Are you a nostalgic person? Will you long for the chance to visit a place you stayed in before again? To me, HKUST library is the place I would never feel bored visiting again and again. As a patron… I am a HKUST 2017 alumnus with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. But before taking the 4-year bachelor’s degree, I have already been to the library and experienced the beauty of the 5-storey building. If you are familiar with HKUST Library history, you may know that the library was actually open to the public before 2016 – there were no entry gates!  So before I was an official university student, I had already ‘sneaked' into the library on the UST Open Day. I remembered the amazement I had when I found out the shelves in LG3 and LG4 were actually movable. The enormous size of the building, and the view you have when you are walking along the staircases, were certainly stunning and to be honest, UST library was one of the reasons why I chose HKUST to have my tertiary education. As a worker… Starting this winter, my relationship with UST library has changed from a visitor to a staff member.

Old maps are visually beautiful; and they carry a lot of interesting stories. The Library hosted a 3-day research symposium last December with map historians from local and overseas institutions. One really memorable talk in the symposium was about this famous Chinese map dated 1644, the year the Ming Empire collapsed: <天下九邊分野人跡路程全圖> (A comprehensive map of the kingdom of China and neighbouring countries). The speaker, Professor Mario Cams of KU Leuven (Belgium), explained that this fascinating map was a hybrid of Chinese and European mapmaking; he told the interesting threads of history in a century of east-west exchanges that led to this map. We do not have a copy of this rare map, but you can find a similar one printed in the 18th Century in our Special Collections. You can examine the image of the 1644 map at this site: look for the latitude scale, north and south poles, Europe, North and South Americas (separated); these are the typographical knowledge from the West, and are scattered around the edges of the map. However, the bulk of the map in the middle is the Ming Empire administration, which is not intended to represent geographical reality. To weave the story of the map, Professor Cams started in 1555, the era when 2 Chinese maps from Fujian travelled to Europe via merchants in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, Jesuit missionaries brought European geographic knowledge to the East, forming the basis of this "hybrid map". An important thread in the story is the Ming book publishing culture.

After we opened the new entrance at LG5 early March, you can go in and out the Library at three different levels: Main entrance at G/F by the Atrium LG1, the Learning Commons LG5 Which one do you use more often? You may find that a particular entrance fits better into your locus in campus. But apart from that, each entrance in fact has its own character! LG5 The new entrance provides a convenient option for students at residential halls. We collected gate counts in March, and learned that 84% of the entrance traffic was UG students – the UG proportion is higher than the other two. It is interesting that there were about 16,000 counts at the entrance, but only 9,000 at the exit. I wonder why … tell me if you know! At the LG5 library space, you can find 3 bookable study rooms and over 100 study seats – and you can use these library facilities without passing the card-access gate! Please follow the library rules here, do not bring in food even though it's so close to eateries at LG5 and LG7. One more note for you is that, if you want to borrow books, make sure you do that at the Circulation Counter on G/F before going down there – the LG5 exit has no check-out service.

In the past year, using GenAI tools has become more common in universities. Everyone, from Year One undergraduates (beginning scholars) to advanced scholars, like professors are using it, or at least experimenting. One question many people have is: "How can I cite GenAI?" The answer is the dreaded, "Well, it depends....". What does it depend on?  Rules set by your audience, whether it's a publisher you want to accept your article, or a professor who will assess your assignment. Will they accept GenAi material? How will they accept it (acknowledged, cited, as a co-author?) It can be a bit daunting, but don't worry. Librarians at HKUST provide workshops and library guides that can help. One guide was developed for a workshop for the Researchers Series, Emerging AI Tools for Literature Reviews: https://libguides.hkust.edu.hk/AI-tools-literature-review/cite-ai-content Another is in a general guide on referencing: https://libguides.hkust.edu.hk/referencing/citing-AI We also teach and share this in course-based library workshops and online modules like LANG 1403, LANG 1404, LANG 2010, LANG 2030, and LANG 2070. Do you want the library to create a workshop or a guide for your needs?

Whenever we can, we give space to you for studying. Recently two more rooms were converted into Group Study Rooms: LG1-355 and LG3-05! LG1-355 was used by our librarians as a teaching room for Zoom classes during Covid.  Now the need is much less and we moved that to a smaller office space so we could give you another study room. LG3-05 was used an a dedicated Interview Room for the past year or so.  We looked at the usage numbers, and how some of you are using the new Study Pods, and decided this room could get more use as another group study room to meet your needs.  Please remember LG3-05 is on the Quiet Floor, so don't make much noise in there - be considerate of other students! I hope you like the new rooms.  I wonder if I can find any more for you?   Edward Spodick Associate Director of Library Services lbspodic@ust.hk