Issue No. 100
April 2016

Transforming Lives: A library Exhibition for the 25th Anniversary

In its first 25 years, the HKUST community brought about many innovative ideas in teaching, research, and society engagement. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the University, the Library has organized an exhibition featuring a selection of these impactful ideas and projects.

Entitled “Transforming Lives”, the exhibition is running from April to December. It contains over fifty stories grouped under six themes:

1. Building Capacity, Developing Talents

The University explores a variety of teaching modes and learning experiences for students. This theme highlights twelve stories on non-traditional teaching and experiential learning.

2. Enhancing Communication Technology

HKUST researchers make numerous contributions in communication technology. The theme covers five projects from IT infrastructure such as 5G networking technology, to applications including wireless connectivity and aerial photography.

3. Innovating Materials

New materials are the key to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Research projects in chemistry and physics as well as material science at HKUST have been making advances in both theory and application. You will find nine different research stories in this theme.

4. Solving Medical Mysteries

Researches that unlock medical mysteries and find cures can truly transform lives. Various research teams at HKUST explore new strategies for treatment of diseases via advances in neurology, cell biology, and traditional Chinese medicine. Six projects are highlighted in this theme.

5. Sustaining Environment, Renewing Energy

In the theme of sustainability you can find twelve stories of HKUST researchers contributing to different fronts. There are projects on sewage treatment, pollution control, energy efficiency, display technology, and other environmental areas.

6. Engaging Society, Nourishing Culture

One of the missions of HKUST is to assist in the economic and social development of Hong Kong. In 25 years, the University engages business communities and develops social leaders. We also contribute to a better understanding of our cultural heritage and social dynamics; and enhance creative arts education via different programs. Nine stories unfold in this theme.

Library Services Quality Survey: More on Survey Results

In this issue, we continue reporting the results of the Library Survey, LibQUAL+.

Conducted last fall, the Survey was a joint effort with the libraries of 5 other UGC-funded institutions (JULAC libraries) to provide a comparative analysis of our library services.

The Survey used three scales to measure respondents’ Minimum, Desired and Perceived Service Levels. Based on the scores from all the respondents, an Adequacy Mean Score and a Superiority Mean Score were computed to reflect users’ level of satisfaction.

	Overall Score
	JULAC	HKUST
Minimum Mean	5.99	5.92
Desired Mean	7.50	7.49
Perceived Mean	6.89	7.01
Adequacy Mean	0.9	1.09
Superiority Mean	-0.61	-0.49

The following table shows the mean scores of HKUST Library and the combined scores for all participating JULAC libraries. HKUST’s scores are much higher than the JULAC group scores, meaning that our overall performance is significantly better than the JULAC average. In fact, we achieved the highest Perceived mean score (7.01) even compared to previous surveys in 2011 and 2007.

Referring to the qualitative remarks, over 25% of the 1,483 free-text comments received are purely positive, on top of many suggestions combined with appreciation. While we are grateful for the encouragements, we have also reviewed and will follow up on other comments to further enhance our services.

Below are some action highlights. More details can be found at http://library.hkust.edu.hk/about-us/user-engagement/libqual2015/

Affect of Services

Launch a Roving Service by arranging Library staff stationed on every floor to provide timely assistance.
Review the current patrol and rule enforcement practice. Conduct more frequent patrols during mid-term and final exams.
Continue emphasizing the importance of good customer service, even though there are already many compliments praising our staff.
Increase the loan quotas of HKALL for students, faculty and staff. Review our own loan policy to explore the feasibility of relaxing loan periods.
Implement the Library accessibility services plan to assist users with special needs.
Review our interlibrary loan polices, such as request quotas and overseas renewals, to seek ways to meet users’ growing demands.
Continue opening all of LG1 area for 24 hours during study breaks, exam periods and on public holidays during term time when the Library is closed.
Invite patrons to contact us for organizing information literacy workshops and seek help via Whatsapp, phone, e-mail, online form or walk-in.
Explore ways to enhance user instructions on using PowerSearch for searching specific library materials and requesting items. Explore options to refine the user interface to enhance user experience.
Revamp the Library Website to make it more user focused and easier to navigate. The new and stylish interface will be released in September.
Schedule Library staff patrolling around printing facilities to provide face-to-face assistance. Review and improve the paper guides available at printers.
Replace ageing computers in the Information Commons. Installation of new Windows and iMac computers will be completed by this summer.
Explore the possibility of adding some third-party input methods to the public computers.

