Change is Coming! A New Shared Integrated Library System in July
In the February Newsletter, we introduced the New Library Catalog and Discovery Service (http://library.hkust.edu.hk/newsletters/february-2017/).
Now it’s time to share some details about how it is being implemented, and how this once-in-a-generation change will affect you.
Because all 8 UGC-supported University Libraries in Hong Kong (JULAC libraries) will switch to this system at the same time, all of them will have to begin to close and then freeze the system for a short period. We call this “the cut-over”and expect it to last from June 5 to early July.
What does it mean for you? Mark these dates!
June 5th: Last day to request HKALL via old system.
• If you need books from other libraries after this date, use HKUST ILLiad (http://illiad.ust.hk/).
June 15th: Last day to return HKALL books (books borrowed by HKUST ILLiad can be returned).
June 28th:
• Last date to export (email or save) “My Reading History”. Do it from the old version of MyAccount.
– It cannot migrate – you must save it to keep it.
– Visit http://libguides.ust.hk/new-ils/save-reading-history to learn how.
• Last date to clear fines; and last day to see the details of fines accrued before the cut-over.
• Last date to note your saved searches. Previously saved searches cannot migrate or be saved. You will have to make new ones in the new system.
June 29th – Early July:
• System frozen.
• No online renewal possible. Make renewal requests in person, or via email, phone, or WhatsApp.
Early July: New System up and running!
In addition to a new backend (called Alma) the PowerSearch user-interface will have some changes too, which we hope you will enjoy. We will still have HKALL, but the user-interface will change a bit.
We understand change is hard, but we believe that this new one-stop system for searching, finding, requesting, and sharing print and online resources, shared by all 8 JULAC libraries in the long term will benefit to our users.
New System, New Staff Members
To help HKUST and all the university libraries in Hong Kong change over to the new Shared Integrated Library System (Shared ILS), 3 new staff have come on board. Here’s a bit about what they do, and who they are.
Project Implementation Manager: Bonnie Ko
I manage and coordinate the implementation activities of the Shared ILS Project for all eight university libraries. This includes data conversion and migration. I take care of the project administration, planning, scheduling, monitoring, and organizing training. I am the primary contact between the 8 JULAC libraries and the vendor.
Change Manager: Alan So
I assist JULAC Project Co-chairs, to help them understand and manage change challenges during the implementation of Shared ILS. I am working to facilitate redesigning of workflows at all 8 JULAC libraries, and seek ways to streamline, reduce redundant effort, and to help all the institutions to find ways to make use of new means of collaboration.
Project Executive Officer: Gladys Chan
As the executive officer, I provide administrative support to the implementation team of Shared ILS and for the Change Manager.
25th Anniversary Book Launch
The University’s 25th birthday celebration ended in the Library with a book launch on February 27. Prometheus in the Sky, is published to commemorate the innovation and diverse accomplishments of the University in its short history. The Book Launch was held at 3pm in the Ping Yan and Kinmay W Tang Gallery of the Lee Shau Kee Library. Dr Eden Woon, VPIA, provided welcoming remarks and showed a book preview video. Prof Billy So (HUMA) and Prof Pascale Fung (ECE), the Editors-in-Chief, talked about the challenge of selecting 25 stories to reflect HKUST’s education, research and other accomplishments. In the wrap up, a video capturing other celebration events was shown. President Tony Chan gave the closing remarks and led a toast, after which the 100 guests had the first glimpse of the book and its companion ebook App.
This bilingual book has taken almost 2 years to prepare and publish. The Editorial Committee was led by Prof So and Prof Fung, and included Ms Diana Chan (LIB), Ms Alice Ho (LIB), Mr Thomas Ng (PTC), Prof Michael Wong (PHYS), and Prof David Zweig (SOSC). More than 70 researchers, staff members and alumni were interviewed for their stories. Most focus on a specific research area by a team of researchers (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Big Data, LED). There are stories on education (e.g. Training Global Business Leaders, Fostering Entrepreneurship, Educating the Gifted), as well as on HKUST’s timeline (In the Beginning) and beautiful campus (A Soaring Sight).
Many charming photographs are original works, to enhance the visual imagery. The book is available at the Souvenir Shop. An ebook App is also available to download from Apple Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/25a-hkust/id1205360560?mt=8) and Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hodfords.hkust). One of its added values is a rich inventory of thirty videos capturing more details of these stories.
