quick enquiries at Library counters, remote enquiries using WhatsApp and in-depth research consultation sessions with Faculty Librarians by appointment.
  6. Develop the PolyU Institutional Research Archive (PIRA) to archive and display research manuscripts, theses, patents, research output in various media, OWS and OER of PolyU members.
  7. Support copyright clearance in RAE2020.

  1. Knowledge Transfer and Wider Engagement
Strategic Actions
  1. Develop the Library’s Digital Initiatives. Digitise unique and archival Library materials for open access to support learning and research of the global community, including the PolyU Image Database. Digitise the manuscripts of Mr Cheng Kok-kong, PolyU Artist-in-Residence 2017/18.
  2. Develop a new Open Educational Resources portal to archive all open access materials produced by PolyU staff and students. Launch a new open access portal on outstanding work by PolyU students. Continue to develop the PolyU Institutional Research Archive (PIRA) to archive and display full contents of PolyU scholarly outputs for open access.
  3. Update the “InfoLit for U” MOOC for open access. Partner with the Education Bureau (EDB) to support inquiry-based learning with the “InfoLit for U MOOC” under the EDB’s IT in Education Centre of Excellence Scheme.
  4. Support secondary school STEM education with PolyU faculty via i-Space.

  1. Enhanced Internationalisation and Engaging the Nation
Strategic Actions
  1. Strengthen language self-learning and cultural diversity book collections. Organise thematic exhibitions of Library collections to cultivate appreciation and understanding of various cultures. Collaborate with campus partners to provide tailor-made orientations to non-local students.
  2. Reinforce the librarian exchange programmes with Mainland China university libraries including the Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nankai University, and the Southeast University.
  3. Extend local and global partnerships for i-Space. Pursue collaboration with international digital repositories to facilitate global access to the Library’s Digital Initiatives.

  1. Financial Health and Institutional Sustainability
Strategic Actions
  1. Implement RFID self-service checkout and return systems and facilities to automate circulation processes.
  2. Foster organizational re-engineering and re-prioritisation of services to meet the evolving needs of Library users and development of technology.
  3. Reinforce staff development to build skills and knowledge in support of new initiatives, and to sustain a strive-for-excellence and user-orientated work culture.
  4. Green the Library and implement environmental friendly policies to contribute to the development of a sustainable campus.