Building a collaborative and shared library repository in Hong Kong

Abstract

This presentation will explore issues and challenges facing collaborative storage in Hong Kong academic libraries through the establishment of JURA, the Joint Universities Research Archive, an incorporated company of JULAC, the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee, comprised of the 8 university libraries funded by the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong. The establishment of a joint storage solution was deemed the most practical and cost effective means of reducing duplication of effort by providing efficient delivery of low use print collections to solve the problem of space limitations that are so rampant among Hong Kong’s academic libraries. While the JULAC libraries await construction of the repository, space limitations continue to be exacerbated as collections grow as do student numbers with the recent move from a three to a four year curriculum leading to an additional year’s intake of undergraduate students for the eight universities. Interim solutions are now being undertaken among the JULAC libraries and will also be covered in this presentation.