Information Control

Undertake a major weeding exercise to refresh our ageing Media collection and acquire new content in new formats.
Expand strategically the eBook acquisition program to increase the diversity and quality of titles delivered.
Review specific/general resources mentioned by users and fine-tune our acquisition plan.
Consider adding new journals and databases requested by users within the budget constraint.
Acquire a bigger variety of popular books in print and kindle formats, and more promotional efforts to boost leisure reading.

Library as Place

Install new entry gates on the G/F and implement “Card Access” at all times to maintain a safe and pleasant study environment.

25A Highlight: Academic Librarian 4 Conference

Sustainability is much more than a buzz word. It is at the very heart of the daily operations and strategic positioning of any academic libraries. The Library and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library will jointly host a two-day conference on 2-3 June 2016 entitled Academic Librarian 4 – Sustainable Academic Libraries: Now and Beyond.

The event will take place at HKUST as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. The conference will address sustainability issues grounded in the academic library context in four encompassing themes: environment, technologies, services and resources. Eco-friendliness, green IT, creative services and resource allocation will be focuses of discussions.

Do visit the Conference website at http://library.hkust.edu.hk/al4/ for full details of the conference themes, keynote speakers, and the rich and dense program featuring 32 presentations from ten countries and twenty-two institutions. A pre-conference workshop is arranged to explore research methods into user experience. Registration has started.

The Academic Librarian conferences are held every few years. Each time, around 300 librarians, publishers and information professionals gather for intensive professional exchanges. The best papers will be published in Library Management, a peer-reviewed journal.

University Archives

Even though HKUST is a young institution, just celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the HKUST University Archives is the oldest archive among the universities in Hong Kong, having been part of the planning for the University since the very beginning, and established in 1996. Prof Woo Chia-wei, our Founding President, wanted to focus on legally important and historically valuable materials documenting the establishment of the university.

It gradually evolved into a full-fledged archive unit, assisting different bodies of the University in preserving and organizing records of enduring historical value, serving as a repository of official papers and publications, and facilitating appropriate use. Now that our early documents are approaching the restriction limit of 25 years, it has begun serving as a genuine archive, and as key evidence for HKUST’s history.

A subset of the Archives is already available at the Digital University Archives (http://archives.u st.hk), to facilitate online access, rather than you having to visit the Archives physically. Apart from publicly available material, digitized documents like minutes and records are restricted to authorized users.

In 1996 we were just beginning to deal systematically with electronic records and stored most of the documents into boxes. Later on we developed an in-house system in assisting the daily operations. Recently, we implemented an archival management system, based on an open source software called ArchivesSpace. The system is designed to support core functions in archival administration such as accessioning; description and arrangement of processed materials; and management of agents, subjects and rights.

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ArchivesSpace not only enhanced the efficiency of managing the University Archives but also greatly streamlined the compilation of the Finding Aids (http://lbams.ust.hk/ead), which conform to the internationally recognized Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard. The public can get to know the Archives by accessing these finding aids, which give detail information about the documents collected, the administrative unit producing them, their scope, time frame, size, format, etc.

Research Data Management Seminar

As Research Data Management (RDM) is becoming more important in academic research and publishing, the Library has recently organized a RDM Seminar to help research students to deepen their awareness and skills in this area.

The Seminar will be held at 12:30pm on 12th April 2016. We are glad to have Prof Qiang Yang and Prof Cameron Campbell to be our speakers. Prof Yang was the founding head of Noah’s Ark Lab and his research interests are data mining and artificial intelligence. Prof Campbell is participating in “The Lee Campbell Research Group” which constructs, analyzes, and disseminates Big Social Science Data collections largely from historical and contemporary China.

