In order to provide teaching staff and students with more abundant electronic resources, more convenient information retrieval, and flexible space, the Hong Kong Shue Yan University Library would begin the upgrade and renewal of the library system. The Librarian Mr. CHOW Wai Ming, Joe, shared his expectation on the renewal, which is planned to start in 2023, and aims at leading the library to a more modernized era. Regardless of system or space, Mr. CHOW believes that the library is in the transforming stages, in regards to the following aspects: (1) flexibility; (2) openness; and (3) technology.
Flexibility is about information supply and usage of space. As a modernized library, Mr. CHOW suggests “Just-in-Time” as the standard of flexibility; when there is demand for a text or a piece of information, the library should be purchasing or borrowing resources from other places at the earliest. As a result, in 2014, the library has developed an online “Collection Sharing and Information Discovery System” (CSIDS) in collaboration with the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), Caritas Institute of Higher Education (CIHE), Chu Hai College of Higher Education (CHCHE) and Tung Wah College (TWC). The development of the system enables faculty members and students to access the five libraries and e-book collections through one CSIDS platform. To further improve the library system, the widely used cloudbased library system would be adopted so as to enjoy its advantages, such as integration of catalogue and searching system, stability and quick speed. The print and electronic library resources can be managed and searched within one system.
Other than the flexibility on information supply, regarding the usage of space, Mr. CHOW also mentioned that a modernized library should offer more adaptable and multi-usage space, namely discussion areas and multimedia zones, as a proper library does not limit its space for book-reading only. At the current stage, the renewal direction is to release more space for staff and students. The library would focus on the survey results collected in the past on planning the division of area and improvement of facilities.
In consideration of openness, Mr. CHOW expressed the increasing exposure and self-raising of publicity with the community. To exemplify, the library has set up a “Library Outreach Committee” internally for promoting the new services. One of the promoting methods to staff and students is to make use of social media by showing the updates and library activities. To ensure the quality of library service, focus group activities are maintained at the same time to explore the needs of users.
For the library technologies, Mr. CHOW emphasized the future purchasing of multimedia electronic resources for providing more e-books and multimedia services. The development of e-resources grew rapidly throughout the decade, and the library acquired 80,000 e-journals from 2013 to 2017; the video database is also in development. Moreover, with the upgraded Remote Access system in August 2021, students can directly enter the system using the school webmail and password, which differs from the diverse set of library login IDs and passwords as before.
With respect to the long-developing stages, Mr. CHOW revealed that there are around 350,000 print resources in the library and is believed to be the highest among the self financing education institutions when considering the figures of books per capita. Back in 2007, the library was granted with Zhong hua Zaizao Shanben (中華再造善本) from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and it is in fact the first education institution in Hong Kong to receive the gift. The precious culture in Zhonghua Zaizao Shanben and its high literary value marks the pride of the library.
To conclude, Mr. CHOW chose “Humaneness” as his impression towards the library. “Sometimes when seeing the interactions between students and our staff, I feel touched and am heartwarmed by the good relationship.”
Source：50th Anniversary Special Issue