[ { "id": 204288, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n52\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nLibrary, sanctioned by the Trustees, shall be published, with a Catalogue of the Books, and a copy of the same be placed in the hands of all those who are admitted to the privileges of the Society and the Library.'\n\n\"The Regulations of the Library\" were published in the Anglo-Chinese Kalendar for ... 1839 and include a provision that \"Any person, who is not a member of the Society, may be admitted to the privileges of the Library, by the payment of $10 per annum, or of $5 for six months or any shorter period, (* A single contribution of not less than $25, or an annual contribution of $10 constitutes membership.)\"\n\nThe \"Second Annual Report of the Morrison Education Society\" of 3rd October, 1838, says: --\n\nThe Library, as was contemplated, has been opened in a convenient apartment in Canton, and is now of easy access to all those who desire to enjoy its benefits. The trustees recommend the early adoption of measures for its enlargement. As a public library, it ought, in the course of a few years, to rise from its present limited number of two thousand volumes to a hundred times that number, and thence to increase until it shall equal some of the best collections of books in the world.\n\nThe Society moved to Macao in 1841 and the Library containing between two and three thousand volumes was again open to those who desired to borrow books from it at the Society's house, near St. Paul's, under the care of Mr. Brown. \"The Third Annual Report\" of the Society was not published until this year, the gap since 1838 being caused by the disturbed conditions prevailing in the intervening years. By 1842 the Society had already established itself in the newly ceded island of Hong Kong.\n\nAt the fourth annual General Meeting of the Society on 28 September, 1842, it was reported that, as the result of correspondence with Sir Henry Pottinger, (the Superintendent of Trade and Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China) a site had been granted to them for a permanent headquarters on Morrison Hill, a hill which at the time of writing is quickly nearing complete demolition just over one hundred years later. One of the larger rooms of the building to be put up was designed for the Library which now contained nearly 3500 volumes. The usual vicissitudes occurred which seem to beset so many libraries run on a voluntary or partly voluntary basis. An 1843 report says:\n\nThe Society's Library requires some attention in order to preserve it, and render it of greater public utility. I believe there are not far from 3500 volumes in it; but of these, a large number, perhaps one third are so injured as to make them unfit for circulation. Some sets have been broken by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204339, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch \n\nRASHKB and author \n\nVol. 1 (1961) \n\nISSN 1991-7295 \n\n103 \n\nof Buddhist literature, chiefly sutras in Chinese, and is open to the public (although only members are allowed to take books out). It is headed by Abbot T'aam Hui of the Wang Faat Tsing She, and staffed by his disciples. There is another, much smaller Buddhist library on the Hong Kong side (the Bo Fat Tripitaka Library, Queen's Road East), under the direction of Abbot Fat Ko of the Po Lin Tsz. \n\nBy far the most numerous category of Buddhist institutions in Hong Kong is the tsing she, or hermitage, most of which - at least 120 are registered under the Temples Ordinance - are to be found in secluded parts of the New Territories (over 80 on Lantao Island alone). These are small private institutions where five or ten persons lead a peaceful life, eat vegetarian food, worship morning and night, and (in the case of the intellectually inclined) more or less diligently study Buddhism and practice Buddhist meditation. Many of the hermitages are headed by an ordained monk: in others, one or two monks may live as honoured guests, teaching the laymen who, in almost all cases, form a majority of the inmates of each institution. Little distinction is made as to sect: each inmate is free to take the approach that he finds most congenial. \n\nWomen as well as men may be found in tsing she (offering little distraction, since they are usually elderly), but most Buddhists lay women prefer the institution known as the chai t'ong, or vegetarian hall, which is a species of tsing she and follows the same regime. Here no men are to be found. Amahs and other women who have saved a little money make it over to the head of the chai t'ong in return for her commitment to support them until they die. Sometimes the spirit of the commitment is not lived up to. The proprietor tries to make life so spartan for one of her guests that the latter will leave in disgust. Her purpose is then to acquire another lump sum from the person who replaces the disgruntled member. This kind of sharp practice often leads to disputes that the District Officer must solve. \n\nIII. FINANCES \n\nTsing she, including chai t'ong, receive practically no money from public sources. Outsiders are not encouraged to attend worship there except in cases where they are potential candidates for admission. The income comes from members only and, where the latter are well-off, the standard of living can be high. \n\nThe income of the funeral specialists is entirely in the form of fees for services performed. The various study centres and libraries depend on donations from well-to-do Buddhist devotees, who, in many cases, wish to acquire merit by helping to spread the dharma. Since their personnel is usually small and their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PRINTING IN CHINA\n\n41\n\na school of thought restricted to the well-born, and became to some extent democratized. Methods of teaching changed. The practice of learning by heart was modified. This was the consequence of the great increase in publication of texts, reference works, compendia, etc. Books of this kind exceeded in number those on the classics.\n\nThere also resulted a gradual change in the written language. The vernacular penetrated the literary classical style.\n\nLastly, let me say something about libraries during the Sung period.\n\n1. The Palace collection. This was increased by various means: through purchase from private parties; through the granting of titles or awards in exchange for books; through gifts by the authors of books; through search by local officials; through the copying of rare books. The increase in the number of books, brought about through printing, required the enlargement of old libraries, and the construction of new ones. These imperial libraries were accessible only to a limited number of people: members of the Hanlin #, high officials. Books, however, were borrowed in quantity. A report of 1114 relates that 4,328 chüan ✯ had not been returned to the library since the year 1104.\n\n2. School libraries. The increase of education, and the need for more text-books made such institutions necessary. They were sponsored by the government not only in the capital but also in small towns. These collections were increased by purchase, made possible by government subsidies and private donations (sometimes quite extensive). Occasionally books were sent from the capital to these local libraries by special government order. The schools where these libraries were located sometimes published their own books. Many old Chinese books bear the stamps of school libraries. Readers were warned to use the books with care. At the same time, librarians were forbidden to take back damaged books or books that were soiled. All available information leads to the conclusion that there were public libraries and reading rooms open to a large circle of people.\n\n3. Private collections. These increased because of the low price of printed books, and the new form of books facilitated storage. Many bibliophiles, however, still valued hand-copied", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204566, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "42\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nmanuscripts more than printed ones. To enlarge their collections private owners also exchanged books among themselves. In Sung times a number of collectors left detailed descriptions and catalogues of their collections. Some of these private libraries were put at the disposal of the public; others were turned over to students for their use.