Having made two out-of-town visits this year, it was high time we did some local visits.  So on the morning 6 July, a group of 25 librarians joined the visits to the Yu Chun Keung Medical Library of the University of Hong Kong and then the Chinese Medicine Library of the Hong Kong Baptist University.

As soon as we arrived at the Faculty of Medicine's new Medical Complex at Sassoon Road, we were struck by the splendid view overlooking the Lamma Channel.  We could smell the fresh air, in the rain though.

Opened in January, 2002, Yu Chun Keung Medical Library occupies an area of 2,850 square metres, which is almost double the size of the former Lee Hysan Medical Library.   The custom-built complex and state-of-the-art facility holds one of the strongest biomedical collections in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia with over 160,000 books and bound volumes, 2,900 journal titles, access to 1,400 titles of health sciences electronic journals, and numerous multimedia materials on medicine, nursing, health sciences, and Chinese medicine.  The Library is split into two floors.  Western medical books are shelved in open stacks on the ground floor and the Chinese ones on the mezzanine floor.  The Chinese medical collection was transferred to this Library in 1998.  Before that it was part of the Fung Ping Shan collection. The timing couldn't be better because the first batch of full-time Chinese medical students will be enrolled in September, 2002.

In the open area on the ground floor is the Knowledge Navigation Centre which is equipped with computers, multimedia workstations, scanners, software packages for class assignments, presentations and digital publishing.  There is also a Computer Assisted Learning Laboratory with an additional 45 computers and necessary software for large group presentations and seminars.

The Library offers an ACEnet (Access Everywhere Network) and a Wireless Environment where connection points are available on both floors of the Library.  Users can thus connect to the campus network and the Internet via their laptops at any time and anywhere in the Library.  Other facilities include four audio-visual rooms, self-service photocopiers operated with an Octopus card, three group study rooms, six postgraduate study rooms and a faculty reading area where some leisure reading materials are available.

Yu Chun Keung Library is Hong Kong's sole depository for World Health Organization (WHO) Depository Collection.  Past examination papers and medical staff publications are also available in the Library.

After touring around the Library, it stopped raining.  We then went outside and admired the architecture of this custom-built complex and the garden.  We also enjoyed the refreshments provided by Ms. Julia Chan, the Medical Librarian.  We all said that the medical students are lucky to have all these new facilities and a garden for them to have some fresh air in between study sessions.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, we arrived at another also relatively new but more specialized library: the Chinese Medicine Library of Hong Kong Baptist University.  This is the first academic library dedicated to Chinese medicine.  It was officially opened in August 2001.  Same as the new Medical Complex of HKU, this purpose-built School of Chinese Medicine Building where the Chinese Medicine Library is located, was also funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.  The Library occupies an area of 500 square metres and holds 12,000 volumes of Chinese medicine books (mainly in Chinese), 300 journals, 400 titles of Chinese medicine multimedia materials in a variety of formats including CD-ROMs, videocassettes, VCDs, and DVDs.

The Library also owns a very special set of books.  It is a complete collection of traditional texts on Chinese Materia Medica, a set of 403 volumes containing more than 800 works and 10,000 articles.  In terms of electronic resources, the Library subscribes to over 20 Chinese medicine related electronic databases including full text databases and some e-books.

Their Electronic Chinese Medicine Library at  http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/libcm has collected over 230 Internet resources.

The Library has a reader capacity of 70, a multimedia room, a group study room, a user education/computer room and 9 OPAC terminals.  Photocopiers are also Octopus card operated.  For using the network printer, students can either open an account or purchase a printing card.

After the tour guided by Mr. Paul Lee, Assistant Librarian, we were given yet another special tour.  We were privileged to have a look at the University's Chinese medicine clinic and related facilities.  The clinic started operation in 1997 but the clinic in this Jockey Club School of Chinese Medicine Building was launched in February 2002.  We were shown the consultation rooms, treatment rooms, Chinese medicine pharmacy, herb storage room with constant temperature and humidity control and the modernized herbal brewing room.  After having seen all these state-of-the-art technologies, I would very much like to try their service to see the difference from my Chinese medicine practitioner at the corner of Des Voeux Road W. and Centre St.

Later we were honoured to visit their research labs and teaching labs in the same building.  Librarians do not have a lot of chance to see the medical labs, I guess.  So we were very thrilled to see all sorts of specimens of herbs and human organs.  There were various human models and we liked the one for learning acupuncture best.  It resembled the size of a human being whose acupuncture points were represented by tiny light bulbs of different colours.  Some of us even got the chance to try to get the pulse from the "plastic human hand” which is in fact a teaching aid.  Since most of us are so interested in these medical equipment and gadgets, maybe next time we can organize a visit to the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences.

We would like to propose a vote of thanks to Ms. Julia Chan and Mr. Paul Lee and their colleagues for giving us such a detailed and interesting tour.

After learning some serious stuff in the libraries and having some fun at the labs, 9 of us continued our journey to Baptist University's Renfrew Seafood Restaurant for lunch.  We all enjoyed the food there and the price was very reasonable.
 

Brenda Yi
Programme Coordinator

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fig. 1: Chinese Medicine Library of Baptist University
fig. 2: Tommy Yeung presented souvenir to Ms. Selina Ming, School of Chinese Medicine, Baptist University
fig. 3: Tommy Yeung presented souvenir to Ms. Julia Chan, Medical Library, University of Hong Kong