procedures and closer monitoring of overdue items. In August 2000, we were informed by City Hall Public Library that there were 26 long overdue books. Some of these outstanding items were borrowed as long ago as 1985. This raised the question of why we were not notified sooner so that prompt action could have been taken. It has been difficult to trace the missing items since some of the borrowers had already left Hong Kong and some could not be found. One member had shipped some borrowed books to England but promised to bring them back on his next trip to Hong Kong. City Hall Public Library has agreed to tighten up their loan system. Council members have also put great effort into contacting delinquent borrowers. To date, there are still 11 books outstanding. We will continue effort to trace them.
The proposal to set up an exhibition and seminar on the old library of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch with the new Hong Kong Central Library to coincide with its opening was postponed. Ms. Julia Chan (Hon. Librarian), Mr. Michael Mak (Assistant Director, Libraries & Development, Leisure & Cultural Services Department) and Ms. Alima Tuet (Chief Librarian, Hong Kong Central Library & Hong Kong) visited the Shanghai Library in May 2000 and found that books of the old library were still packed in boxes. These books cannot be inspected until the Shanghai building where they are housed is renovated in a year's time.
As part of the digital initiative, HKU Libraries will be creating a database of scholarly journals published in Hong Kong. When accomplished, the database will be open to public access on the World Wide Web to provide convenient access to resources on Hong Kong and facilitate research on Hong Kong and China studies. RAS was approached in respect of this project. Since there is copyright concern, the Council agreed that all the tables of contents but only selected articles with copyright clearance from their authors would be digitised for the database. The HKBRAS Journal was the first journal to be digitised. The scanning process has been completed and the contents have been posted on the Web. There are still some technicalities to be resolved. This database allows browsing of the table of contents and keyword searching of the articles. Full text of the articles will be displayed clearance has been obtained. Since this database can be accessed worldwide, it will greatly help to publicise the Society and its Journal.
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