\n\nThe Sung was a period in the history of China noted for many things: advances in material culture, in political development, in science, in the fine arts, in literature, in music, and in thought. These advances may well have been due in large measure to the accessibility of the printed word.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nFor a general discussion of the beginnings of printing in China see Thomas Francis Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward, revised by L. Carrington Goodrich, second edition, New York, 1955.\n\nAs a result of new finds in China and fresh investigations some of our earlier conclusions no longer hold. Here are some of the principal studies which have appeared between 1955 and 1962.\n\nChang Hsiu-min, Chung-kuo yin-shua shu ti fa-ming chi ch'i ying-hsiang, Peking, 1958.\n\nChen Tsu-lung, Liste alphabétique des impressions de sceaux aux certains manuscrits retrouvés à Touen-houang et dans les régions avoisinantes, Mélanges publiés par l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises II, Paris, 1960.\n\nJao Tsung-i, A study of the Ch'u silk manuscript, Hong Kong, 1958.\n\nLing Shun-sheng, Bark cloth culture and the invention of paper making in ancient China, Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 11 (Spring 1961), pp. 1-19.\n\nLi Shu-hua, The early development of seals and rubbings, Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, n.s. I, No. 3 (Sept. 1958), pp. 61-90.\n\nThe printing of books in the latter half of the Tang dynasty, ibid. II, No. 2 (June 1961), pp. 18-32.\n\nChih ts'ung ch'i-yüan, Taipei, 1955.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205519, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "56\n\nNOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY\n\nH. A. RYDINGS*\n\nThose of us who have watched the rapid development of libraries of all kinds in Hong Kong since the new University Library building was opened in 1961 may sometimes think that there is no library history worth considering for the first hundred years of the existence of the Colony. Certainly an appeal to members of the Hong Kong Library Association, made some two years ago, for any information on the early history of Hong Kong libraries met with no immediate response. Later, however, my colleague Mr. G. W. Bonsall, in searching through local newspapers and other sources for information on other subjects, came across a number of items about libraries, which he kindly brought to my notice. The present article is based upon this, slightly augmented from other materials, and in no way purports to be a comprehensive history of Hong Kong libraries up to 1900. It is evident that much more remains to be found by the diligent searcher before such a history can be written. For the moment, however, this brief sketch based on what has so far come to light may be of interest as an introduction to Hong Kong's library history.\n\nForemost of the early libraries in the Colony is undoubtedly the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms. 'Colonial', writing in 1933, stated: “A privately organised library was established in Hong Kong as far back as 1848. A small library with attached reading rooms was run by this organisation for some years, and really formed the basis on which the City Hall library was subsequently established.\" Although 'Colonial' does not name the library, he goes on to say: “In 1871, probably in view of the coming into being of the public library, the original institution, retaining its more or less private character, was organised into a club, which was known as the Victoria Club.\" As will be seen later, this makes it certain that the reference is to the Victoria Library.\n\nThe next reference2 found to the Victoria Library & Reading Rooms is a report of the Annual General Meeting held on June\n\n* Mr. Rydings has been University Librarian at the University of Hong Kong since 1961. He is a member of Council of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society and is currently its Hon. Librarian.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205526, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\n63\n\nmade in the previous May, that the Morrison Library should be amalgamated with the other.\n\nTwo years later, Hong Kong's first City Hall was nearing completion, and the subject of libraries was once again in the news. An unknown writer, quoted by 'Colonial' in 1933, wrote on May 5th, 1869: \"The library room which will be entirely completed in a few days will before long contain a collection of books properly assorted and catalogued which, if not very extensive, will at least be the best collection in South China. It may be confidently hoped that its resources will be increased by private gift... The Morrison Library which forms the nucleus of the collection is... in a state which necessitates the outlay of nearly a thousand dollars... The former Asiatic Society's Library has also [been promised to the] librarian without... prospect of receiving with it any funds towards its restoration\".\n\nFrom a much later source we learn more about the City Hall, which it is worth noting was a private enterprise, not an official one, although Government provided the building site and a grant in aid at its foundation. “In 1871 the library consisted of 8,000 volumes, 3,000 of which were unconditionally presented by the trustees of the Victoria Library.\" This confirms the statement made by 'Colonial' and quoted earlier in this article, and vindicates the China Mail in its campaign to bring together the Victoria and Morrison Libraries. The arrangement with the Club Lusitano for the housing of the Victoria Library therefore lasted at most only four years, from 1867 to 1871. This same source also quotes the terms of the gift under which the Morrison Education Society presented its books \"as a free gift for the use of the public, on condition that in consideration of this gift and of the great services of Dr. Morrison to both European and Chinese, the books be kept distinct from all other collections in the City Hall, and designated 'the Morrison Library' in perpetuation of the great missionary's memory.\" Although there is little call in the present day for use of the Morrison Library by the public, the conditions imposed on the gift in 1869 to the City Hall are still observed, and the Morrison Library, housed since 1914 in the University of Hong Kong Library, is kept as a separate entity named in memory of its founder. Since the story of this collection has been covered in detail elsewhere, no more will be said here about the Morrison Library.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205528, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\n65\n\nbe removed for use within the Court, in Chambers, or the Registry, but were not to be taken further: whether this applied only to barristers and solicitors, who were privileged to use the Library subject to the rules, or also to the Judiciary and Law Officers who were entitled to use it, is not clear.\n\nMr. J. W. Norton-Kyshe, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, whose useful history of the laws of Hong Kong is the source of the information on its Library, managed to persuade the Government in 1896 that an annual grant should be made for the purchase of books. In 1897 this amounted to $500, and in the following year it was doubled,12\n\nCertainly the history of Hong Kong libraries in the nineteenth century is by no means restricted to those which have been considered in this article, although they are probably the most important. There must, for example, have been libraries in the various schools, both Government sponsored and others, though the condition of school libraries in the Colony even today suggests that they would not have been particularly well organised fifty or more years ago. Government departments other than the Supreme Court must also have had collections of books. All these possibilities, quite apart from the existence of private libraries, both Chinese and English, need to be investigated. What has been discovered so far, however, contributes to refute the common notion of Hong Kong as a cultural desert, and to indicate that library history in Hong Kong goes back almost as far as the history of the Colony itself.