Issue No. 25 September 1997
Windows95 Usage Tips
With Windows95, you can perform many different tasks at the same time such as searching a Library database, surfing the Web, editing documents in MS Word, and sending email in Pine. Let's see how you can do this with a "real life" example.
John is a PG student at HKUST and he wanted some up-to-date information on coral reefs. After connecting to the Library Online Systems via Windows95, he went into the Online Databases. He chose Faxon Finder, a table of contents database with much current information in science. A search for "coral reef" found 68 article citations. John selected a few of the records, saved them into a file and opened the file in Word. He then opened the Web version of the Library Catalog and Windows95 -continued on page 3
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Collection Spotlight
- Additional Electronic Resources
The Library has recently acquired the following databases and services:
South China Morning Post: The Library has recently acquired the networked CD-ROM version of the SCMP from 1993 onward. Using keywords, you can search a wide range of fulltext news, major business findings, graphs, pictures and world bank statistics.
International Financial Statistics: covers from 1948 and contains over 26,000 annual, quarterly and monthly time series of economic and financial statistics on about 200 countries. Topics covered include
http:/ /library.ust.hk/
banking and financial systems, employment and population, etc. This database is only available on the standalone CD-ROM station. Reuters: a dial-up online service that provides users with real-time financial data, information management systems, current news, graphics and photos. InvestText contains research reports analyzing the industrial trends and performing comparisons among companies. Chinese Business Briefing provides bilingual access to a wide range of Chinese language sources including the China Securities Bulletin, Ming Pao and Sing Tao Daily.
Lexis/Nexis: an online service composed of databases covering topics on news, business, law, social science and medicine. After cost negotiations, it is again available to all staff and senior year students from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm daily.
People's Daily Index: covers from 1946-1995 and provides citations to over one million articles from the People's Daily (Renmin Ribao), the official newspaper of the central government of China. Users can search by date, headline, author, country, or subject and obtain the articles in microfilm in Media Resources.
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Library Classes and Faculty Orientation
Our Library offered over 100 classes/ workshops to over 4,000 students and staff in the 1996/97 academic year. This Fall, we have organized many different classes tailored to the information needs of our The Library of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
various user groups. There are new student orientation classes, course-specific classes, Web workshops, etc. Faculty members are welcome to email Library instruction requests for their students to [email protected]. We can teach an information retrieval class addressing the special needs of your students. The Library also provides customized orientations for new faculty members.
A number of library instruction notes are now available at http://library.ust.hk/res/
resource.html#path. These are handouts from
previous Library classes/workshops or re-sources notes on a particular topic. This Fall Library instruction/resources notes on aca-demic departments will be made available.
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Tips for Reading Chinese Web
Pages On Campus
Mac and PC users on campus can use the following methods to read Chinese on the Internet.
If you are on an English operating system (e.g. Windows 95), you need to launch a Chinese enabling software before browsing Chinese web pages. Examples of Chinese enabling software are Chinese Language Kit for Macintosh, TwinBridge or Rich Win for Windows, and Eten or JOIN's CJK software for DOS. Chinese web pages are usually encoded in either BIGS or GB. As a rule of thumb, Mainland China and Singapore use GB; Hong Kong and Taiwan use BIGS; North America uses either of them. You must select the correct encoding scheme from the enabling software menu before viewing Chinese. In many cases, you also need to select the correct encoding scheme from your web browser program.
If you are on a Chinese operating system (e.g. Chinese Windows 95), you may view Chinese without installing additional software. However, this is only true when the web page you are viewing uses the same
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encoding scheme as your Chinese operating system. This campus uses the Traditional Version (BIGS) of Chinese Windows 3.1 and Chinese Windows 95. With these operating systems, you will have no problem viewing most of the Chinese web pages produced in Hong Kong and Taiwan. But to view GB encoded web pages, Chinese enabling software is still needed.
A table summarizing the options for viewing Chinese web pages is now available on the Library Web Server at http://
library.ust.hk/info/notes/notes25-table.html.
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MEDIA: Microform' s Hidden
Treasure (Part 2)
For scholars conducting research in Chinese history, we would like to introduce to you two of our microform sets.
Confidential British Foreign Office (BFO) Political Correspondence
One of the most comprehensive English-language documentary sources on events occurring in China during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Series I documents significant events such as the Opium War and other wars in which China was forced to concede treaty ports and inland waterways. Series III records the struggles to modernize China including the conflict between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists, the Sino-Japanese War, the 1943 Cairo Conference and the end of World War II in the Pacific. Confidential U.S. State Department central files
Another significant source is the central files of the U.S. State Department. This collection documents in extensive detail the political, military, economic, social and foreign affairs of China from 19 30 through 1959. These documents include thousands of pages of reports from scholars-diplomats
who in the 1930s visited the communist forces and interviewed their leaders, and analyzed the Kuomintang-Communist struggle and its likely impact on the future of China; the formative years of the People's Republic of China; and Great Leap Forward and the creation of the rural communes.
