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Electronic Library Project in the Open University of Hong Kong

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Author : Wai-man WONG (Ms)
Date added : 1999-12-01

Brief Project Background

Results

Background
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The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) is the only higher education institution established by the Hong Kong Government to provide degree-level study opportunities to adults through distance learning. It has been required to operate on a self-financing basis since 1993. The University has 25,600 active students in the October 1999 semester, 90 full-time academic staff and 1,000 part time tutors. Admission is open to anyone over the age of 17. There are four schools and two centres which offer 78 postgraduate, degree and sub-degree distance education programmes covering arts, the social sciences, business and administration, and science and technology.

The OUHK has been well known for the good quality of its distance education programmes and its willingness to apply appropriate technology in the teaching and academic support services. One such service is the Electronic Library, which is a pioneering application of advanced technology initiated by the University. The Electronic Library allows more than 26,000 OUHK students, staff, and tutors to tap into a total of 1,000 electronic resources, which are equivalent to 50,000 volumes of printed material, through a personal computer and a modem from anywhere at any time. Through the system, users can also search the library catalogues, browse past examination papers, receive online user guidance and log onto web sites all over the world.

OUHK students are already well equipped for the use of a hi-tech library. In a recent survey carried out by the University, about 96 per cent of the respondents indicated that they have access to a personal computer at home or in their work place. Thus the majority of them can now look up references and obtain information and study materials through the network at any time anywhere.


Project Components
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  1. Access to 1,000 electronic databases/resources, which are equivalent to 500,000 volumes of reference materials.
  2. Web-access to CD-ROM titles that have no Internet version.
  3. Access to selected resources relevant to academic programmes through the Internet
  4. Collection building with the help of the academics.
  5. Digitization of past examination papers and copyright cleared documents.
  6. An Electronic Reserve Collection which keeps past examination papers and reference materials.
  7. A web site of overseas distance education institutions.
  8. Easy to use web-based user interface integrating electronic services with a bilingual search engine (English and Chinese).
  9. Free dial-up software for downloading on the web and the PC Laboratory, and for borrowing from the Library.
  10. 144 dial-in telephone lines.
  11. A high speed Internet link to ensure response time.
  12. User account system for the maintenance of user records.
  13. An on-line questionnaire and e-mail page to collect views from users.
  14. Web pages on general library information, news and announcements and technical access support.
  15. Instructional video programmes in English, Cantonese and Putonghua on how to use the Electronic Library.
  16. Video on demand server for viewing instructional videos on the WEB.
  17. Interactive CD-ROM programme on electronic library.
  18. User survey with a view to improving the services.


To sum up, the project started in January 1997 and became fully operational in the autumn of 1998, providing round-the-clock remote-access library services to students, and expanding the library collection from about 40,000 volumes of printed collections to about 500,000 volumes of equivalent electronic collections. The library collection has also been extended by linking up with the library catalogues of the higher education institutions in Hong Kong and overseas. Access to previous OUHK examination papers and additional readings have been facilitated by viewing them online. All the above services are available to students, tutors and staff free of charge on campus and from anywhere through a dial-up modem. This in effect has greatly improved the learning environment of our students, who are full time workers and have limited study time after office hours, by providing the much-needed convenience and rich sources of academic reference.

Convenience and user-friendliness
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Agreement has been reached with the Urban and Regional Councils to link up with the Internet Stations of the 40 public libraries throughout Hong Kong. Students may thus log on our Electronic Library from one of these places, albeit presently in a restricted manner due to security reasons and contract conditions imposed by the database/resource vendors.

The built-in bilingual search engine and the integration of library services on one single web page ensure quick response to users' enquiries. By simple point and click, users can obtain the information without profound computer knowledge.

Major Findings
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User Acceptance and Utilization
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The electronic library services are well received by users. The chart below indicates that the usage rate of the Electronic Library is on the increase and the trend is expected to continue in the future. The usage rate reflects that there is a strong demand for library services. The peak hours of accessing the electronic library are 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and full day on weekends.



Flexibility of Access
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The Electronic Library was first conceived and planned in 1995/96. The rapid evolution in the information and telecommunications technology has made it imperative for us to keep up with the technological advances and address inadequacies in the system to meet the changing environment. It is also necessary for us to revisit our access policy to provide routes for more flexible access to the electronic library than the originally planned direct dial-in mode to cope with the service provided by Internet Service Provider to our users.

Collection building
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Although there are many electronic titles in our electronic library, the Library is still taking efforts to increase the collection size to cope with the development of the University and the needs of the users. It is not uncommon that specific subject areas are still not covered by electronic resources. On the other hand, the recent open up of the telecommunication market by the Hong Kong Government and the availability of the broadband network casts light on the possibility of putting multimedia information on the electronic library, and advances in this area will be actively considered by the University.

The Library has also planned to extend its service provision to the future regional learning centre to a scale comparable to that of the main library, which would include access to electronic resources and setting up of Internet stations.

Information Literacy of the users
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There are demands for more user education and hot line help on how to set up personal computer and how to search and navigate in the electronic library for information. The Library has regularly organised public seminars and orientation programmes to train the user on information search, on-line video and guides are also provided to guide users on using the service.


Present and Further Development
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The OUHK has now entered the second phase development of the Electronic Library. It has been planned to make use of the latest communication technology to improve flexibility in remote access, to build a well-balanced collection including an E-Text Centre by local digitization, to ease navigation, to build a WEB based interlibrary loan system, to expand the user account system for library users, to carry out a feasibility study on whether or not the electronic services could be extended to disabled students, to link up with the online learning environment of the University, and to continue the Library's efforts in user education and training. Those who are interested in the Project can refer to the Electronic Library web site http://www.lib.ouhk.edu.hk or contact Ms Wai-man WONG at
wmwong@ouhk.edu.hk for details.


November 1999

Project Information

Total budget in US$ : -
Country of activity: Hong Kong [HK]

Contact Information

Wai-man WONG (Ms)

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