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 V. H. G. Jarrett, under the pseudonym of 'Colonial' contributed a series of articles to the South China Morning Post between 17th June, 1933 and 13th April, 1935 on \"Old Hong Kong\". Typescripts of these articles were rearranged alphabetically by subject and bound in four volumes (unpaginated) in the S. C. M. P. Office. By kind permission of the Managing Director, a Xerox copy of this set is available in the University of Hong Kong Library. This extract is from the article headed \"Public Library.\"\n\n2 Hongkong Register, vol. 25, 1852, pp. 94-5.\n\n3 At this date (1852) prices were normally quoted in Spanish or Mexican dollars, equivalent to about 4/2d sterling.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205634, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n171\n\nThe author's collection of photographs and other materials relating to his scholarly works is in fact famous, and now reposes in the Royal Library and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. It is a pity, perhaps, that the many really excellent photographs from his collection appearing in this work could not have been reproduced on glossy rather than matt paper for the Hong Kong edition (since the book costs $250 anyway). But perhaps there were problems in doing so. This is still, certainly, a very elegant edition. It should add importantly to the libraries of individuals, and both public and private institutions, and it would be an excellent present to grace the coffee table of a civilized friend.\n\nHong Kong, 1968,\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\nSOCIAL ORGANIZATION: ESSAYS PRESENTED TO RAYMOND FIRTH, ed. Maurice Freedman, Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1967, pp vii 300. 75/-.\n\nCollections of essays by different specialists in a single field or in related fields of scholarship are becoming very popular, and rightly so. They enable a book to cover a wider range of topics and materials on a selected theme than would normally be possible if undertaken by a single author. This is particularly so today when knowledge in all fields becomes increasingly complex and inter-penetrating.\n\nThe thirteen essays in this book deal with matters of Social Anthropology. They are written in honour of Raymond Firth, one of the great contemporary British anthropologists and the authors, some now leading figures in their own specialities, have all studied or worked under him at some time. In order to illustrate Professor Firth's considerable variety of interests the topics discussed have been selected to cover a very wide range of subject matter, problem, and also region and type of society. The book thus gives the non-specialist reader a very good picture of the sort of questions anthropologists set out to study and answer.\n\nA particular interest of this book for members of the Branch lies in the two contributions on Chinese society. One is provided by the editor, Professor Maurice Freedman, the other by Miss Barbara Ward, and many members will be acquainted already with some of their work through lectures they gave the Society during field trips to Hong Kong in recent years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205854, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nEARLY HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\nVol. VIII of the Society's Journal contained an introduction to Hong Kong's library history under the heading of \"Notes on Hong Kong Libraries in the Nineteenth Century\". It mentioned as foremost of the early libraries in the Colony the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms which had been privately organised in 1848. There was, however, a still earlier library—that of the Asiatic Society of China which was founded in January 1847 and later became the China Branch and, still later, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Some of the founders of the Society had belonged to a Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in Hong Kong in May 1845 and to a Philosophical Society of Hong Kong formed shortly before the Asiatic Society. Both these societies were merged in the Asiatic Society in January 1847, and the books of the Medico-Chirurgical Society were handed over to the Asiatic Society to form part of the new Society's library on the understanding that members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society be admitted as members of the Asiatic Society without ballot or entrance fee.\n\nThe Asiatic Society's library was kept from 1849 in a room at the Court House which had been granted for the use of the Society for its meetings by Sir George Bonham. When the Society ran into difficulties in 1858 it handed over its valuable library of 400 books on trust to the Morrison Education Society which had been formed in Canton in 1835 and which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Old Court House.\n\nWhen the demand for a proper public library grew on the building of the City Hall the Morrison Education Society presented its own library and that of the Royal Asiatic Society to the City Hall Library which was visited by the Duke of Edinburgh when he opened the City Hall on 2 November, 1869,\n\nHong Kong, 1969.\n\nJ. R. JONES\n\nDEFENCE WALL AT PASS BETWEEN KOWLOON CITY AND KOWLOON TSAI\n\nThis item on one of the antiquities of Old Kowloon City is taken from a pencilled note in one of Mr. Walter Schofield's note-books, dated 15th April, 1928. It is clearly a contemporary description. The note is reproduced", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206958, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Paper Chase\n\n23\n\nThe main function of the P.R.O. is the conservation of all government records of permanent value for official reference and private research. More specifically, this means all documents which possess value for:\n\n(i) documenting the constitutional and legal basis of government;\n\n(ii) documenting the origin, development, organisation, functions, policies and substantive activities of government departments;\n\n(iii) protecting the rights and privileges of private citizens and organisations; and\n\n(iv) research into political, social and economic affairs and the history of the community.\n\nYou will notice from this, by the way, that archives are not preserved solely in the interests of historians. The scope of modern government is wide and there are few aspects of human activity and environment to which official records do not refer. A government's archives, therefore, are potentially of research value to every academic discipline.\n\nArchive institutions, like libraries, museums and art galleries, need to be located in places where they are easily accessible to the public. The trouble is that archives, and especially government archives, need a great deal of storage space; so that in cities like Hong Kong, where office accommodation is at a premium, the housing of archives has special problems. Stored archives are immensely heavy and this limits us to ground floor accommodation or to buildings especially constructed to withstand high floor-loadings. Again, if one provides at the outset for long-term space needs this means tying up large building areas which will remain under-utilised for a long period. The alternative, of providing only for short-term requirements, means constant removal to new premises. We have had to compromise. The P.R.O. is housed at present* in temporary premises in Garden Road with accommodation for 5,450 shelf-feet of records. In about April this year we shall be moving to the Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park Building where we shall have room to accommodate about 15,000 shelf-feet of records. The new premises will be equipped with, among other things, a document repair section and bindery, a photographic laboratory and, I\n\n* January 1974.