Number 54, April 1998

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LIBRARY PURCHASE

Once again, we are approaching the end of the financial year. Teaching staff are reminded to speed up their recommendations for purchase of books, journals, audiovisuals as well as electronic resources such as databases and multimedia.

The intra-faculty pooling date will be May 1st, after which departmental allocations will be pooled within the faculty to ensure that the entire Library Resources Fund is expended before the end of the financial year.

Teaching staff are also encouraged to take advantage of our Book Recommendation Online (BRO). The BRO database has been created from announcements of new titles received from Blackwell North America, but recommendations for titles not found in this database can also be placed online. This service has proved to be helpful in simplifying book recommendations as well as expediting order processing. Please contact Acquisitions Department at ext.2210 if assistance is required in utilizing the service.

The RGC has supported a proposal submitted by Dr Priscilla Roberts, Chairperson of the Arts Faculty Library Committee, for the library acquisition of an extensive collection of U.S. Congressional materials, worth $2.8 million. We are pleased with the success of the bid towards which the Libraries had contributed advice and strong support. When the materials have been acquired and processed, we shall announce their availability for consultation.

No doubt the addition of this valuable archival set of U.S. Congressional Record and Committee hearings will significantly enrich the Libraries already substantial collection on U.S. diplomacy and politics and enhance the University's research strength in American Studies. The HKU Libraries will be the sole library in Asia to own these documents.

The University Libraries is pleased to announce that, with the great effort of our Internet Resources Selection Team and the Systems Department, a new webpage of selected Web resources in support of teaching, study and research is available on the Libraries homepage. The tremendous amount of information on the Internet are identified, filtered, and organized into subjects reflecting major areas of study or specialized collections in the University for easy retrieval. These Web sites will be continually updated.

Users may access and explore selected Internet resources from the Libraries homepage under "Internet Resources" or at URL: www.hku.hk/lib/ir. We would be glad to receive your feedback and recommendations for additional sites of interest.

The Libraries is planning to add more value to our Internet Resources webpage by providing links to Web tutorials on the Internet.

Our Internet Resources Selection Team will select Web tutorials produced by overseas universities and would appreciate help from faculty in informing us of Web tutorials produced by their departments and other subject-specific tutorials which they consider valuable for adding to our Internet Resources webpage. We trust that such links will provide convenient "one-stop shop" to valuable resources on the Internet and will no doubt facilitate teaching and learning within the University community.

If you have recommendations of useful Web tutorials, we should be grateful if you could kindly send the URL addresses to the Reference Department (Email: hkulref@hkucc.hku.hk).

The University Libraries has recently subscribed to ISI's (Institute for Scientific Information) Current Contents Connect which provides Internet access to current awareness research information from all seven editions of Current Contents, i.e. Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences; Arts & Humanities; Clinical Medicine; Engineering, Computing & Technology; Life Sciences; Physical, Chemical, & Earth Sciences; and Social & Behavioral Sciences. Published weekly, Current Contents Connect displays the tables of contents from the world's most influential scholarly journals and provides complete bibliographic data for journal articles, reviews, editorials, and conference proceedings.

How to Access:

The University Libraries has recently acquired the following electronic databases. They are available for use at the Electronic Information Centre, G/F, Main Library.

• CensusCD
• Declassified Documents Reference System: Index and Abstracts
• E Media Professional
• Historical Statistics of the United States on CD-ROM: Colonial Times to 1970

• ASM Heat Treating Library
• ASM Training Library on CD-ROM
• Deep Sea Drilling Project: Index and Reference Files
• Development
• Toxicology Desk Reference: the Toxic Exposure and Medical Monitoring Index
• Journal of Cell Science

• Curriculum Materials Directory: a Guide to Noncommercial Curriculum
• Global Development Finance on CD-ROM

Trial period for the above two Web services expires on 30 April 1998. Access is available from the HKU Libraries Homepage <http://www.hku.hk/lib> under News and Announcements / Electronic Resources on trial.

New CD-ROM: The former Hong Kong Law Digests Yearbook on CD-ROM has now been reincarnated as the Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest on CD-ROM which provides digests of important cases (reported and unreported), and legislation, supplemented by full text of the major decisions from the Hong Kong courts. The networked version acquired by the Lui Che Woo Law Library allows for unlimited access on campus, and covers the entire print version of the HKLR from its inception in 1905, and the HKLD since 1985.

Faculty Publications Collection: This new collection within the Lui Che Woo Law Library (1/F, next to the New Books Display) aims to collect the publications of the law faculty in all possible formats, from books to research papers to unpublished materials. It is hoped that the collection can be built up to include as much as possible the research output of the faculty. Faculty members are most welcome to send us their contributions.

Over the exam period, the Music Library will open later than usual. From April 20 to May 22 the Music Library will be open from 9 am to 7 pm, Monday through Friday. On Saturdays the library will be open from 9 am to 1 pm, as usual.

