Objectives of this Guide
The medical, health and welfare libraries in Hong Kong have a long history in government departments, universities and voluntary organizations. The information resources collected and the services rendered by these libraries and information centres have made a major contribution to the development of medicine, health care and welfare in Hong Kong.
MedCom's objective is to produce a definitive guide to these libraries, their collections and services in order to facilitate co-operation and mutual reference support among themselves. The guide is also aimed at promoting awareness of their existence among healthcare practitioners, researchers and the general public in Hong Kong and in the region. All libraries, and over 50,000 medical and health related professionals, academics, healthcare and welfare managers and administrators in Hong Kong will find this guide very handy in locating information sources very quickly.
Scope
The guide follows the definition of a "library" in Harrod's Librarians' Glossary in deciding what to include as libraries. A library is defined as "a collection of books and other literary materials kept for reading, study and consultation" and "a place, building, room or rooms set apart for the reading use of a collection of books, etc".
For those organizations falling outside the above definition but carrying information resources and services which are of value and interest to the health care community are listed in a separate section in Part II.
Our policy is to include libraries or information centres whose collection are primarily limited to the fields of medicine, health care and social welfare. A special branch library or a specialized or departmental collection within a library is also covered when it carries medically and health related collections and delivers services to the community.
The listing or the inclusion of individual libraries and information centres in this Guide does not imply that their collections and facilities are all available to the public. References should be made to individual entries in the Guide and Part III Table 26 on their availability.
Methodology
The Guide is the result of a survey by questionnaire carried out in February/March 1995. Extensive research has been conducted on what type of information would be useful for librarians and users, the choice of words in the questionnaire, and population to be surveyed. The questionnaires have been pilot-tested in a few libraries, before they were sent out. Altogether some 240 questionnaires were distributed and 207 responses were returned. Among them, 130 organizations provided us with information about their libraries and organizations. Over 70 organizations responded with the answers that they did not have libraries or that their operations were not related to the survey. Some 40 organizations did not respond at all despite our reminders. The overall response rate was over 80%, thus increasing the representativeness of the survey.
Coverage
We used structured questionnaires to obtain information about libraries and information resource centres. Each entry contains only the information which has been provided by the respondent although every effort has been made to verify its accuracy and ensure its completeness.
There is one entry for each library in an organization. If an organization has three separate libraries, there will be three separate entries. Branch libraries however are grouped under the main organization.
Under each library, the following information is covered:
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Library information: |
name, address, contacts, year established, person in charge, staff, library type, source of funding |
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Brief introduction: |
objectives, mission statement, development plan |
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Library collections: |
size, language composition, subject coverage, cataloguing and classification, subject areas, electronic collections & facilities |
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Library services: |
services available, extension activities, publications, audio-visual facilities, opening hours and accommodation |
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User community: |
type of users, fees required, no. of users and services available for each type |
Under each information resource centre, the following information is incorporated:
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Organization information: |
name, contact address and telephone, parent organization, year established, type and nature of funding, objectives or mission statement. |
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Service and facilities: |
functions, target group, extension activities, publications, opening hours |
The information provided should be correct as at the date of the survey. It is hoped that the Guide will be updated once every two years so that it can provide current information. It will also give us pertinent data to monitor the development of medical, health and welfare libraries in Hong Kong. Libraries and information centres are welcome to submit to MedCom any changes or amendments by photocopying the questionnaires provided in this book. Those not included in this Guide, but who wish to be, may request the questionnaire from MedCom:
MedCom
Hong Kong Library Association
GPO Box 10095
Hong Kong
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Publishing 