Printed guides on these files are available in Media Resources. To find out more on the
CIS/UPA series, consult http://www.upapubs.com
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WEB: Specialized Directories
Specialized Web directories may meet your special needs. For example, if you want to plan for a vacation, TravelSource http:// www.travelsource.com/ is worth checking. It is an online reservations and information guide to unique travel destinations and adventure vacations worldwide. You can find ski vacations, cruises, resorts, or even honeymoon specials.
Virtual Library Museums at http:// www. com lab. ox. ac. uk/arch ive/other/ museums.html has been visited by over 1.3
million virtual vistors since August 94. This site includes museums from around the world. For example, you can find Beijing Historical Museums and the Beijing Art Museum.
If you want to continue your education without going to classes. World Wide Web Virtual Library: Distance Education at http:// www.cisnet.com/-cattales/Oeducation. html is
ideal for you. You may find distance learning programs from around the world all the way from certification and diploma programs to Ph.D. programs.
Do you want to discover some treasure like gold or metal? Try Virtual Library: Treasure Hunt at http://www.halcyon.com/treasure/ virtual/
Idealist at http://www.contact.org/
contains links to over 10,000 nonprofit Websites all over the world. They are
categorzied into specific subject such as energy conservation, family and parenting, and personal finance, etc. You can search by country, state, or subject.
Other specialized subject directories may be found using Excite (http://www.excite.com)
which provides ratings and descriptions to Web resources listed in its subject directory.
You can browse through the subject list. Otherwise, you can simply type in a word like "lawyers" or "engineers" to search within the directory for relevant Web sites.
Windows9S - continued from page 1
checked the availability of the articles he wanted. For the ones available in our Library,
he copied and pasted the holding information into his Word file. For those not available, he emailed a Document Supply request to LBILL.
Just then, John's friend Mei called. She is a part-time student here and she is working on a project comparing stocks in Hong Kong and the U.S. She is pressed for time and asked John if he could help her retrieving some stock data. John closed Faxon Finder, but kept the other three applications open. He entered into Extel, an international stock database, but could not remember how to
use it. He went to the Library's home page on the Web and looked up the search guide for Extel under Library Resources. Soon he was able to download stock prices and price line graphs and emailed them to Mei.
Going back to his own project, and wanting to find some Web sites about coral reefs, John performed a search with Alta-Vista (a search engine). He found over 100,000 records. Some of the sites looked interesting, but most seemed to be irrelevant. To learn more effective Web searching skills,
John accessed the Library's Web Server. From the home page, he chose News and Events,
and then Library Instruction Programs. The
Navigating the Web: Intermediate Workshop
sounded useful. He made an online regist-ration immediately. John was pleased to be able to accomplish so many tasks so quickly.
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Suggestions and Answers New Books Shelves
Five 'New Item Display Shelves' can be found near the Reference Counter. New
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UST Theses
UST master's and doctoral theses are shelved on LG4.
books received are placed on these shelves for
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one week, before being placed in the main collection.
Express Copier
The public photocopier on the ground floor is an Express Lane copier. This copier is reserved for users needing to make 10 copies or less only.
Pagers and Mobile Phones
Please remember that mobile phones should be turned off in the Library. Pagers should be set to vibrate mode, or turned off.
Warm Bodies I Seat 'Reservations'
People (including UST students) trying to reserve study spaces by leaving their belongings unattended remains a problem. Library users can remove articles from seats/ rooms that have been unoccupied for a long time.
Who to Contact
LIBRARY SYSTEM UPDATES
Some new information was added to the Library's web server during the Summer. The 'Beyond The Library' section has been reorganized using UST's School and Departmental categories. This should make it easier to locate quality web sites in your discipline.
Instruction Notes and handouts used for various Library Classes are now available on our web server. You can find them with the Pathfinders at http://library.ust.hk/ resource.html#path
A new page has also been created for
subscription-based web databases and
resources under evaluation by the Library. Please look at http://library.ust.hk/info/db/
evaluation.html and send us your opinion of
these resources. Your comments will have a direct impact on the selection process.
University Librarian 2358-6702 MINMIN
LBMKWONG LBHOLLIN LBDONW LBCAROL LBLTLEE LBJOTSUI LBLOUISA LBCAPLAN LBDIANAC LBLKT Min-Min Chang Ming Kan Wong Richard Hollinger Don Wassink Carol Liheng Linda Lee Josephine Tsui Louisa Kwok Victoria Caplan Diana Chan Acquisitions 2358-6711
Archives & Special Collections 2358-6785 Bibliographic Services & Projects 2358-6709
Cataloging 2358-6737
Circulation 2358-6771
Collection Development 2358-6704
Document Supply Service 2358-6755
Media Resources 2358-6786
Reference 2358-6 7 65
Systems 2358-6 7 41 K. T. Lam