The Special Collections is pleased to announce that more than 140,000 sheets of Hong Kong newspaper clippings and 80 volumes of pre-1941 Hong Kong Administrative Report and Hong Kong Legislative Council Sessional Papers in its Hong Kong Collection have recently been digitized into electronic format. This is part of an ongoing project in building up an "Electronic Hong Kong Collection" for further improving the accessibility of Hong Kong materials via the World Wide Web.

More than 400 letters belonging to the late Mr Kao Peh-yu (°ª§B«B) were donated to the Libraries by his wife. Born in Hong Kong in 1906, Mr Kao became very active in the local literary circle when he returned to Hong Kong after the war. He was the author of the column Ting Yu Lou Sui Bi (Å¥«B¼ÓÀHµ§) and was renowned for his deep knowledge on Republican China. Of the letters received, most of them were written by scholars, writers and journalists, including fifty letters by Chou Tso-jen (©P§@¤H).

A sizeable collection of transparencies was recently received form Airphoto International. These transparencies are mainly air photographs taken from above Hong Kong since the early 1980s. It is quite an unique collection which shows vividly the transformation of the city and should be useful to geographers and historians alike.

Two cartons of publications, mostly annual reports and newsletters of voluntary organizations, were received from the Dept. of Social Work & Public Administration, the University of Hong Kong.

Three orientation tours were arranged for 70 students from the Dept. of History and Dept. of Politics and Public Administration on January 16 and February 13, 1998 respectively.

Mr Michael Miller, Director of Information Services, Media Union, University of Michigan, first visited our Libraries in March 1990 to advise us on how best to equip effectively our then newly established AV Department. Recently, he was again invited to visit the Libraries during February 1-14, 1998, to work out with our library staff various options of upgrading the AV Department facilities as well as expanding our Electronic Information Centre. Mr Miller is very knowledgeable and well-experienced in the trends and developments of audio-visual applications in libraries, and of the digital library and information technologies. We are very appreciative of the useful proposals he made in both visits.

An exhibition entitled "Underwater Photography 1964-1985" by Professor Norman W.M. Ko, Department of Mechanical Engineering, was on display from 19 December 1997 to 18 January 1998 in the Main Library lobby. The photographs of the exhibition have truly captured the essence of the beautiful world under the water and provided us with an opportunity to appreciate the wonder and delight of the underwater life.

Over the Lunar New Year Period, an exhibition prepared by the staff of the Fung Ping Shan Library entitled "·­Áp¬K¶K Chinese Couplets" was held from January 26 to February 20, 1998 at the lobby, Main Library. On display were hand-written scripts, couplets on bamboo, stone rubbings, 106 pairs of famous couplets with interpretation written by contemporary Chinese scholars and well-known artists, couplets from ¬õ¼Ó¹Ú The Dream of the Red Chamber and ¤å©Ð¥|Ä_ The Four Treasures in the Study, and selected books and articles. Three bibliographies were prepared and distributed in conjunct ion with the exhibition.

Mrs Amy Chan Ko Chung Yin, Library Assistant I, Special Collections, received a long service award for over 25 years of service at a University ceremony held on February 4 in the Loke Yew Hall.

A tea reception for Term II and III staff who have completed 15 years or more of service was held on February 16. 28 members of Libraries staff were honoured at this occasion.

Dr Ma Tai Loi, BA HK; MA, PhD Chicago, took up appointment as Deputy Librarian on January 2, 1998. Dr Ma was formerly Curator of the East Asian Library, University of Chicago.

Miss Carmen Tsang Yuen Yau, BA HK; MLIS Wisc; GDipA Charles Sturt, Probationary Assistant Librarian, was promoted to Assistant Librarian II w.e.f. January 1, 1998.

Ms Gabrielle Wong Ka Wai, Assistant Librarian II, resigned w.e.f. February 9, 1998.

Mrs Angela Yan, Deputy Librarian (Reader Services), and Ms Lucinda Wong, Dental Librarian, have been elected to serve on the Hong Kong Library Association Committee as Academic Liaison Officer and Chairperson, Education and Training Committee respectively.

Mr Lawrence Tam, Deputy Librarian (Technical Services) has been appointed on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Asian Libraries: the Library and Information Management Journal for Asia and the Pacific, MCB University Press, UK for the 1998-1999 period.

Mr Y.C. Wan, Special Collections Librarian, attended the International Conference on Hong Kong and Modern China (­»´ä»Pªñ¥N¤¤°ê°ê»Ú¾Ç³N¬ã°Q·|) âŒ, co-organized by the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, December 3-5, 1997. At the conference Mr Wan presented a paper entitled Collecting Hong Kong Materials: the Experience of Hung On-To Memorial Library, the University of Hong Kong (­»´ä¤åÄm¸ê®Æªº¦¬¶° : ½Í­»´ä¤j¾Ç¤Õ¦w¹D°O©À¹Ï®ÑÀ]ªº´XÂI¸gÅç).

Several members of the professional staff attended the Seminar on Chinese Information Processing in Libraries, held January 22-23, at the HKUST. Focusing on Chinese enabling software and integrated library systems, the seminar stimulated discussion on future directions and cooperative strategies in developing Chinese database systems.