This Seminar can provide a platform for professors to share their valuable experience and practices relating to data management. This will be a great opportunity for young researchers to learn more about managing data, data publishing, data citation, storage and backup, etc.

Furthermore, the participants will be impressed by a live demonstration of our new service, DataSpace@HKUST (http://dataspace.ust.hk). They will know how to create their own workspace for their ongoing research projects. Data files can be stored and managed in a safe environment.

In addition, we’ll showcase some of the other research support services that the Library is providing for helping researchers throughout the whole research cycle. These include metadata support, DOI persistent link, ORCID iD, and research consultation.

The RPG students who attend this Seminar will get 1.5 hours counted toward the course requirement of ENGG 6770 & IDPO 6770. For details, check it out through Library Event Registration page or Library’s email announcement.

Increased HKALL Loan Quotas

The academic libraries of eight local tertiary institutions have agreed to increase the loan quotas of Hong Kong Academic Library Link (HKALL). Through HKALL (http://hkall.hku.hk/), you could search a mega collection of over 11 million volumes of monographs held in the participating libraries.

Faculty members and Research Support from 20 to 30
PG students from 10 to 15
Students and Staff from 10 to 15

Full details of loan quotas are available at http://library.hkust.edu.hk/services/borrowing/hkall/

Accessibility Services for Users with Special Educational Needs

To provide equal access to services and collections, the Library assists users with special educational needs to locate information, retrieve materials, access services, and use library facilities. Accessibility services are available to meet individual and community needs – see http://library.hkust.edu.hk/services/accessibility/. Prior registration for some services is required.

The Library also provides an accessible study environment and facilities. A workstation with adaptive software for visually impaired users is available near the Media Counter on LG1.

讀書座談會: 夢想X熱情 – 青年創業家之路

蕭觀明(Donny Siu)，科大學生事務處副處長、創業中心副主任、教職員協會主席，將於四月十三曰出席圖書館午間讀書會，暢談他的近作 -「夢想X熱情 — 青年創業家之路」。

從小喜歡天馬行空的Donny，與很多人一樣經常做夢。小時候曾經夢想過長大後當警察、消防員、會計師、律師、飛機師等，最後居然在亂打亂撞的情況下加入了科大。

他回想在科大的25年，現實中不知不覺把夢想變成事實。眼見眾多同學和校友在實踐他們個人理想和創業夢時的堅持、努力和信念，便嘗試把其中十多位校友創業的心路歷程記載下來，並加上他多年的觀察，分析為何科大會靜靜地成為創業夢想家的搖籃，寫成《夢想 X 熱情 — 青年創業家的路》一書，讓大眾知道夢想是可以用努力和想像力而實現的。

Donny將在今次的讀書座談會帶大家進入他的夢想世界，與及分享書中科大校友的創業故事。詳情請參閱: http://lbcone.ust.hk/booktalk/

文學關係——寫作中的內脈線

圖書館和人文社會科學學院將於四月二十六日聯合舉辦讀書座談會，邀請著名作家閻連科教授主講「文學關係——寫作中的內脈線」。

閻連科，我校冼為堅中國文化客座教授，中國著名作家；主要作品有《堅硬如水》、《受活》、《為人民服務》、《丁莊夢》、《風雅頌》、《四書》、《炸裂志》、《年月日》等；曾先後獲得第一及第二屆魯迅文學獎、第三屆老舍文學獎和馬來西亞世界華文文學大獎，2013年入圍法國費米那文學獎和英國國際布克獎短名單，2014年獲捷克卡夫卡文學獎，2016年第二次入圍英國國際布克獎長名單。

閻教授在講座中會分享寫作心得，並揭開文學最隱秘的面紗——小說內部的人物文學關係學。這種文學關係主要表現為人物與人物的文學倫理關係、人物的文學社會關係、文學的社會倫理關係、人物與物及自然的非人與人的關係、人物的心理關係等。

讀書座談會將由劉劍梅教授主持。