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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts
dating from 1988 to 1993 were donated by Hui's Film Production Company Limited. Pre-print materials from 12 titles dating from 1983 to 2012 and 18 titles dating from 1984 to 1996 were donated by Mandarin Laboratory (International) Limited and Tomson Films Company Ltd. respectively. Film scripts and censor documents of Hong Kong films dating from 1930 to 1949 were duplicated from the New York State Archives in USA.
Public Libraries
The LCSD operates 67 static and 12 mobile libraries and a books registration office. The libraries hold some 11.76 million books and over 1.76 million items of multimedia material, serving almost 4.28 million registered book borrowers and lending more than 52.85 million books and other library materials in 2014.
Hong Kong Central Library
The Hong Kong Central Library is a major information and cultural centre, with a stock of over 2.56 million books and other reading materials and a full range of library and multimedia facilities, a central reference library with six subject departments, an arts resource centre, a Hong Kong literature room, a map library, a language learning centre, a young adult library and a toy library. It offers for hire a 1,540 square-metre exhibition gallery, a 290-seat lecture theatre, two activity rooms, a music practice room and eight discussion rooms.
The central library organises a wide range of cultural programmes and public lectures and holds user education sessions to promote library resources to members of the public.
Improvements to Library Services
The public libraries work closely with the District Councils and local organisations to set up community libraries, of which there were 213 at the end of 2014. Organisations are offered block loans of library materials together with professional advice to set up libraries tailored to their communities. The Pak Tin Public Library was re-provisioned in March 2014 and renamed as Shek Kip Mei Public Library, Mobile library services were enhanced from July 2014 with the introduction of two additional mobile library vans.
Reference and Information Services
Reference and information services are provided at the Hong Kong Central Library and the City Hall, Kowloon, Ping Shan Tin Shui Wai, Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun public libraries. The Central Library also has a large collection of reference materials on Hong Kong studies and on international organisations. Professional reference services are provided at these libraries and their resource centres. In 2014, 3.48 million enquiries were handled by the public libraries.
Online service is an integral part of the public libraries' reference and information services and 62 e-databases covering different subjects are available to library users.
Information Technology Initiatives and Digital Library Initiatives
In 2014, the library website was given a modern layout and user-friendly interface. Two new mobile apps were also developed and launched to enhance the mobile public library services: 'My Library' allows readers access personal accounts, search, reserve and renew library materials;
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