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209183, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "72\n\nAJ DIAMOND\n\nofficial publications and of United Kingdom and other publications bearing on Hong Kong. The P.R.O. receives copies of all local official publications and has acquired an extensive microfilm coverage of Colonial Office and other records relating to Hong Kong.\n\nThe scope of the library's holdings has been adjusted mainly to the needs of those engaged in research among primary sources and policy in the matter of acquisition has been influenced by the nearness and adequacy of other local libraries.\n\nThe library includes large collections of photographs, maps and press cuttings as well as files of thirteen local English language newspapers the earliest of which dates from 1842.\n\nThe P.R.O. is equipped at present with an office copying machine, two planetary and two hand-fed rotary microfilm cameras. Two microfilm readers are available for public use. The cameras are employed mainly in the production of security back-up film for government departments, the filming of selected classes of records held by the P.R.O. to enable destruction of the originals and the copying of out-of-print back issues of official publications and other items for the library. However the facility is also available at a fee for the copying of documents on behalf of individual research workers and non-government institutions.\n\nRecords\n\nOfficial records transferred to the P.R.O. at present occupy 17,080 linear feet of shelving and comprise 363 series received from over 100 government offices. The earliest documents held by the P.R.O. date from 1831, but due to the extensive loss of government records resulting from the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong during the Second World War the bulk of the P.R.O.'s holdings date from the post-war resumption of British administration.\n\nThe loss occasioned by the war has been in some measure redeemed by the acquisition of the wide coverage of pre-war Colonial Office records relating to Hong Kong, already mentioned above. The most important of these record series, CO 129 Original Correspondence, consists of despatches exchanged between the Governors of Hong Kong and the Secretaries of State for the Colonies during the period 1841 -- 1943, together with their enclosures, Colonial Office minutes and memoranda and correspondence between the C.O. and other ministries and private individuals and institutions.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210405, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "we would have to withdraw and thereby lose our library space. After enquiry through the Hong Kong Library Association, the Council decided to accept an offer from the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Public Libraries, to house our collection in the New Kowloon Central Library on long loan and under certain conditions which included retaining its identity and making it available for public reference.\n\nThe removal proceeded smoothly, and our collection is now on the shelves of the reference section of the Kowloon Central Library. Books are still available for loans to members on production of an updated membership card (now being issued) and, for reference only, to members of the public. A number of Council members attended the opening on 9th September 1985 by Lady Youde. Thanks are due to our Hon. Librarian Mr. Peter Yeung for the considerable work involved in the transfer.\n\nIn the course of making the transfer arrangements and viewing our library in its new home, it became obvious to us how much loving care and effort had been put into its management by our former Hon. Librarian, Mr. Tony Rydings. He deserves our renewed appreciation for this major contribution to the work of our Society.\n\nAdministration\n\nAs stated last year, we have found it necessary to provide more administrative support for the Council. The trend for councillors, and particularly the office bearers, to be increasingly burdened in their own career posts has continued. Following the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong's future and the increased commitments arising therefrom, it has become essential to have an efficient back-up system and the services of a competent executive assistant secretary. Without them, as I said last year, hopes for increased membership, improved sales of publications and general progress were clearly illusory; in fact, would not materialize. I am glad to say that, in the past year, we have made progress in this important area. A word processor and ancillary equipment have been purchased and an increased salary provided for our assistant secretary with our Hon.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210412, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1985-1986\n\nThe collection of the Royal Asiatic Society Library comprising 1,551 volumes of books and bound periodicals, 58 pamphlets, 5 photo-albums, 1 roll of microfilm and 1 reel of tape-recording was transferred from the Arts Centre and the University of Hong Kong Library to the Urban Council Kowloon Central Library. The library materials are on permanent loan to the Urban Council Public Libraries and kept in the closed stack of the Kowloon Central Reference Library for home borrowing by members of the Royal Asiatic Society and for public use in the Library after its opening on 9th September 1985. A card catalogue is provided for the ease of the use of the collection.\n\nA small number of new books and periodicals have been added to the collection by exchanges and donations. Twenty-eight monographs and some issues of T'ien Hsia (FF) were purchased during the reporting year.\n\nMarch 1986\n\nxviii\n\nPETER YEUNG Hon. Librarian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210662, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "Publication Stock\n\nHitherto the Society's stock of publications was kept at the University of Hong Kong and latterly at Bethanie, in a section occupied by the University Press. However, in May 1986 we were asked to remove the stock to make way for a rearrangement of the University's accommodation in the building. The impending crisis was averted by the Law Librarian Mrs. Felicity Shaw's kindness in allowing us to hold stock in the basement pending finding another home. This was achieved in July when the Government Archivist, our council member Dr. Thomas Lau, agreed to hold our stock in the Public Records Office. I am most grateful to Felicity (an RAS member) and Thomas for their timely assistance.\n\nThe Library\n\nAs members will recall, in 1985 the Council decided to place our large and valuable collection of books and periodicals on China and the Far East on permanent loan with the Urban Council Libraries, to be housed in the new Kowloon Central Library at Homantin, Kowloon. Wherever one places the collection it is necessary to advertise its existence, in order to ensure that it will be used. The Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, takes various measures to this end periodically. On our part, we have written to some twenty local tertiary educational institutions whose students would wish to know of our library and its contents, enclosing copies of the library catalogue. This publicity, repeated at intervals, is bound to pay off eventually. In the past year, the Chief Librarian reports 18 enquiries, and that 37 books were consulted.\n\nSir Edward Youde\n\nThe Governors of Hong Kong have always been closely associated with our Society; as Patrons of the Hong Kong Branch re-established in 1959-60, and as Presidents of the first China (Hong Kong) Branch in 1847. Our first President was Sir John Davis, scholar, sinologue and a founder member of the parent society in London in 1823. In this connection I have to remind members of the sad event that occurred last December when we lost our current Patron, Sir Edward Youde, who died suddenly whilst on duty.