E-Resources Discovery Days

To promote the use of e-resources and to foster a vibrant research culture in the SFU community, the Library organized the E-Resources Discovery Days which took place from 11 to 13 November 2024. Representatives and professional trainers from well-known e-resources vendors such as Clarivate & ProQuest, Wolters Kluwer, McGraw Hill and Gale were invited to set up booths to showcase a vast array of subject-specific resources and to conduct a series of workshops to equip students and staff with the search skills that were critical to finding books, journal articles and other essential information for their teaching, learning and research endeavours.

The event attracted over 700 visitors in just 3 days and the response was highly encouraging. Most of the participants in the follow-up online evaluation surveys indicated that they found the workshops very useful and that they would try to make the most of the e-resources in the future.

The ensuing lucky draw cum prize presentation ceremony was held at the Learning Commons on 15 November 2024. Fabulous prizes including iPads, headphones and cash coupons were generously donated by the vendors. Congratulations to all the winners!

Vivid images of the joyful moments of this special occasion have been uploaded to the Photo Gallery.

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Creation of Saint Francis University (SFU) Archives

To celebrate and commemorate our attainment of the university status in January 2024, the Library is working on the construction of Saint Francis University (SFU) Archives, with planned tasks to be carried out in phases.
The Library is in the process of actively collecting items of considerable historical significance that allow us to trace the remarkable growth of Caritas Francis Hsu College (CFHC), which was established in 1985, into SFU over the past 40 years. One such item is the graduation thesis titled Biography in the Nineteenth Century as Illustrated by Seven Biographies of English Men of Letters written in 1940s for a degree at Oxford University by Bishop Francis Hsu Chen-ping, the first Chinese Bishop of Hong Kong who served from 1969 to 1973. Another document of great importance is the Report on the Proposal to the Founding of Caritas Francis Hsu College published in 1984. These items are highly valuable, casting light on our predecessors’ sterling contributions to the development of post-secondary education in Hong Kong.
On 9 January 2025, the Library was proud to present a range of publications to our staff members and guests at the Saint Francis University 40th Anniversary Celebration & Dinner. The information pamphlet of this landmark event and those of the other two special occasions — the Joint Graduation Ceremony 2024 and the Saint Francis University Thanksgiving Mass — will be housed at the SFU Archives as an official record of this delightful episode of our long journey of development into the first Catholic university in Hong Kong.
The SFU Archives, however, will not be confined to preserving items about the history of the university. The Library welcomes the donation of archival items that have a distinctive value in a specific area or profession and are in line with the characteristic features of our study programmes. The Library has recently obtained the manuscripts of the internationally renowned scholar — Professor Leo Lee Ou-fan — thanks to the generosity of the School of Humanities and Languages. These precious objects will surely appeal to researchers and enthusiasts in the study of contemporary Chinese literature. Please feel free to contact us if you have any valuable items for donation.

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ReadingList@Library: A New User Interface Service

To enable students to access their course readings more conveniently, the Library has upgraded the ReadingList@Library Service with a brand new user interface where students can immediately browse a list of principal and recommended readings of their registered courses by clicking the link of the Reading List platform being embedded in Moodle.

The Library will conduct training workshops of the Service to demonstrate the advanced search features and filtering options of the new user interface as well as creating of additional course materials.

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Launch of Social Media Channels

To increase our visibility and to reach out to a wider cross section of society, the Library has set up a channel on each of the two most popular social media platforms at present — Instagram and Facebook. From now on, we will share with you the most up-to-date information on additional e-resources, new books, forthcoming training workshops and any other special events and activities on these two platforms as well as on the library website.

Please Follow us if you have not already done so and don’t forget to give us a Like and share our posts with your classmates or colleagues!

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Opening of the Library on Public Holidays

To address the growing study need during the examination period at the end of the calendar year, the Library remained open on the public holidays (25-26 December 2024 & 1 January 2025) — the first time that such arrangements had been made since it came into operation in 2009. High usage rates were recorded in multiple time slots throughout the Revision Weeks & Examination Period.

 

The Library conveys our best wishes to students in the form of give-away sweets that were placed in the lobby of the Learning Commons. Students were able to recharge themselves by consuming these light, energy-boosting snacks after a long period of intense study.

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Book Exhibition in Celebration of the Lunar New Year

In celebration of the Lunar New Year festival, the Library held a book exhibition from 9 January to 5 February 2025. The exhibits included publications featuring New Year stories, auspicious symbols and patterns, zodiac predictions, celebratory cuisines and the art of paper-cutting.

 

This event would hopefully deepen our understanding of the Chinese cultural traditions and customs related to this special occasion. Similar theme-based activities will be held at the Learning Commons in the future.

Do visit us more often. You are most welcome to explore the great variety of printed works in our collections.

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Enrichment of E-Resources

The Library has sought to broaden the range of our e-resources so as to meet the ever-increasing learning, teaching and research needs of users in different subject disciplines. In this connection, the Library has recently added the following e-databases:

E-Databases	Introduction
Pearson IT Professional Collection	The Pearson IT Professional Collection provides full-text access to more than 550 titles published by Pearson in information technology, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, Adobe, C++, Oracle, Cisco and more.
O’Reilly	O’Reilly provides full-text access to more than 47,000 ebooks and 6,000 videos in areas such as business and computer science. It also features case studies, interactive tutorials and audio books.
知書閱聽圖書館 Nowbook Digital Library	知書閱聽圖書館 (Nowbook Digital Library) offers access to full-text Chinese books published in Hong Kong, including topics in social science, education, language, and science and technology.
Access Advanced Practice Nursing	AccessAPN provides a wide variety of nursing resources, including a plethora of authoritative titles, cases, Q & A and video content spanning from evidence-based practice and clinical information to personal development and leadership topics.
AccessMedicine	AccessMedicine provides over 300 authoritative texts in medicine. It also features videos and animations in internal medicine, cardiology, genetics, pharmacy, and patient care.
F.A. Davis PT Collection	F.A. Davis PT Collection integrates over 60 pre-eminent titles in the field of physiotherapy education, accompanied by case studies and a comprehensive multimedia library.
Allied & Public Health Subject Collection via Taylor & Francis Online	This collection includes 62 e-journal titles covering topics such as health promotion, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public health and audiology. *This collection can be accessed via Taylor & Francis Online
APA PsycBooks	APA PsycBooks provides more than 4,600 full-text e-books covering the most current scholarly and professional titles published by American Psychological Association (APA) relating to psychology, child development, social behaviour, and more.
APA PsycTherapy	APA PsycTherapy is a collection of over 900 streaming demonstration videos in psychotherapy. It features expert psychotherapists demonstrating various treatment approaches and provides methods showcasing common obstacles faced during therapy sessions.

At present, over 260 e-databases in different subjects are accessible via the Database List of the Library Guides both on and off campus.