To commemorate the passing of the Olympic Torch in Hong Kong and to celebrate the success of the Beijing Olympics, an exhibition on the Olympic Games is being held in the Library gallery from August 6 to October 6. This Exhibit captures the sweet memories of the Olympic events. In the first display case, you will see the display of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic in which one of the Chinese athletes won the first gold medal for the country. The 2008 display case features the two authentic torches carried by President Paul Chu and Mr. Yik Hei Chan (陳易希), a UG student at UST, and the uniform they wore during the torch relay. Yik Hei’s disassembled torch along with brief explanations of each part will enlighten you on the composition of the Olympic Torch. The memorable moments of Chinese and Hong Kong athletes will no doubt bring joy and tears to your eyes. Please also visit our “Collection Highlights (http://library.hkust.edu.hk/res/highlights/)” this month for books and videos available in our collection on the Olympic Games.

Language Center Cataloging Project

In 2007, at the request of the University’s Language Center, the Library started the project of cataloging the language learning materials housed in their Self-Access Center. The objective was to retrospectively catalog about 5,000 items of different formats, including books, reference tools, audio cassettes, compact discs, VHS, VCDs, DVDs, etc. and to incorporate the records into the HKUST Library Catalog.

With funding support from the Language Center, a temporary library assistant was hired in October 2007 to work on the project, and Library staff provided him with the needed training and supervision. All the materials are cataloged and classified following the same international cataloging practices as regular library materials.

With the project nearing completion, it is anticipated that the records will be released to the public in September. Users will then be able to search them in the Library Catalog and be directed to the Self-Access Center if they want to use the materials. This will greatly enhance the accessibility and usage of the materials.

Find them in the Library Catalog at http://ustlib.ust.hk/.

Library Building Projects

With the upcoming “3-3-4” change to Hong Kong’s educational system, and the associated major increase in the number of students attending HKUST, various campus expansions and construction projects are now underway. One of these will be an extension on the North side of the Library building. Three of the Library’s five floors will be extended, along with the two floors below the Library. We expect that the groundbreaking for this extension will occur this Fall, with construction continuing for about two years.

We must also ask for your patience and understanding over the next couple of years. The Library will work with FMO and the construction contractors to limit the impact of the noisy works which will be occurring, but there will undoubtedly be times when you find your Library studies disturbed. When this happens please contact Library staff, who will do what they can to assist you – whether to find you a quieter area to study or perhaps to provide disposable earplugs.

For much of the past year, the Library has been involved in the building planning phase. During the Fall, the Library will be extensively exploring furniture, layout and utilization options for the new space; and we will also be detailing appropriate modifications to the existing Library spaces. And through all of this, we will need your help and input.

Current ideas include an informational blog, a campus-wide online forum system, discussion forums, setting up a sample room where you can try out possible study furniture, and a variety of other options. In the meantime, if you have any ideas or suggestions on the best way(s) forward, please send them to us at library@ust.hk

New Thesis Requirements: Library Information Commons Can Help

With effect from 1 September, graduating research postgraduate students will need to follow a new style and format when submitting their theses, including double-sided printing (drafts, initial submissions and final thesis). If you are looking for a place to print your thesis, come to the Information Commons (IC) on the Library Ground Floor where you will have access to networked color laser printers with double-sided printing, multiple-pages-per-page printing, and other print options. The IC also provides you with utilities for file conversion and PDF creation (one of the graduation requirements is the submission of a PDF copy of the thesis). All facilities in the IC are available during Library hours. Our staff at the IC Help Desk will be pleased to assist you in using the facilities or to answer your questions on thesis preparation. To find out more about the IC, visit http://library.hkust.edu.hk/serv/ic/ic.htmlor contact us by email (lbref@ust.hk).

Close to 19,000 E-Books Added to the Library collection

Purchasing current e-books at reasonable prices from reputable publishers so that individual users can have timely access to the most wanted e-resources has always been a major challenge to the university community. To foster deep collaborative collection development among the academic libraries in Hong Kong and to leverage our bargaining power with renowned yet expensive academic publishers, a proposal, ERALL (Electronic Resources Academic Library Link) was prepared and submitted by City University of Hong Kong in 2006 requesting funding from UGC to purchase a large number of academic e-books to be shared among the academic institutions. Impressed by this collaborative spirit, UGC, for the very first time, agreed to provide additional monies for the academic institutions of Hong Kong to acquire e-resources with the condition that all member libraries came up with matching funds based on their block grants ratio. All eight UGC-funded libraries enthusiastically endorsed this cooperative initiative and agreed to contribute their share of budget to fund the project.

An implementation team made up of representatives of the eight libraries was formed immediately after the funding was secured. From August 2006 to 2008, the implementation team worked cooperatively and diligently to deliberate on the vigorous evaluation, selection and acquisition of e-book packages. After many rounds of tough negotiations, access to a total of 18,015 volumes of e-books and 740 volumes of e-reference work were realized.

Springer and Elsevier e-books – Springer/Kluwer and Elsevier are probably the most prestigious academic publishers in the areas of mathematics, life and physical sciences, engineering and business. Due to budget constraints, the HKUST Library was only able to purchase selected print volumes from these two publishers. This venture provided our users with access to 8,952 Springer e-books and series published in 2005 to 2007. This, together with 2,200 Springer e-books previously purchased from NetLibrary and our current agreement to purchase 3,340 volumes e-books published/to be published in 2008 meant that we now have access to close to 15,000 e-books from Springer.