\n\nPage xii\n\n¡", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210666, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 17, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nFOR THE YEAR 1986-1987\n\nThe Society Library has purchased many out-of-print items through Dr. J. Hayes' effort this year. Besides gifts from Dr. Hayes, the Library has received gifts from Mr. David Liu, Mrs. Valerie Garrett, and Mrs. M.L. Winkler. Mr. Walter Greenwood has also donated to the Library his article in manuscript entitled \"John Joseph Francis, citizen of Hong Kong: a biographical note\". The Council is considering including it in the next issue of our Journal. Nearly all the books in the last two years have been catalogued and shelved in the Kowloon Central Library. An additions list is available from the Hon. Librarian on request.\n\nThe Library has donated two items of its duplicates to the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, and made an offer of permanent loan of McMullen Bills of Lading to the University of Hong Kong Libraries.\n\nRegarding the usage of the Society Library, Mrs. Barbara Luk, the Chief Librarian of the Urban Council Public Libraries wrote: \"As at 28.2.87, there were 18 requests for information, 17 of which were from members of the Society. A total of 37 books were consulted during the year.\" To maximize the use of the Library, Dr. Hayes has sent the Catalogue of the Library to about twenty librarians, with his covering letter giving a brief description of the Library. The Kowloon Central Library is planning to have an exhibition of books from our Collection in the coming September to make the general public more aware of the Library.\n\nThe Council is looking into the question of insurance for books in the Society Library.\n\nMarch 1987\n\nxvi\n\nPeter Yeung\n\nHon. Librarian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210963, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "# HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nThe Society Library has acquired in total 102 valuable titles through Dr. J. Hayes' effort this year. Among them, 84 titles were donated by Dr. Hayes and 18 titles were purchased for the Library. Dr. Hayes has also kindly lent his set of Hong Kong Naturalist to the Library for photocopying to complete our gaps.\n\nAn exhibition entitled Books on China and Hong Kong in the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) Collection was jointly presented by the Society and the Urban Council Public Libraries in the Kowloon Central Library in the period between 18 November and 1 December 1987. Two talks on the history of the Society and the Collection were delivered by Dr. J. Hayes and Mr. P. Yeung respectively.\n\nStatistics show that there is an increase of the usage of the Library. As at 29 February 1988, there were 44 requests (compared with 17 last year) for information. A total of 100 volumes (37 last year) of books were consulted. Seventeen volumes of books were lent out for home use by Society members.\n\nMarch 1988\n\nXV\n\nPeter Yeung\n\nHon. Librarian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211295, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "left vacant on a popular visit.\n\nVenues\n\nWith a predominantly Hong Kong Island based membership, some of you have rightly said that it would be more convenient to have our lecture meetings in Hong Kong rather than in Kowloon. We have borne this point in mind, and through Dr. Patrick Hase, and by making joint presentations with the Urban Council, have been able to use the Extension Activities room on the 2nd Floor of the City Hall High Block for 7 of our talks this year. We are grateful to the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, for use of this amenity with its excellent location and facilities, and courteous and helpful staff, and look forward to continued programmes there. At the same time, we express our thanks and appreciation to the Chief Curator, Hong Kong Museum of History, for the continuing use of his well-equipped lecture hall in Kowloon Park from time to time. Without permanent premises of our own, we are doubly grateful. This closer connection with the Urban Council's Museum and Public Library Service has, I feel, been mutually beneficial.\n\nPublications\n\nThe Journal is our main publication. It has been running behind, and I am glad to report the completion and issue of two numbers during the year, those for 1984 and 1986. The 1987 Journal is with the press. I wish to thank Dr. Patrick Hase and Dr. David Faure for editing them, and Dr. Faure again for his work on the 1987 number.\n\nLooking through these and past issues, one becomes strongly aware of the Journal's permanent contribution to Hong Kong Studies. It's almost as if anyone interested in the subject can't afford to be without a set! And indeed we have sold nearly 30 sets in the past year. With more attention being paid to Hong Kong Studies — especially in China, where I hear there are some 20-30 centres established for this purpose — the value of the material stored in the Journal has become apparent to many. No other academic publication has for so long concentrated on Hong Kong, and our contributors have surely aided its readers towards a better understanding of the place. To give but one example, Hong Kong's commercial development and interaction with China come vividly to life!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211296, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "in Rev. Carl Smith's articles reprinted in the 1986 Journal. His accounts of 19th century Cantonese entrepreneurs like Ho A-mei show that Chinese energy and enterprise was fuelled and sustained by the opportunities opened by colonial Hong Kong, and remind us that what we see and marvel at today has also happened yesterday.\n\nWe have another publication nearing completion. This is the book entitled The Turning of the Tide, Religion in China Today which is a collection of papers by authors with first-hand knowledge of the subject and edited by one of our members, Professor Julian Pas of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.\n\nLibrary\n\nMembers will have noted the greater expenditure on our library in the year's accounts. We are continuing the RAS tradition of building up a fine reference library of books on China. At a time when such books are in increasingly short supply, as reflected in booksellers' rising prices, the financial value of our collection grows from year to year.\n\nSince 1985, the Library has been kept at the Kowloon Central Library, as part of the reference collection there. The advantage of housing it in a public library is that more people can use it, but the disadvantage from our members' viewpoint is that most of them live on Hong Kong Island. Their use of the RAS Collection is undoubtedly limited thereby, especially as the Kowloon Central Library is not located on or near an MTR station. I have therefore discussed with the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, the possibility of moving it back to the Island when an opportunity occurs. Mrs. Luk tells me that this can be done when the City Hall's Hong Kong Central Library is replaced on the same or another site in the 1990s, and that she is willing to do so at that time. I have written to her subsequently to formalize this request.\n\nAn allied problem is the availability of the collection. Under normal library policies, access to the stacks (the shelves where the books are kept) is very limited. This is the case at Kowloon Central Library, where books other than ours are kept in the same section. On the other hand, the books are ours, and our members should have better access to them, instead of being confined to the catalogue and making a requisition. Mrs.\n\nXi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211297, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Luk and I have discussed this question also. She tells me that other Societies with private collections on long loan also wish their members to have fuller access to their books, but this will not be possible until under a different arrangement more space in new premises enables the collections to be placed on free access in a reference library. In the meantime, Mrs. Luk wishes to facilitate our members' use of the RAS Collection. She is considering issuing updated catalogues and arranging for books to be requisitioned at, and be collected from and returned to, certain public libraries on this side of the harbour. The will to assist is obvious, and we shall be very grateful for improved borrowing arrangements meantime.