http://lib1000.ln.edu.hk/exhibition/linghis/According to Mr. Yeung, it was a stormy day and the no.8 typhoon signal was hoisted when the Library began to move from Stubb's Road to its present premises at Fu Tei, Tuen Mun on 30 August 1995. It was fortunate that only the staff got wet, not the books.
The Library holds a collection of 350,000 items, and it has a team of 35 professional librarians and supporting staff. It occupies two floors (3,000 square metres) of the University's Main Building, which comes into view once one enters the campus from Castle Peak Road. The first floor houses the English and Chinese lending books, circulation Counter, reference materials, electronic information services, a collection of listed companies' annual reports, and a special collection of thread-bound Chinese classics.
The second floor houses the newspaper and periodical collections as well as the Multimedia and Language Learning Centre (MLLC). The Library has subscribed to 18,000 electronic and 4,000 printed periodicals. The MLLC holds over 21,933 items of media resources, such as audio and video tapes, DVD/VCD/LD, multimedia packages, computer software, local TV programs, slides and microforms. The Library has digitized and saved in the server the documentary TV programs Hong Kong Connection (鏗鏘集) from 1989 onwards. Users can view the programs on any networked PCs.
The Library places great emphasis on its electronic collection. It has 850 copyrighted electronic books, with many more to be added. An additional 3,500 public domain e-books are also available from the Lingnan Digital Library. The Library home page also provides links to e-book websites such as Shenzhen Read.net (深圳讀書網, http://www.szread.net/ and Shanghai Digital Library (上海數字圖書館). Moreover, a lot of OPAC records have been linked to Amazon.com for book reviews and other bibliographical information. It is an additional reference for users before they decide to check out a particular book.
Language resources are a popular service provided by the Library. The Language Learning Online on the Library web page provides links to language learning websites, voice records of foreign language prose reading, and RealTime videos of language learning TV shows (http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/sac/language/llihome.htm). For instance, the “Learning Putonghua" section features a lot of RealTime video clips in preparing for the the National Putonghua Proficiency Test (國家普通話水平測試).
We were very impressed with the progressiveness of the Fong Sum Wood library
team in developing multimedia services and educating Lingnan students and staff
to make the best use of them. We thank Mr. Yeung and his colleagues
for sharing their valuable experiences with us.
Edith Lam & Winston Szeto
News Library, Hong Kong
Cable Television