Being the only university to adopt a college system in Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong has at present nine constituent colleges, one of which is the New Asia College. Compared to the other colleges, the New Asia College has strong emphasis on the arts and humanities in general and on the traditional Chinese culture in particular. The Ch’ien Mu Library (“Library”) of the New Asia College houses an extensive collection of fine arts to support the academic curriculum of the Department of Fine Arts located in the same campus of the College. In terms of the library collections, facilities and services, this paper discusses the strategies adopted by the Library in providing user-centered library services in order to meet the learning needs of the fine arts students. Apart from analyzing the subject coverage and the usage activities of the fine arts collection, the author introduces the Local Arts Archive – a physical collection of Hong Kong art materials – as well as a recently launched Hong Kong Visual Arts Archive – an online searchable database on visual arts information in Hong Kong – developed by the Library. Aiming to engage the fine arts students in their learning process, the Library also provides a physical exhibition space to showcase their art works inside the Library. These student exhibitions are widely publicized through traditional and social networking tools set up by the Library. To further enhance student learning, the Library launches orientation seminars for the first year fine arts students of both undergraduate and MA postgraduate programmes starting from the 2011/12 academic year.

Leo F. H. Ma
Leo F. H. Ma The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Leo F.H. Ma is currently Head of the New Asia College Ch‘ien Mu Library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Apart from managing a branch library, he is now spearheading three digitization projects in the Library, namely the Modern Chinese Literature Research Portal, the Hong Kong Literature Database and the Hong Kong Visual Art Archive. Internationally, he was a member of the Inspec Asia Pacific Library Advisory Committee in 2004-2006 and has been serving as a member of International Customer Advisory Board of Swet since 2006. Locally, he served as a Council Member and the Training and Education Officer of the Hong Kong Library Association in 2007-2009. He is currently Fellow of the Hong Kong Library Association, and a member of the Advisory Board for Information Management Programmes of the Faculty of Education of The University of Hong Kong, and the Academic Committee of the Certificate for Library Assistants (English and Chinese) of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of The University of Hong Kong.

P233