\n\nThe Council and its Helpers\n\nMembers of the Council have worked hard during the year, in their various capacities. If I may say so, they are talented and competent, and make a good team: which is why (I suppose) you have not made any other nominations this year! They are also friendly and supportive, and it has been a pleasure to work with them.\n\nThe same is true of our helpers who, under our new arrangements, are assisting on the various committees. They, too, deserve a word of thanks. Those serving on the Activities Committee have certainly made it possible to do more than the Councillors could do unaided. Insufficient hands was one of the constraints impeding the growth of the Society, and it is very gratifying to be able to report the success of this particular outcome of the 1987 symposium. Those concerned are Rosemary Lee, Dan Waters and Geoffrey Roper on the Activities Committee, Betty Wei on the Editorial Board, Michael Kirkbride and, again, Rosemary Lee on the External Links Committee, and Helena Hung, David Yung and Choi Chi-cheung on the Ad Hoc Committee on Chinese Membership. Other members, some of them here tonight, have offered to help. Never fear! It is still \"early days\" with the newer committees, and we shall be co-opting you and other members once they get into their stride. The new arrangements enable us to be as flexible as is required.\n\nAt this point, I must also repeat what I said last year about the excellent support given by Mrs. Sharon Bruce, our tireless Assistant Secretary, helped on the side by the Acting, Unpaid Assistant Secretary, husband\n\nxii\n\n:\n\n!\n\n!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211308, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LIBRARY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 1988-89\n\nAs usual, the Society Library has purchased many out-of-print items through Dr. J. Hayes' effort this year. Altogether 138 titles in 144 volumes were processed and are available in the Kowloon Central Library. It is noted that there is a gradual increase in the number of books in oriental languages. Dr. J. Hayes is still the most generous donor to the Library. It is urged that prospective donors among our members can contribute more to the building up of our collection. An additions list is available from the Hon. Librarian upon request.\n\nFrom the report by the Urban Council Public Libraries Office, the usage of the Library covering the period from 1.4.88 to 21.2.89 is noted as follows:\n\n1. No. of requests for information : 76\n\n2. No. of books consulted : 115\n\n3. No. of borrowers (RAS members) : 3\n\n4. No. of books checked out (by RAS members) : 5\n\nFor the convenience of the majority of members, the Council would seek the possibility of moving the Library back to Hong Kong Island.\n\nMarch 1989\n\nPeter Yeung Hon. Librarian\n\nxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211499, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "191\n\n24\n\nacquire new books. Everything seemed to be going well until the outbreak of World War I. Mrs. Ayscough's 1917 report summarized those war years!\n\n+\n\nThe continuance of the abnormal conditions caused by the war have rendered the normal development of libraries impossible; all exchanges from Europe are irregular in their arrival, and those from enemy countries arrive not at all.\n\nThat interest in Far Eastern affairs is greater than of yore is evidenced by the fact that the library is used by resident members, while those members who live in the interior, seem more and more anxious to avail themselves of the privileges granted to those who pay the registered postage on books they desire to take from the library,\n\n25\n\nOnce the war ended, the library rebounded quickly. To increase donations of new books, the society decided to review only those books which had been deposited in the library and letters to that effect were sent to publishers in Europe and America. About this time Samuel Couling, author of the Encyclopedia Sinica, wrote:\n\n26\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society Library in Shanghai can have nothing said against it but one thing. It is admirably catalogued and attended to, the room is comfortable, and it is generously kept open during long hours for the studious public. Its only fault is that ... its outlay on books must be limited, so that although it possesses many works of great value there is always the chance that the very book a student needs most is not there. The library is a credit to the Society rather than to the public spirit of Shanghai.”\n\nThe fifth edition of the catalogue was printed in 1921, this time in shelflist order, and showed 3,092 titles, up by almost one-third from the last catalogue of 1909. The range of publications was impressive. In addition to the expected monographs and journals, there were extensive document holdings issued by the Shanghai Municipal Council, including minutes of the ratepayer's meetings, Water Works reports, Recreation Fund reports; publications of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service including tariff tables, lists of lighthouses, buoys, and markers, trade", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211503, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "195\n\nThe establishment and growth of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was a remarkable achievement by a number of dedicated individuals from several nations over a period of ninety years, and of varied professions and persuasions, who found time in their busy lives to labour without remuneration in the belief that a library would serve as a bridge of understanding between Chinese and Westerners. While the Chinese were only grudgingly permitted society membership, and its resulting library borrowing privileges, in later years the library was open to all. The collection was at least a signal to the Chinese that at least some of the foreigners living among them were interested in studying their history and culture.\" Looking back in the 1920's, a Shanghai historian wrote:\n\nOf course a large part of the community was not deeply interested in the Society and regarded it as a dry-as-dust institution, but it has had a long and honourable history and has carried on valuable research in the language, customs, ethics, history, etc., of China. It has a creditable museum and a very valuable library of books on the Orient.“\n\nThis was the library that The China Journal called \"probably the best in China, when it comes to reference works of all kinds on China and the Far East. It contains numerous old works that are now unobtainable, and certainly are not to be found in any other library in China. This same journal later called it a \"magnificent library of works on China and the Far East\" and \"the most important library in this city\"\n\n+42\n\n43\n\nBut, libraries are not forever. They are the creations of inspired individuals, and the victims of public indifference and political change. But while they exist, they help people to better understand the worlds they live in. For at least some of those Westerners trying to live in the two worlds of Shanghai between 1857 and 1948, this library must have been an inspiration, a refuge, a source of enlightenment, and a monument to their attempt to grasp the curious worlds in which they found themselves.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211598, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "The Library's value to members of our Society, as well as to the general public, lies in the fact that the only other collections of such books in Hong Kong are held by the Universities and are not accessible to the public at large. The RAS Collection is available to Members and, for reference only, to the general public, and since 1985 has been located in the new 12 storey, custom-built Kowloon Central library, opened in that year.\n\nHowever, this location is not convenient for most RAS members, the majority of whom reside on Hong Kong Island. Also, the stacks where our books are held are not directly accessible for free consultation and browsing, because other private collections of books are held in this section of the Library.