What's Up on the Ground Floor this September? You may have noticed something unusual just inside the G/F gates of the Library. What is it? A display of a digital humanities project for you to interact (play) with. What's the story? In spring semester 2025, 5 UG students worked with library staff as one of the DS CoLab projects to bring a 520 year-old map from the Library's collection to life. They used augmented reality (AR) technology to create an engaging and interactive visual way to explore the cultures and histories that went into the creation of "Secunda etas mundi", The Second Stage of the World, from Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).  This map is a fascinating piece from the library’s Special Collections. It shows “The Second Age of the World” (out of 6), the stage between Noah’s Flood and the birth of Abraham. These ages were a periodization of world history (common in Christian Europe for about 1,000 years), first formulated by the North African Christian theologian, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE). A remarkable example of late medieval cartography, it combines knowledge from the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy with visual references from religion and mythology from Europe and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean.

Library E-Discovery Week 2025, held from February 17 to 21, was a great success! Over 2,000 students and staff participated in our E-Discovery Week Exhibition, Online Workshops, and Online Challenge. Each activity included quizzes to keep everyone engaged and learning. One of the coolest highlights was our new stamp collection game at the exhibition, where participants visited various booths to explore our featured e-resources and collect stamps, earning up to nine Lucky Draw chances. All valid stamp collections and quiz submissions were entered into the Big Lucky Draw. On March 12, we celebrated with a prize presentation ceremony in the Library’s IC Learning Space. Lucky Draw winners received their prizes from Dr. Gabrielle Wong, Director of Library Services, and Mr. Edward Spodick, Associate Director of Library Services, while Active Participation Winners were awarded by Ms. Venia Mak, Head of Access Services.

I joined the first day of E-Discovery Week Exhibition. The experience proved to be nothing short of enriching. Designed to unveil the wealth of databases accessible through the HKUST Library, it blended learning with playful engagement—a combination that left me both informed and inspired. The concept was simple yet clever: Participants received a “Crewmate Pass” to collect stamps by exploring booths hosted by ten leading database providers. Spanning disciplines from Business and Science to Humanities, each booth offered a deep dive into specialized resources. What impressed me most was the hosts’ expertise—not only did they demystify their platforms, but they also shared tailored tips for navigating them through HKUST’s Library portal. It felt like unlocking cheat codes for academic success! The real adventure began with stamp hunting. With just three stamps, participants could enter a lucky draw brimming with enticing prizes. Yet, as I gathered more stamps, I realized the greater reward lay in the discoveries themselves: databases I’d never considered for assignments, now bookmarked as secret weapons for future research.

Hey everyone! We know that juggling studies and research can be a bit overwhelming, so we’re rolling out a brand-new program called “Grab & Grow”. These quick, 30-minute workshops are perfect for busy students and staff looking to boost their research skills without a huge time commitment. Whether you’re trying to figure out the library’s call number system or explore scientific research using open data, we’ve got you covered. Here is what you can look forward to: you’ll learn how to Manage your references effortlessly Create eye-catching presentations and videos with Canva, and Dive into scientific research using OpenAlex. These sessions are all about making your life easier and enhancing your efficiency in research. Plus, they’re engaging, so you’ll walk away with practical skills and use right away. So, if you want to level up your research capabilities and keep your research on point, join us for “Grab & Grow”. Keep an eye on our announcements for the schedule and grab your spot. Let’s make research fun and effective together!

Halloween is a time when stories with mystery and imagination come alive. When we were young and had limited understanding of the world, we might struggle to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Thus, our fears were mostly related to imaginary creatures, mythical scenarios or the dark. The older I get, the more I realize that thrilling mysteries are not based solely on our imaginations, but on things close enough to “haunt” our memories and connected deeply to our personal fears. This is why the HKUST campus legends mostly relate to studies. We take our exam results and learning outcomes seriously: they become the root of our anxiety. I can relate it because I graduated from HKUST too. Remember how people in the Harry Potter series banished their boggarts, which took the form of their worst fear? They shouted “Riddikulus!”.  Thus, we can defeat fear by humor and laughter. If our boggarts are anxiety about our grades and GPA, let’s turn it into something fun and interesting, so it can never dominate our spirits.

Kanopy is a streaming video database the Library subscribes to for you. I knew about it before, but I never really explored it until recently. There's a lot more there than I thought, and it's also much easier to use than I thought! Access to Kanopy is available from a web browser, or from a variety of apps for different platforms.  I use the app on my office PC, on my iPad and on an AppleTV at home. To check it out, you can view our catalog record, or go directly to the Kanopy website. Kanopy is constantly adding new films.  If you want to explore titles in our catalog instead of from the Kanopy's site or apps, you can browse them – over 20,000 film records have been added to PowerSearch!  Of course, Kanopy's website and apps will be the most up-to-date – title lists are always changing. Lots of current films are available, along with many, many awesome older classic films – I love black and white Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant films especially.  World Cinema is well represented - for example, one of my favourites is Akira Kurosawa, whose film Ran is available.