HKSYU - Shue Yan Newsletter

Hong Kong Shue Yan University Library has different kinds of online databases which allow students and teachers to search for the subjects in different academic departments. The University Library has ordered the online databases according to subject in order to help the readers find data quickly. Not every database has the same degree of use, because there is a different rate for each of the databases. According to the statistics given by University Library in March, 2008, WiseNews had a 24.07% usage rate and tops the database list, while the least used had a rate of only 0.06%. The difference in usage rate was related to the number of students in each department, the Librarian said.

The usage rate depends on the number of students

Desmond Lee Wai Lun, Librarian of Hong Kong Shue Yan University, said the usage rate of the Business Administration online databases was higher than those of the language-related databases. As the numbers of Business Administration students are higher, the related online databases would have higher usage. Mr. Lee said “The usage rate of online databases is counted by transactions. The more people using them, the higher the rate will be. The usage rate does not take into account the proportion of students in different departments.” He added that certain online databases had lower usage rates, since there are no related subjects or connections with academic departments at Shue Yan University, such as ProQuest Computing and ProQuest Religion.

WiseNews comes first

The University Library has about 30 online databases and arranges the online databases by subject, such as Commerce, Education, History, Journalism and Communication. Although this online database arrangement can help readers, online databases have diverse usage rates. WiseNews has the highest. Mr. Lee explained: “As the students from different disciplines need to read the news and readers want to search for local and international news in a quick and convenient way, including the news from home. Students make use of WiseNews to search for material for their assignments relating to local events.”

More promotion of the library

Mr. Lee said that the lower number of students and the lack of related subjects at the university are the reasons for low online database usage and was not the result of a lack of promotion by the library. “We emphasize online promotion by using the library website to release the latest news to readers. We also use printed materials in different locations in the university to actively highlight the databases. We hope that students will be vitally interested and log into the library website,” he said.

Plans to provide online database training courses

In order to encourage students to use online databases, Mr. Lee said they planned to provide online database training courses in the upcoming academic year for students on how to use the databases and to do so on a regular basis. This makes students use online databases to search for data regarding the writing of dissertations and for carrying out studies in general. “Students can be arranged as a team. We hope these training courses will start in November. This plan is in place,” he said.

Stainless Steel Bookshelves Will Be Used On the 4th Floor

Mr. Lee said that the university had just approved a budget, of around HK$400,000, to replace all wooden bookshelves with stainless steel bookshelves. This is to take place on the fourth floor of the University Library. The replacement process begins this summer. He said: “The wooden bookshelves have been used since the opening of this library in 1995 and are no longer firm and solid. We decided to replace the wooden shelving with stainless steel shelving.” The replacement of the bookshelves will give an opportunity to reorganize the books because the present arrangement is not ideal. The library will still keep the complete bookshelves for other uses. There is no plan to replace bookshelves on the second and fifth floors of the library for the time being, he said.