\n\nIn response to our expressions of concern, the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries has promised that our Collection will return to the Island in the early 1990s, when the present City Hall Library will be expanded or replaced. The books are then expected to be housed in a new reference library where most of them will be kept on open shelves.\n\nIn this joyful expectation, the Council continues to expand the Collection, and has earmarked $10,000 for expenditure in 1990-91.\n\nPublications\n\nAs mentioned in the opening Summary, this year has seen the publication of two items, the 1987 Journal and the book of papers on China and Hong Kong, The Turning of the Tide, Religion in China Today.\n\nI wish to thank the Chinese Temples Committees for a generous grant of half the publication costs from the Chinese General Charities Fund, and Oxford University Press for agreeing to publish in association with the Society and for all help rendered in the final stages of production.\n\nProfessor David Faure had to relinquish the editorship of the Journal when he left Hong Kong to take up a post at the University of Indiana. He had contributed much to the Council and the Society, not only through his impeccable scholarship and hard work, but also through his sterling personal qualities which we all grew to appreciate. Dr. Patrick Hase has taken over the half-completed 1988 Journal which we hope can be published by the Summer, and is putting material together for 1989. We\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211609, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LIBRARY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 1989-1990\n\nAs usual, the Society Library has purchased many out-of-print items through Dr. J. Hayes' effort this year. Altogether 215 titles in 251 volumes were processed and are available in the Kowloon Central Library. Among 121 gift titles, 119 titles were donated by Dr. J. Hayes. Other donors were Mr. Phillip Bruce and Mrs. Eveline Caldwell. New additions will be made known to members through the RAS Journal.\n\nArrangement has been made that members may also borrow books from the City Hall Library.\n\nFrom the report by the Urban Council Public Libraries Office, the usage of the Library covering the period from 1.3.89 to 9.3.90 is noted as follows:\n\n1. No. of requests for information\n\n2. No. of books consulted\n\n3. No. of borrowers\n\n4. No. of books checked out\n\n: 90\n\n: 112\n\n: 14\n\n: 21\n\nMr. Wan Yiu Chuen will stand for the election for the Hon. Librarian this year. He is now working in the Special Collections, University of Hong Kong Libraries and has ample experience both in public and academic libraries.\n\n22nd March 1990\n\nxxiii\n\nPETER YEUO Hon. Librarian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212079, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 21, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "# ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH\n\n# LIBRARY\n\n# REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1990/91\n\nThe stock of the Library grew considerably this year and there are 1,627 books in the collection. 131 new titles (in 148 volumes) were processed and added to our collection housed in the Urban Council Kowloon Central Reference Library. Among them, 90 titles were purchased through Dr. James Hayes from local bookstores, in Australia and Britain. Most of them are out-of-print, if not rare, items which cannot be found in local libraries. The remaining 41 titles were received as gifts. Dr. James Hayes again contributed 25 titles to the Library. Other donors included Dr. G.H. Choa, Mr. Eric Peter Ho, Dr. D.D. Waters and Mr. Ian Diamond.\n\nAs reported by the Urban Council Public Libraries Office, the usage of the Library in the period from March 1990 to January 1991 is as follows:\n\n| Category | Number | \n| ------------------------------- | ------ | \n| 1. No. of requests for information | 84 | \n| 2. No. of books consulted | 136 | \n| 3. No. of borrowers | 16 | \n| 4. No. of books checked out | 20 | \n\nMembers might like to know that they can also check out books from the City Hall Reference Library, though only 2 books were checked out in the same period. Following the up-grade of the City Hall Public Library into the central library in Hong Kong Island in, we hope, mid-1992, our library collection would probably move to the City Hall Library where our members would find the Library more accessible.\n\n21st February 1991\n\nY. C. WAN\n\nHon. Librarian\n\nXX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212466, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "# ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\n# HONG KONG BRANCH LIBRARY\n\n## REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1991/92\n\n97 new titles, of which 78 titles in English and 19 titles in Chinese, were added to the library collection this year bringing the total number of titles available in the Urban Council Kowloon Central Reference Library to 1,724. All of them were received as gifts and donors included Dr. James Hayes, Rev. Carl Smith, Dr. Alan Birch and Mr. Nigel Cameron. It is urged that prospective donors among our members can take a more active role in contributing to the building of our library collection. An addition list is available from the Hon. Librarian upon request.\n\nAs reported by the Urban Council Public Libraries Office, the usage of our library collection in the reporting year is as follows:\n\n \n 1. No. of requests for information\n 160\n \n \n 2. No. of books consulted\n 165\n \n \n 3. No. of borrowers\n 3\n \n \n 4. No. of books checked out\n \n \n\nI reported last year that our library collection would probably move to the City Hall Public Library following its up-grade to the central library in Hong Kong Island in mid-1992. Yet, I was later informed by the Chief Librarian that there were unexpected delays in the programme. It is highly likely that the anticipated move would not be able to take place in the near future. I will keep in touch with the Urban Council Public Libraries Office to monitor further development.\n\nMarch 1992\n\nI\n\nxix\n\nY. C. WAN Hon. Librarian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212506, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "40\n\nPRIVATE PATRONAGE OF SCHOLARSHIP AND LEARNING DURING THE MID-QING: \n\nRUAN YUAN AND THE SCHOLARS AROUND HIM* \n\nWEI PEH T'I \n\nThis paper is an initial essay towards a biographical study of Ruan Yuan (1764-1849), a major scholar-official and patron of scholars of the Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns. I hope that by examining the life and work of a competent and respected scholar-official of this era, 'the prime exemplars of any age'.1 I may be able to bring into focus the critical problems and atmosphere of early 19th century China, the two score or so years immediately preceding the Opium War after which traditional Chinese institutions and values began to change. I have been fortunate in being able to make use of the extant Qing archival documents and Ruan Yuan's own publications for this research.\n\nRuan Yuan left considerable literary remains. I have located 75 titles, including a number of monumental publications that carry his name as author, compiler or editor. There are also prefaces he wrote for his own and other scholars' works, indicating that at least he had known the content of them before publication. Impressive indeed as these achievements were, questions about Ruan Yuan's actual efforts arise.