Access to Elsevier e-books is in a much smaller scale due to the high price of the items. Nevertheless, we were able to purchase 59 e-books published in 2006-2007 and all e-books, 380 in total, that were published from January to August 2008.

While the collection strengths of Springer and Elsevier e-books lie in science and technology, ERALL also acquired 6,000 e-books from ebrary and Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) and 500 volumes of reference works from Oxford Digital Reference Shelf (DRS) and Blackwell Reference Online (BRO) that provide our users with some solid works in social science and humanities.

Three other major reference sets were also added including the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology that includes 1,800 entries with clear, concise, expert definitions and explanations of the key concepts in both classical sociology and contemporary developments in the field; the Encyclopedia of Social Work, co-published by the National Association of Social Workers and Oxford University Press includes 400 articles that cover all aspects of social work from practice and interventions, social environment, social conditions and challengers, to social policy and history; the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World provides information about major world developments from 1750 to the present, with close attention to social, economic, cultural, and political topics. Via keyword searches, readers can explore topics that have global implications, such as migration, childhood and foods, and topics that can be viewed through a combination of global patterns and key comparisons.

Collection Spotlight: Naxos Music Library and Knovel

Naxos Music Library

For the past two years, Naxos Music Library has been an excellent source of quality online music. Although the bulk of its content is classical music, many other genres are also represented such as Jazz, World/Folk, Pop and Rock. Its collection size has almost tripled from 8,000 to its current 23,000 titles. NML keeps expanding by 500 new titles per month. In addition to Naxos, the number of third-party labels has also jumped from 27 to 70.

Of special interest is a recently-launched educational section where you can find an informative and entertaining resource “Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra.” Here, world-renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie guides us through the different families of an orchestra; the strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, keyboards, and explains how they work as a fantastic fusion of musical sounds. This resource includes explanatory text, images, a glossary, historical information and interactive listening examples.

Navigating through a well-structured menu, you can easily satisfy your curiosity in any of the orchestral musical instruments. How high and low can a violin go? What are its key players and composers? Why is a Stradivari so precious? You can also choose to play excerpts from some of the most popular violin repertoires such as Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Paganini’s Caprice. These are just for the violin. You can find out lots more on instruments you are less familiar with like the oboe, trombone or the harpsichord. Do find time to explore this fun-filled resource.

Knovel

Knovel contains an essential collection of handbooks in a broad range of science and engineering subjects. We recently upgraded our subscription to include the complete library, meaning you now have unimpeded access to a total of 1,600 handbooks across all 19 subject areas. Some new subject areas are Plastics & Rubber, Metals and Metallurgy and Earth and Food Sciences.

Systems Update: Library Catalog Enhancements

The HKUST Library Catalog software was recently upgraded, with several new and enhanced functions:

• My Lists – You can now save titles to lists in your library catalog account. Look for links or buttons to Save to My Lists in search results, or use the Export button when viewing individual records.
• Batch Requesting – You can now choose to request or place holds on multiple items in a saved list at once, instead of having to do them one-by-one.
• Your Account’s RSS Feed (http://ustlib.ust.hk/patroninfo) will now include notices (especially overdue notices) relating to items borrowed through the HKALL system.
• The entire WebBridge interface has been improved to respond much faster, for both incoming and outgoing linking.
• Various system messages have been customized or improved. Most noticeable will be a message near the top of the screen if one or more of your item renewals fails.
• If there are no results for your search terms, a more prominent link will appear for trying your search on the HKALL server.

WEB: Library Video Streaming

The Library now offers on-demand streaming video through its new Media Server. The Microsoft Windows Media format adopted is completely compatible with the video streaming services offered by ITSC and the Publishing Technology Center. All of the video streams can be accessed through the Library Catalog.

As a pilot project, the Library has digitized many special events and lectures from the University Archives. Limit your search to “All E-Resources” in the Library Catalog and search for the Institute for Advanced Study. Over 50 IAS Distinguished Lectures have been converted to this new format. These lectures are available within a few days of the event.

You can find these highlighted 2008 lectures:

• Patrick A. Lee’s 3-part lecture: Graphene and the Physics of the Two-dimensional Dirac Spectrum
• Peter Goddard’s There are No Excuses in Paradise: the Institute for Advanced Study: Past, Present and Future
• Xiang-Lei Yang’s How Hereditary Neurological Diseases Can Arise from Genes of the Translational Machinery
• Paul Schimmel’s lectures: How the ‘Second Genetic Code’ was Revealed and How Basic Research has Transformed Human Health

We have also added streaming versions of two Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)’s series: 鏗鏘集 (Keng qiang ji) and 議事論事 (Yi shi lun shi). More episodes are on their way.

We will be adding some historical videos including the opening ceremonies and events from 1991 and events from the HKUST 10th and 15th anniversaries. Also available soon will be other special videos from the Archives such as the 2002 HKUST Forum on the Future Development of Hong Kong and HKUST Soars.

Use the Open Access link to start the video stream. If you have any audio or video materials you wish to add to the Library’s streaming collection, please contact Corrie Marsh, Associate University Librarian, at lbcmarsh@ust.hk.