Visit to Public and School Libraries
The library visit of HKLA this year was originally scheduled in April. However,
with the outbreak of SARS in late March, the activity was cancelled. Fortunately,
the disease was soon under control and everything went back to normal. HKLA
decided to re-organize the visit to the Fanling Public Library and the Christian
Alliance S W CHAN Memorial School Library. The visit took place on
12 July and was proved to be a successful and fruitful one for the participants.
It was a fine day on 12 July. About 30 participants from different
academic, public, school and special libraries joined the visit. We
gathered at Kowloon Tong and set off for the Fanling Public library at about
9:30 a.m. The Fanling Public Library is a newly established public
library located on the 2/F of a multi-purpose complex in Fanling. We
attended a short briefing session about the services and the basic facilities
of the library before the tour started. We were in awe when we saw
the vivid decoration of the children’s library and the music chairs provided
for them. The library is no doubt an ideal place for children to spend
their time wisely while waiting for their mothers who are shopping in the
markets downstairs. We took pictures at the entrance of the library
before we left for our second destination: the Christian Alliance S W CHAN
Memorial School Library.
The Christian Alliance S W CHAN Memorial School Library is located in
the same district. The school has a five-year history and has been
actively organizing activities to promote reading. We received a very warm
welcome from the students and the teacher-librarian on arrival. We
were deeply impressed by the enthusiasm of the student librarians and their
creative approaches in promoting a reading culture at school. The visit
started off with a short presentation, introducing the various library activities
and how they were trained to be student librarians. Some activities
like “reading in the bathroom” and the “good book display” in the library
did give us some inspirations. Of course, the achievements of these diligent
student helpers and all their good work should be attributed to their beloved
teacher librarian, Miss Lee.
After the library tours in the morning, we reached our final destination,
Taoist monastery Fung Ying Sin Koon. We had a vegetarian lunch there. While we were having the traditional
vegetarian food, we all shared our feelings for the visit and also talked
about our experience in our daily work. This visit did not only provide
a chance for us to have an insight to the new public libraries and secondary
school libraries, but it also provided a valuable opportunity for librarians of different
sectors to communicate and exchange ideas.
Ellie Cheung
School Libraries Liaison Officer
