Mr Henry E, College Librarian, was invited to attend the first Sino-Foreign joint venture University Libraries’ Forum at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and to celebrate the opening of XJTLU’s new library on 21 October 2013.
Presented at the gathering were college librarians from UIC, XJTLU, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (UNNC), Kean University-Wenzhou (KUW), representatives from China Book Import and Export Company in Xi 'an, Pearson, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, SAGE and a number of other well-known international presses.
The guests joined a full discussion on the development of the libraries in international universities and how to undertake a student-centered academic service. The librarians and representatives congratulated the opening of the new library at XJTLU and took some time to appreciate the present development and innovation of the Library.
XJTLU University Librarian, Mr Xin Bi extended his welcome to the other librarians and representatives. He said, “UNNC, UIC and XJTLU are the pioneers and successful practitioners of Chinese higher education’s internationalisation. Because of the similar nature of running a university, the libraries of the three universities have had ongoing partnership exchanges with each other over the past years’ exploration and practice. We have also built good relations with each other. ”
At the forum, Mr Henry E gave a presentation, Looking at Our Profession with a Perspective on the Future . "Library, as a storage space for information and resources, has its necessity of continued existence even though there are various opinions toward it. Library, a place for collecting, outputting, and exchanging knowledge, should change the way that information production is diversified gradually and the amount of information being double increased”, said Mr E.
Moreover, as information technology has played a key role for innovation and improvement of library services, librarians should be well prepared for the impacts and uncertainties that new technologies might bring about, Mr E added.
Ms Chunmei Yan, Librarian of UNNC, shared her working feelings and experiences in the library from the aspect of practice and recalled those challenges she had faced at the preliminary stage of running the library. She also suggested that university libraries could offer more self-service and encourage mobile service to strengthen support for research.
Representatives from Pearson, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill also shared the latest academic service and philosophy. They gave their opinions on how to do a better student-centered academic service for teaching and research together with the university libraries.
Libraries of XJTLU, UNNC and UIC will jointly build up a Library Union of international universities within mainland China. The Union will carry out inter-library loan, construction and sharing of resources and staff communication and training.
Editor: Sze Ying Cheong
(from the LRC, with special thanks to the ELC and news.xjtlu.edu.cn)