Teaching & Learning Partnerships for Information Literacy
In 2015, UGC approved and funded a three-year JULAC (Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee) Project to enhance Information Literacy in Hong Kong Higher Education. Subsequent to the HKUST Hosted Information Literacy Training in 2016, the Library is offering 5 Course Enhancement Fund partnerships from Fall 2016 to Fall 2017.
So far, subject librarians have teamed up with faculty members in all four schools to embed information literacy components into their coursework.
Students in four courses are benefitting from new, deeper partnerships: CHEM 4689 (Chemistry Capstone Project); CENG 4970 (Introduction to Research in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) MGMT 2110 (Organizational Behavior); and HUMA 3520 (Independent Film in Contemporary China).
All four partnerships share some characteristics:
• Fundamental faculty and librarians collaboration on designing assignment and assessment of student work be they research plans, student projects, papers, or presentations.
• Blended learning: combination of face-to-face workshop, e-learning, and research coaching or consultation.
• Bring in external professionals to share their expertise, like how to generate research ideas and how to read scientific papers; effectively incorporating information found in journal articles or other written sources visually and intellectually into conference posters and presentations; and even a make-up expert doing research for one’s own films, and Intellectual Property issues in the film industry
• Celebrate student achievements via awards and organized events, such as the Mini-Conferences for CHEM and CENG and an HKUST “Student Oscars” for the students films made in HUMA 3520.
CHEM 4689 pioneered the partnerships in Fall 2016. The students evaluated it very highly, both from what they learned in creating the posters for their mini-conference, and also the experience of the mini-conference itself and the way they got more input on their posters and research.
E-Discovery Week
—Congratulations to our Winners!
Did you notice the surge of activities in our Library Gallery on February 22 and 23? These two days marked the height of our E-Discovery Week when the E-Discovery Challenge and e-resource exhibitions took place. Twelve workshops on highlighted e-resources were held throughout the week. Many of our trainers flew to Hong Kong particularly for this event and offered expert introductions and demonstrations on their products.
Overall, 600 students and staff came to learn, search and try their luck with the Grand Lucky Draw. Whether they took the E-Discovery Challenge, i.e., a paper quiz distributed on the two exhibition days or any of the end-of-workshop quizzes, all were eligible for the Lucky Draw provided their answers were 100% correct. While hunting for the correct answers, there was a good deal of interaction among participants, library staff, and booth owners. Some worked solo, some exercised team spirit. All were determined to solve the Challenge. Thanks to our generous sponsors, we had 15 attractive prizes including 8 sets of 128GB IPAD mini, one Apple Watch, and six Eslite and Apple store vouchers. The happy winners received the prizes from Ms Diana Chan, our University Librarian on March 8. Don’t miss our next E-Discovery Week. The winner may well be you! Visit http://library.hkust.edu.hk/e-discovery/ for snapshots of the week.
Library Book Talks
For this spring semester we have already held three successful book talks with one still to come.
On 17 Feb, Mr Sam Kwok (郭昊展先生) , CEO and Co-founder of Skyyer/Sky Publishing, delivered a
presentation titled “想走·就走“ in which he spoke about his experience of building his own travel business. On 7 March, Mr Raymond Fung (馮永基先生), a renowned local architect and ink painter, spoke of his new book, 《誰把爛泥扶上壁 – 你所不知的香港建築故事》. Both speakers walked their audience through their incredible journeys. Their exemplary efforts and dedications to realizing their dreams provide excellent inspiration for our students.
On 29 March, the Library collaborated with HUMA, SHSS, and IAS in presenting a talk by Prof Yan Lianke (閻連科教授), titled “Labyrinth: Fantasy and Reality on the Snake Path of Narration (迷宮：敘述蛇道上的夢與現實)”. Prof Yan is a professor at Renmin University in Beijing and Sin Wai Kin Visiting Professor of Chinese Culture at HKUST. Prof Yan discussed his controversial novels, more specifically, whether they are “complex labyrinths or new forms of literature”. The audience was deeply inspired by Prof Yan’s creativity and his great passion for writing.
The forthcoming Book Talk will be held on 4 May, and is to be delivered by Dr Yi Wen (文一博士). Dr Wen is the Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University. Dr Wen will talk about his book, “The making of an economic superpower: unlocking China’s secret of rapid industrialization 偉大的中國工業革命” (HD3616.C63 W46 2016). He will explain the fundamental mechanisms behind China’s miraculous growth, and discuss China within the broader context of economic development and industrialization. Save the date and check out more details on the Library Website (http://lbcone.ust.hk/booktalk/).
