Achievements

In collaboration with ITSC, systems staff successfully migrated over 40 public searching computers to run on ITSC’s virtualization platform known as VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure).

This exercise greatly streamlined operations in management software deployment and security updates. Working closely with ITSC, systems staff members are also doing a study to evaluate the feasibility of migrating Information Common computers to the VDI platform.

HKUST Library and CUHK Library jointly organized a two-day international conference on 2-3 June 2016, held  at HKUST. AL4 “Sustainable Academic Libraries: Now and Beyond” addressed issues of sustainability pertaining to academic libraries, such as:

• How do academic libraries drive sustainability in their innovations and day-to-day operations?
• What are the best practices and emerging trends that help save the environment for posterity while fulfilling at optimal efficiency the current and future needs of library users?
• What are the obstacles or breakthroughs in advancing these goals?

Over 300 people from across the globe attended. AL4 was designed to be a green event, and since then, other units at HKUST have inquired about its practices, hopefully leading to more green conferences here and elsewhere.

This large scale Integrated Library System (ILS) implementation project involves migrating eight separately hosted systems in JULAC libraries to a next generation shared system running centrally in “the cloud”.

The Library actively participated in the tendering and evaluation exercise, and heavily engaged in writing the Request for Proposal (RFP) document and contract reviews.

The tender was awarded to Ex Libris in April 2016 for its Alma/Primo solution. Implementation has begun, with the target to go live in July 2017. JULAC has obtained support from HUCOM to fund two positions hired for this project.

HKUST Library will host  three new JULAC staff for this project, including the Implementation Manager, the Change Manager, and an Executive Officer.

The Library’s 2014-15 Annual Report on Teaching and Learning was reviewed by CTLQ as an exemplary report with many commendable examples of good practice, action plan, external inputs, and positive benchmarking data.

From November 2nd to December 7th, 2015, the Library conducted a Services Quality Survey.

• 3,518 current students, faculty, and staff responded (~20% response rate).
• The Library achieved 7.01 for Perceived level of service, its highest ever (compared to 2011 and 2007).
• The Survey was a joint project of 6 libraries at UGC-funded institutions (JULAC libraries), using LibQUAL+®, a survey instrument developed by the Association of Research Libraries, widely adopted by libraries worldwide.

Respondents’ comments also provide useful feedback to us for making sustainable changes and developing services to meet users’ needs. Of the 1,483 comments received, over 25% were solely positive, and many more combined suggestions with appreciation.

In February 2016, DataSpace@HKUST was successfully released. It allows HKUST researchers to publish and manage their research data.

Datasets published here will be given a HKUST prefixed DOI identifier and a standard citation.

DataSpace@HKUST is both the first such implementation in Hong Kong universities, and was the first system within HKUST to adopt ITSC’s new authentication system using Shibboleth and SMAL 2.0 standard.

It has attracted attention in the Asia-Pacific region, including news coverage from ACCESS@LibraryLearningSpace.

In spring 2016, the Madison ILT post-test was administrated to the first 4Y cohort.

A total of 361 Year 4 UGs took the test in early 2016 (the pre-test was given to the same cohort in 2012). The percentage of students who are proficient has increased from 60.4% in 2012 to 79% in 2016.

Enhance information literacy in HK higher education through the development and implementation of a shared interactive multimedia courseware, a JULAC InfoLit Project was launched and led by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Library.

An observation of information task of HKUST SENG UGs took place from 3 to 10 November 2015 while the Capacity Building Programs (CBP) were held at HKUST for 40 JULAC librarians in Jan 18-22 and June 13-14. The trainer was Professor Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe. It helped to prepare librarians for “Course Enhancement Fund” (CEF) partnerships to come.

Ebook usage climbed 4.3%; while E-journal usage increased by 18.3% in 2015. On average, one FTE user downloaded 80 ebook chapters and 190 ejournal articles in 2015

Students, staff, and faculty continued to use Library e-materials at a high rate. E-article downloads continued to soar in 2014, with a 20% increase over the previous year, with 1,950,125 e-article downloads. Meanwhile, the drastic rise in e-book use calmed down in 2014, with 935,545 chapter downloads.

To support and encourage your use of e-resources, especially books, in 2014, the Library added another 48,545 e-books to the collection, many in Chinese.

In October 2014, 8 JULAC libraries were invited to merge two proposals on improving information literacy among Hong Kong students in higher education into one project. In spring 2015, UGC agreed to fund the project (HKPolyU will be the project leader). Other project related activities in the coming three years will stem from this grant, to further enrich and develop students information literacy.

An ORCID iD integration services was launched in March 2015 to assist HKUST researchers in creating and managing their ORCID account to make it easier for their research results to be discovered and used. A program was developed to automate the feeding of the SPD & publication data profile into ORCID accounts. 80 faculty members and 286 RPGs have created accounts using this service.

The Library seeks to develop and improve its research support services. To that end, in Spring 2015, we conducted the Ithaka S+R Survey among HKUST faculty members. 78 completed the questionnaire. Other UGC libraries participated in this survey as well.

The results will guide our plans for strengthening research support services to you in the future.

This year, the Library successfully completed a project to assign DOIs to over 5,500 HKUST. With these unique document identifiers available in the CrossRef registry, online access to HKUST’s theses collection has improved and become easier.

Thanks to ITSC’s generous provision of virtual computing resources, over 30 servers originally hosted on the Library Server Virtualization Platform were migrated to the Virtual Data Center (VDC). These included some of our mission critical servers such as EZProxy, Room Booking, and Library Event Registration.This has improved the reliability and speed of the Library’s online resources and services. The plan also included moving physical servers to VDC, including SFX, ILLiad, and the Digital Archives

3-D Printing for all HKUST students, staff & faculty

Launched in Fall 2014, the Library has 2 printers (MakerBot and Up Box), using PLA filament, a biodegradable polymer. HKUST community members made 198 requests in the first year. with a 75% success rate.

In addition to allowing HKUST community members to experiment with 3-D printing at low cost; this bookable service also provides design resources and a Gallery of 3-D Printed objects made with this service.

The Library also hosts Open Houses to promote the service within the HKUST community. 2014-15 saw 12 sessions given to 130 attendees.

Major renovation work on 1/F and LG1 created a better learning and study environment with a 12% overall increase in seating (57% increase on LG1).

The renovated Media zone on LG1 then became spill-over 24 hour space in 2015 spring exam period, as it will continue to do in the future. On 1/F the new furniture and carpet gave a new look and feel, while the Thesis Room was upgraded and fitted out as a “deep quiet” study spot.

The number of power sockets doubled on 1/F & LG1, satisfying a long-standing student need, while the Idea Wall in LC (created for students to write or draw on freely) has proved popular.

In response to user requests, the Library increased opening hours to 98 per week and increased loan quota for faculty and other researchers.

• Faculty & staff loan quota increase by 50 to now 150 at a time
• Library now open until 9pm on Saturdays