CUHK Library E-newsletter

A Year of Opportunity

In this latest edition, we bring you updates about our collections, spaces, and services. As we progress through this first term of the new academic year, let me welcome our new readers, particularly our new students and staff who have joined CUHK over the summer! Your presence enriches our environment, and we look forward to serving you.

Great universities provide access to a range of experiences that would be virtually impossible to find in the same place, outside of the university campus. At CUHK, our libraries contribute to that assortment of experiences around collections, spaces and service built around people.

Collections

Our collections continue to grow with remarkable additions to support our understanding and our research to further insights.

One snapshot from our Special Collections is the new publication from CUHK Press, A Vibrant Voyage from China, which draws together some of the beautiful hand-painted pith paintings produced in 19th century Guangzhou that were originally sold to Western merchants and sailors as souvenirs. CUHK Library has acquired a number of these fragile paintings and we continue to actively develop our collections for the study of historical and contemporary China. Last summer, CUHK Library and CUHK Press launched Open Books Hong Kong in partnership with two other universities in Hong Kong. We are also exploring new ways of enabling researchers to make available rigorously peer-reviewed research outputs in more sustainable ways. Our Head of Research and Learning Services Lily Ko shares some of the achievements from these initiatives, which form part of a wider movement towards Open Science, aiming to make our research findings.

Space

CUHK Library is continually upgrading our spaces to meet the needs of students and staff. Over the past year, we refurbished outdoor spaces at some of our branch libraries, to enable users to enjoy some fresh air without leaving the library. We also refurbished our VR Zone in the Learning Garden, to ensure we provide the latest technologies as well as access to historic collections. CUHK Library is delighted to host an exhibition in the Learning Garden this October on Artificial Intelligence developments at CUHK, in partnership with the Faculty of Engineering and with SenseTime, in tribute to founder Prof. Tang Xiao’ou.

Service built around people

CUHK community extends far and wide, encompassing our campus residents in Shatin, our staff and students, our campus in Shenzhen and centres in China, to our alumni in Hong Kong and around the world and the many partners and stakeholders who serve the university in different ways. Our Library works to inspire, inform, and support the CUHK community and society in the broader sense. I have seen first-hand how committed the Library team is to realizing that mission. Our culture of service is captured in this newsletter in the interview of our Legal Resources Centre Librarian and Faculty Liaison Librarian (Law), Mr. Eddie Ko. The same ethos of continuous improvement transpires in the latest development of our WhatsApp-a-Librarian service. This WhatsApp service is being augmented with automated responses so that we can answer frequently asked questions faster, especially outside of our staffed hours, making our services accessible and aims to support our users where they need help, when they need it.

It is our honour to serve the CUHK community of great minds.

Benjamin Meunier
University Librarian

Tribute to Prof. Wang Chi, our former University Librarian (1970–1971 and 1984–1985) and Honorary Fellow 2014

Prof. Wang Chi (王冀教授) , the former University Librarian of CUHK, worked at the Library of Congress in the US for nearly 40 years. During his time as the Chinese Section Chief, the Chinese collection expanded from 300,000 to over one million volumes. It was with profound sadness that CUHK Library learned the news that Prof. Wang passed away at the end of June.

Throughout his lifetime, Prof. Wang devoted significant effort to promoting greater dialogue and understanding between the US and China. Prof. Wang was our University Librarian over two tenures in 1970–1971 and in 1984–1985. His extensive achievements were formally recognized by the University when he was awarded as a CUHK Honorary Fellow in 2014.

Groundbreaking and construction of the Library and later during the Library's expansion phase

Prof. Wang last visited the University Library on 13 May 2014. He was impressed by the new University Library, Rare Book Room and learning facilities for students. After the visit, he wrote on the Learning Garden’s whiteboard ‘世界一流大學圖書館’ (World class University Library).

CUHK Library expresses its deep sympathies to Prof. Wang Chi’s family and loved ones.

Tribute to Dr. Kan Lai-bing, our former University Librarian (1972–1983)

It is with deep sorrow that CUHK Library shares the news of the passing of Dr. KAN Lai-bing, its former University Librarian and a major figure in librarianship for Hong Kong, on 5 September 2024.

Dr. Kan was born in Hong Kong and educated at HKU, (B.Sc. degree in Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Physics). After her graduation, she attended the University of California at Berkeley, (M.A. in Zoology and M.L.S. in Library Science). Returning to Hong Kong, she later earned a Ph.D. in Chinese studies at HKU. Dr. Kan’s career in academic libraries spanned HKU and CUHK, and she served as University Librarian in both of institutions over the course of her extensive career.

Dr. Kan joined the University at an exciting time and led preparations for the library’s move and the opening of the new University Library building. The University Bulletin, Jan 1973 (Vol. 9 No. 4) featured a story on Dr. Kan. The Bulletin also remarked that “the first impression one gets of the two upper floors of stacks is of wide stretches of space, empty shelving areas, and of attractive carrels and faculty studies. Ultimately there will be 400,000 volumes of books ranged along those shelves.” Today the CUHK Library holds 2.8 million volumes!

In December 1972, University Librarian Dr. Kan Lai-bing takes up office

Dr. Kan was a lifelong learner, committed to the development and improvement of librarians in Hong Kong and a dedicated servant leader to the library and academic community in Hong Kong. Dr. Kan was Chairperson of the Hong Kong Library Association (HKLA) in 1961, 1962, 1970, 1976 and 1982. She established the first certificate course for Library Assistants in Hong Kong in 1964 and led the establishment of graduate-level training for Hong Kong Librarians between the late 1970s and 1990. In 2005, she founded the Dr. Kan Lai Bing Award to recognize outstanding graduates of the Graduate Diploma of Information Studies.

CUHK Library owes its heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Kan for her contribution to libraries, as a remarkable leader and distinguished librarian. CUHK Library expresses its deep sympathies to Dr. Kan’s family and friends.

CUHK Library will carry forward the legacy of its predecessors in advancing the leading research library that they helped to build.