Subject Policy Statement - EARTH SCIENCES
A. Purpose and Program Description
The Libraries seek to support research and teaching in the Earth Sciences Department. The Collection supports the needs of the educational programmes at both the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels leading to the BSc, research-based MPhil and PhD degress, and the MSc (Applied GeoSciences) degree by course work. In addition, the collection also supports the various Professional Development courses CPD offered by the Department.
Research Focus
The focus of Earth Sciences is the rocks, whether they are found on the deep ocean floor, or on the highest mountain peaks. The Department is active in research and development in a variety of interests though focused in two major areas (1) Earth System - rock, water, atmosphere and life and in particular the geology of the East-SE Asia/western Pacific, its geological interactions and urban geology. (2) Earth System and how mankind interacts i.e. applied geology such as sustainable development, urbanization, global warming, water pollution, natural disaster mitigation and quaternary paleoenvironmental changes.
Multi-disciplinary treatment of subjects
They are usually courses that are concerned with built and natural environments and environmental engineering.
User Groups
Primary users are faculty members, undergraduates and postgraduates major in the subject. The collection also supports users from other Departments who work in collaboration and/or have study interests related to the subject e.g. Civil Engineering and Geography Department.
B. General Selection Guidelines (See Classed Analysis)
Overall, the Libraries' existing collection and acquisitions commitment, based upon available resources, and its collection goal for the subject areas are at the research level.
C. Specific Delimitations
- Formats collected: Extensive variety of formats are collected. We collect monographs, annuals, reference tools, scholarly series, periodicals, CD-ROMs and other electronic tools, and videocassettes extensively ; textbooks and dissertations (other than HKU dissertations), selectively.
- Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current publications extensively, and earlier materials selectively.
- Chronological Focus: Contemporary. No limit to coverage in terms of intellectual content but emphasis is on collecting most recent materials.
- Languages Collected: We collect English language materials extensively and non-English language materials selectively, with translations into English are preferred.
- Place of Publication: We collect extensively materials from North American, European and United Kingdom and other materials selectively.