Provisional Urban Council Public Libraries

The library system continues to expand. The small library in Yiu Tung
Estate and the district library in San Po Kong were opened in February
and April respectively. The council now operates 38 libraries in the urban
areas. Works for the new Tsz Wan Shan library and the new Lok Fu
library were also well under way.

Construction of the Hong Kong Central Library proceeded during the
year. When opened in 2000, it will be the largest purpose-built public
library in Hong Kong, capable of holding two million items. It will be the
main library and administrative headquarters of the whole library system.
New facilities will include a toy library, a young adults reference library, a
central reference library, more than 400 public access terminals and
microcomputers for information and database searches through the
Internet.

Review of the library service through the Five-Year Plan was completed
and feedback from the public was incorporated. The Five-Year Plan
covers comprehensive reviews on areas such as library opening hours,
provision of material, provision of libraries and facilities in libraries. The
finalised plan will be implemented as a commitment by the council to
further improving its library services to the public.

The first phase of the extension of library opening hours began in August
1997. The lunch break at 16 small libraries was abolished in order to
render a better service to the public. Closing time was also extended by
half an hour to 7 pm. Sunday afternoon opening and the extension of the
weekday closing time to 9 pm will be phased in.

The library computer system became fully operational in March 1995 and
now supports over 430 terminals. The system was enhanced during the
year and now provides public access to the libraries' on-time catalogue
through the Internet. Renewals of borrowed library materials are now
possible by telephone or through the Internet. Plans are in hand to further
enhance the system by introducing self-charging terminals and
reservation of library material through the Internet.

More self-service photocopying machines in the libraries are planned in
anticipation of the enactment of the new Copyright Ordinance. Lending
services will also be extended to include various types of audio-visual
materials. With these improvements in services and opening of more
libraries, usage by public continued to rise during the year. A total of 15.3
million items were borrowed in the year, and 31.9 million books were
read in the libraries.

The library collection continued to grow and now comprises a total of 3.5
million books and 247 600 audio visual items, including audio-cassettes,
gramophone records, audio compact discs, video compact discs,
video-cassettes, CD-ROMs, Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I) and
computer programmes. The libraries subscribed to more than 8 622 titles
of local and overseas newspapers and periodicals.

Reference services were also well used during the year. Library staff
handled a total of 390 200 reference enquires, and 1.47 million items of
reference materials were consulted in the libraries. The CD-ROM
network provides concurrent access to the CD-ROM databases in the
City Hall Reference Library from the Kowloon Central Library, Arts
Library and all district libraries. The reference libraries have built up more
than 3 000 CD-ROMs, including many multi-media and full-text
databases. On-line searches of local and overseas catalogues and
commercial databases are available through the Internet. As a depository
library for nine international organisations, the City Hall Reference Library
receives full sets of publications from the Asian Development Bank, the
United Nations, the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, the World Food
Programme, the International Labour Organisation, the International
Maritime Organisation and the European Union.

Outreach programmes continue to form an integral part of the library
services. To arouse interest in literary appreciation, awards were
presented in the year for creative writing in Chinese, drama criticism in
Chinese and the best-produced books in Hong Kong. A competition for
students on story writing in Chinese was organised and literary
workshops were arranged to promote Chinese creative writing among
students.

The findings of the second Writer-in-Residence, Mr Ng Wan-man (pen
name Ng Huen-yan), on literary publications of the local literary societies
and bodies in the '60s and '70s will be published for sale by the council.
A third Writer-in-Residence programme is being organised. Since the
reading programme began in 1984, 171 400 readers have registered with
the programme and they have read more than 2.64 million books.

The fourth Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature was
presented in the year. In addition, the Hong Kong Literary Festival on the
theme of Hong Kong literature in the past 50 years was held in January. It
included a large-scale exhibition, a seminar by local and overseas writers
and scholars, meet-the-author sessions, workshops, competitions and
performances, production of literary videos, film shows and seminars as
well as publication of a collection of essays on Hong Kong literature.
These activities attracted an audience of 6 434. The positive response has
encouraged the council to make it an annual event.

An exhibition of 81 rare, ancient Chinese documents of the Shanghai
Library was held in July. The national relics included thread-bound rare
Chinese books, stone rubbing inscriptions, personal letters of famous
Chinese and genealogy books.

A wide range of other outreach programmes including books and arts
exhibitions, interest clubs, subject talks, children's hours and library visits
were organised. In all, some 3.7 million people took part in the council's
literary and outreach programme in 1997.

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