Collection Highlights:
民國時期期刊全文數據庫
《民國時期期刊全文數據庫》由上海圖書館《全國報刊索引》 編輯部編輯出版，計劃收錄民國時期（1911-1949年）出版的25,000餘種期刊，近1,000萬篇文獻。這些文獻的內容反映了這一時期政治、經濟、軍事、外交、教育、思想文化和宗教等各方面的情況，具有極為重要的學術價值和史料價值，為民國研究提供了豐富的資料。
我館已入藏該數據庫的第一至八輯，共計期刊12,578種，文獻632萬餘篇。讀者可經由本館網站的數據庫目錄（於圖書館主頁點擊DATABASES → Chinese）查找和使用該數據庫，可以用標題、作者、刊名、分類號、年份及期號等進行文獻檢索、瀏覽和下載，還可以使用期刊導航功能，直接瀏覽和下載期刊原文。
最近，本館又訂購了第九輯和第十輯（收錄期刊5,244種，文獻約200萬篇），預計本學期內即可提供給大家使用。
數據庫網址：http://library.hkust.edu.hk/cgi/db/misc.pl?lbcnbksy
Library Exhibitions in a Row
In the G/F Ping Yuan and Kinmay W Tang Gallery, we are presenting a photo exhibition jointly with the Division of Humanities, titled “Sha Fei: A Humanist Photographer at War (1912-1950)”. Sha Fei was one of the most influential Chinese photographers of his generation. This exhibition features 69 photos that illustrate his extraordinary journey as a photographer. A majority of the exhibits are donated by Sha Fei’s daughter (Ms Wang Yan), and will be studied by students enrolled in Prof David Cheng Chang’s course, “Picturing History: Photographers and the Making of Modern China”. A symposium in conjunction with the exhibition will be held on 6 April.
In the Library 1/F Hallway and on LG4, the exhibition “Re-creating Masterpieces: A Closer Look at Song, Yuan & Ming Paintings” is open until the end of the spring term. Once again in collaboration with the Division of Humanities, this exhibition showcases the Library’s Special Collection of reproductions of masterworks from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The exhibition supports Prof Flora Fu’s course, “Introduction to Chinese Painting“, in which students will lead 13 public tours as part of their assessment.
The map exhibition “Tartary from Marco Polo to the Enlightenment” in the Ko Pui Shuen Gallery ran from May 2016 to the end of February. Over 2,000 people visited the exhibits, and 119 public and private guided tours were offered. The current exhibition on Joseph Needham will run until the end of April. This will be followed by a new exhibition on the Pearl River Delta, which will be featuring our Special Collection of Chinese Antique Maps.
In May, a photo exhibition “Where time turns black” by Prof Agnes Ku from the Division of Social Science will open in the G/F Gallery. This exhibition will highlight more than 20 photos in panoramic format taken by Prof Ku using a mobile phone. Prof Ku is particularly interested in exploring the relations among memory, identity and cityscape. Her works are “truly original and unique in style, and the images charmingly captivating”. Stay tuned for further details.
A New HKUST Digital Collection
The Library has released a new Digital Collection, the Paul Lin and Soong Ching-ling Correspondence (http://lbezone.ust.hk/rse/paul-lin-and-soong-ching-ling-correspondence).
This collection of letters and greeting cards exchanged between Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡) and Paul Lin Ta-kuang (林達光) spans over 30 years (1950-1980), with about 70 items. They come from the Paul T.K. Lin Papers donated to the Library by Paul’s wife, Eileen, in 2016.
Paul Lin (1920-2004) was a Canadian-Chinese political scientist and peace activist. He first went to China with his family in 1950, quickly getting acquainted with Madame Soong. From 1950 to 1964, Paul worked as a broadcaster and editor in Beijing. In 1964 he returned to Canada with his family, under suggestion by Soong Ching-ling who feared he might be hurt in the approaching Cultural Revolution. Most of the letters between the two (and occasionally between Eileen and Soong Ching-ling) were exchanged after 1964.
As most letters were exchanged between 1967 and 1976, they frequently discuss the Cultural Revolution, its impact on Soong’s family and acquaintances, and its general significance (some sensitive letters by Soong were exchanged through friends). Other topics are the general exchange of information about their relatives and friends and how to promote the international status of China, as Lin soon after his return to Canada became one of the most influential voices advocating the recognition of China and the improvement of Sino-Canadian and Sino-American relations.
The extremely candid and warm tone of the correspondence makes it both a valuable historical source as well as a vivid and engaging testimony of these eventful times. Readers can approach it both directly by the immediacy of the high resolution scans or via the facing transcription and the detailed notes.
last modified 03 April 2017