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一、Library |
The three primary functions of a
university are education, research, and the promotion of
services. The objective of setting up a university
library is to harmonize with these functions. A library
is a place to realize the pursuit of truth, the
popularization of knowledge, and the cultivation of the
mind. Founder and president Dr. Pao, Te-Ming and
co-founder Dr. Lee, Ying-Chao smoothed away vast
difficulties to plan the building of a two-floor
hexagonal library at the time of the school inauguration
in 1957. They also donated a large number of books and
bought others, making a total of more than 3,000 books.
The school set up two classrooms as a
reading room and a collection room after moving to the
current location in Shihlin in 1963. In October of the
same year, work on a new fourth floor and circular
library began behind the Administration building. Over
the ensuing thirty years, the library kept increasing
the number of books and updating facilities. In 1990 as
part of efforts to establish a more modern environment,
the school was promoted to a college and moved to the
Commercial Building and renamed as the Library Building.
Meanwhile, the library also set up a periodical room
next to the faculty research rooms in Sun Yat Sen
Auditorium. The library also introduced new technology
to keep up with demands of faculty members and students,
and to provide better services.
During the establishment of Taoyuan
campus in March 1994, the college set up a branch of the
library for faculty members and students in the
Commercial Design Department. Keeping pace with needs of
a rapidly developing campus, it set up a stack room on
the first floor and a periodical room on the second
floor for providing relevant resources to Departments of
Applied Chinese, Applied Japanese, Applied English,
Tourism, Commercial Design, Product Design and Interior
Design. A modern high tech seven-floor library was
completed in 1998 to serve faculty members and students
on both Shihlin and Taoyuan campuses.
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二、Organization and Administration |
In
the early period of running the library, assistants were
charged with library affairs. The library began to be
managed by specific people when the new library was
founded 1964. At the same time, the school invited Dr.
Ni, Bao-Kun as a consultant and gave Mr.Yang, Chun-Lou
the responsibility of managing daily library business.
The Dean of Libraries position was taken by Mr.Li, Yu-Fan in 1969, Professor Zhao, Zai-Tian in
1965, Vice President Chuan Lee in July 1979, Ms. Fang,
Lan-Sheng in March 1981, Mr. Huang, Da Wei in 1988, Dr.
Luo, Lun-Sin in August 1991, Dr. Zhuang, Yao-Huei in
September 1994, Dr. Yang, Chien-Kuei in September 1995,
Dr. Chen, Jen-Nan in August 1998, and Dr. Ho, Tsu-Feng
in August 2002. Library is still currently under Dr.
Ho’s charge.
The library set up several departments, such as the
Acquisitions and Cataloguing Section, the Readers'
Services Section, the Electronic Resources and
Information Technology Section, as well as the Taoyuan
branch. The primary duties of the Acquisitions and
Cataloguing Section are purchasing, receiving,
registering, making booklists, cataloguing, and
announcing new books and periodicals. The primary duties
of the Readers' Services Section is data retrieval,
reference inquiries, activity promotion, and
inter-library cooperation. The primary duties of the
Electronic Resources and Information Technology Section
is system administration, hardware maintenance, and
training of new staff in technological processes. |
三、Current Situation |
Founder Pao
and President Lee have always emphasized library
software and hardware. They have increased the number
of books and added new facilities in order to keep pace with the needs of teaching and research. The
library collection reached 600,000 volumes in April
2008. The collection has increased by more than 50,000
books per year including categories such as history,
management, information, literature,
and social sciences. In addition, the Taoyuan branch
houses categories such as design, tourism,
as well as
Chinese, Japanese and western literature. For example,
the library spent over 1,000,000 NTD to establish a
collection of Siku Quanshu.
There are over 2,000 kinds of Chinese and foreign periodicals and 27
kinds of Chinese and English newspapers, almost 56,300
types of non-book materials, 120 types of CD-ROM, 718
types of microfilm, 40,000 electronic books, the Taiwan
New Business Information Directory, the Government
Information Office Newspaper Clipping System, STICNET
and TANET, and so on.
Until now,
the Shihlin library had three floors. The first floor
was used for stacks, the second floor for a periodical
reading room and a reference section, and the third
floor as a reading room with 360 seats. The library will
be extended from three floors to five. The first floor
will be designated for a limited number of stacks. The
second floor will house stacks with Chinese books, the
reference collection, the faculty reference collection,
and theses. The third floor will be designated as an
Online Retrieval area, Multimedia Center, and Language
Self-learning area. The fourth floor will be designated
for periodicals and an academic journal area, newspaper
area, office, and small meeting room. The fifth floor is
an independent reading room with its own
air-conditioning system to provide a comfortable reading
environment. In addition, the number of reading tables
and chairs will be increased on each floor to allow
readers to sit and read. At the present, the Taoyuan
library is comprised of three floors. The second floor
is used
as an
audiovisual room, a reference section and a reading room
of periodicals, newspapers, and maps. The third floor is
a stack room of Chinese and Japanese books and a reading
room. The fourth floor houses English books, old
periodicals, and newspapers. There are about seven
hundred seats in the reading rooms, and there are four
meeting rooms. The library provides management with a
personal touch and a rapid data retrieval service.
The two campuses set up a T1 high speed network for
doing data searches at both branches. Users may borrow
and return any book at either of the two branches. The
library spent almost 3 million NTD to introduce the
URICA automatic management system in 1995, and began
using it the following year. Meanwhile, together with
the Information Management Department, the library
established a server and official website, created a
multimedia library guide system, and a “40 Years at Ming
Chuan” CD-ROM. |
四、Activities |
1.Freshman Library Orientation
At the
beginning of each academic year, the library will
introduce first- year students to the services
offered by the library.
2.Library
Week
To
promote national Library Week, the library will hold
several activities to popularize the resources of
the library.
3.Convening Library Committee Meetings
In order
to facilitate communication between the library and
readers, the Library Committee was formed
of administrators,
faculty members in departments, and student
representatives. The committee
discusses various issues and advises the library on policy matters.
4.Occasionally
hold exhibitions
The Readers' Services Section will hold various kinds of
exhibitions to promote the use of
collections.
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五、Collection Feature |
The
School of Tourism
and
School of
Design are
special
features
of
the university, so books related
to this
field
are
a special
feature of
the
library
collection. The Tourism collection includes Hospitality
Management, Hotel Management and Operations, Leisure and
Recreation, Natural Ecological Resources, Traffic and
Telecommunication, and Food Chemistry.
The Design
collection includes painting and art design works from
different eras, architecture books, and artists’ works.
These books have been purchased from Japan, England,
United States, France, German and Holland. They are
regularly borrowed by readers.
Professor Tomiyoshi Maeda of Osaka University donated
about 9,000 Japanese volumes to the library in 2002, and
the library subsequently established the Tomiyoshi
Collection which includes books on language, literature,
Ukiyo-e, cultural understanding, and history. The works
represent all periods from the Heian Period right to the
modern period. Furthermore Japanese Literature Archives
published from the Meiji period through WWII are a
valuable resource for teaching Japanese. |
六、Future Vision |
The rapid
progress of new technologies and the vigorous
development of the computer and communication industries
allow the library to provide diversified services
including electronic books and databases. These services
are a fundamental challenge to the traditional paper
based culture of libraries. Thus, library employees are
constantly seeking ways to upgrade their knowledge as
part of efforts to keep up with current trends and the
needs of faculty and students. |
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