Library News

Since the establishment of the Portuguese Language Resources Alliance for Academic Libraries between Macao SAR and the Mainland China, member libraries of the alliance have jointly offered various services and carried out different activities, such as inter-library document borrowing services and video conferences on Portuguese language teaching. In response to the alliance’s ‘One Library One Product’ activity to showcase innovative library services, the University of Macau (UM) recently kicked off the Joint Exhibition of Macao and Mainland University Libraries Service Innovation to exhibit the achievements of member libraries of the alliance in library service innovation.

According to UM Vice Rector Rui Martins, university libraries in Macao and mainland China in recent years have redoubled their efforts to promote library service innovation and have produced many outstanding results and services. He adds that the exhibition will help to facilitate exchanges between libraries and promote their services.

The joint exhibition not only displays new technologies and new service projects developed by the member libraries, but also showcases the unique thematic information services of each of them. For instance, at the exhibition, Peking University Library showcases how it has used ancient books to develop historical literature courses for the university’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of History, School of Foreign Languages, and School of Archaeology and Museology; Tsinghua University Library and Sun Yat-sen University Library demonstrate an electronic resources platform with smart gateway services and the Huizhou scripts-based digital humanities platform, respectively; Shanghai International Studies University Library exhibits its outstanding achievements in digital humanities technology and their application in recent years.

In terms of universities in Macao, UM showcases a digital tour guide system for the area of the Ruins of Saint Paul; The Macau University of Science and Technology Library exhibits innovative services for patent handling, document provision, and ancient map management; the University of Saint Joseph displays the application of open source systems in library services; and the City University of Macau Library showcases the Memory of Macau Project carried out by its Memory of the World Knowledge Centre — Macau. The innovative library services are all unique in their own way. The exhibition is expected to serve as a reference and guidelines for the exchange and cooperation between the member libraries and the future development of university libraries.

UM Rector Yonghua Song (1st from left) and guests visit the exhibition

UM Vice Rector Rui Martins (middle) visits the exhibition

A group photo