\n\n* I would like to thank the following libraries for allowing me access to their valuable collections in preparing this paper: Library of the National Palace Museum, the National Taiwan University libraries; the National Central Library; the Fu Ssu-nien Library of the Academia Sinica; The Library of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong Libraries; the Rare Book Collection of the Beijing Library; the Oriental Manuscripts Collection and the Main Collection of the British Library, the Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University; the Gest Library of Princeton University; the Library of Congress; the New York Public Library; and Qing letters from the collection of the late Dr Wang Shih-chieh. I am also grateful to the following individuals for their help and comments on an earlier draft of this paper: Chang Ling-sheng, Ch'ang Pe-te, Chuang Chi-fa, Wang Ching-hung, Wang P'u and Wu Che-fu of the National Palace Museum (Taipei), Wang Junyi and Huang Aiping of the People's University; Ji Longwei of Yangzhou Teachers' College; Feng Erkang of Nankai University; Beatrice S. Bartlett, Iona Crook and Stephen Shott of Yale University; F.W. Mote of Princeton University; Elizabeth Sinn, Maureen Sabine and Shih Hsio-yen of the University of Hong Kong; and Deng Linyu and Xu Xiaohui of the Chinese International School of Hong Kong. Of course, they are not responsible for the errors contained in this paper. My gratitude also goes to the Department of History and Centre of Asian Studies of the University of Hong Kong. I have opted to use pinyin to accommodate a particular Chinese software program, but have left the Wade-Giles transliteration in quotations.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212704, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "Libraries who have been chiefly responsible for making this possible. You will note the Librarian has tabled a short report on the Library: it is a very fine collection and I hope that interested members will make good use of it in its new location.\n\nBefore I leave the subject of journals and libraries, may I report to you that the Council has decided that it would be appropriate to bring out a 35th anniversary publication, which falls in 1995. No final decision has been taken on the contents of this publication, but it could take the form of the \"Going and Gone\" series, where there was a large photographic input: Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, one of our Vice-Presidents, is in charge of this project and I am sure she would welcome any ideas from members.\n\nAnd finally, I come to the last of our activities, i.e., the watchdog role, and this can take many forms, either of a negative or a positive nature. We are still concerned about the charging of an entrance fee to several local museums, whereas they were free before, since this does discourage the local public from entering, if the latest figures are anything to go by. We continue to assist the Government Antiquities Advisory Board, in that three members of your Council are on this Board, and we provide nearly 20 members to assist in the grading of buildings. One Council member, Dr. Dan Waters, has been largely responsible for this, and again I would like to place on record our sincere thanks to him and his team. More recently, we have become very concerned at the proposed move of the more accessible part of the Government's Public Record Office. For those who do not know, this is at present on the second floor of the Murray Road Car Park and is in a very convenient location for those who wish to research Hong Kong history. It is a mine of information, and the Government's proposal to move it to an inaccessible and unsuitable industrial estate in Tuen Mun without any consultation does appear to be a very retrograde step in the light of its avowed objective to make government more open and transparent. We have written to our Patron on the matter, and although we have received a reply, the current position is not at all satisfactory, and we will be taking the matter further. I should add that we are not alone in our representations — all the heads of the tertiary institutions have also written, backed up by many academics. It is hoped that a more conciliatory outcome can be reported to you.\n\nYou will notice that I have left to last any reference to finance and membership. Our Treasurer, Mr. Robert Nield, will report to you on the state of our finances: briefly, he will report on a satisfactory position.\n\nXI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213351, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "156\n\nintellectual and historical traditions. Thus they were able to push the study of Hong Kong history to new frontiers.\n\nThe Hong Kong History Project, Chinese University of Hong Kong\n\nResearch was pursued with great energy at the Chinese University, and a history project its members began in 1978 may be said to have marked a turning point in the development of the study of local history.\n\nAimed at saving whatever historical information that might still be found, the Project included Ng Lun Ngai-ha, Kwan Li-hung, David Faure, Bernard Luk, Tam Yu-yim and Barbara Ward, and teams of students. They began by gathering historical inscriptions in temples and ancestral halls, and then went on to interviewing villagers for what they remembered of the villages. Villagers were also asked to come forward with whatever documents they had. Soon, gathering documentary materials and interviewing became complementary. The research teams worked on one district at a time, first concentrating on Sha Tin and Sai Kung, then Lam Tsuen and in 1982, Tsuen Wan, though members would approach other villages in the New Territories whenever the opportunity arose. Their search yielded rich fruits because they cast their nets wide - they sought materials that earlier researchers had not considered relevant. Thus documents such as village regulations, land deeds and accounts, ritual and ceremonial texts, scholars' handbooks, textbooks and almanacs, clan records and so forth were gathered, and these were able to throw new light on important, and yet hitherto neglected, aspects of village life - daily life, farming and subsistence, sickness and death, family life, marketing, intervillage organizations, internal village organization, \n\n22\n\nThe project must have seemed like a massive raid by scholars into the New Territories, and its benefit to other scholars is incalculable. Many of the manuscripts and books were deposited in public libraries. Inscriptions copied were published in three volumes as Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, now standard reference. The wealth in information supplied by these inscriptions is overwhelming, and Maurice Freedman noted that, together with land deeds, genealogies and other records, they formed the basic sources for an understanding of the New Territories. The exercise was all the more timely since, in face of Hong Kong's rapid development, it was possible that many of the inscriptions might have been lost had the project not been undertaken at that time. 24", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213360, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "165\n\nHong Kong history is to make any relevant material collector's items. Old postcards, for instance, which might have been bought for several dollars a few years ago, are now selling for ten, twenty times the price. New collectors are entering the market, and no doubt 1997 has much to do with heating up the collectors' market for 'Things Hong Kong'. The effect is that items which might have gone to the museums and libraries where serious researchers have access, are now in private collectors' hands and so unlikely to be used for research.\n\nMaybe, in this respect too, the local historian is the victim of his own success.\n\n## Conclusion\n\nIt is clear that the study of local history in Hong Kong, built upon earlier foundations, has made great progress since the 1970s. In the meantime, government and semi-government bodies have contributed towards promoting interest and awareness in local history and heritage conservation. To a generation born in Hong Kong and curious about its own history, these developments have been timely. Thus we are witnessing a period of unprecedented activity in promotion and research, and ready funding. In turn, the sudden surge in public demand is creating bottlenecks. There is no quick or easy solution to the problem, and it will take a few years for the universities, and perhaps the museums, to train a sufficient number of researchers to keep up with popular demand. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the need to continue serious research to ensure that quality and depth are not sacrificed for popularity.\n\n## NOTES\n\nThe author is grateful to the Japan Foundation for funding part of the research for this paper, which is a slight modification of one presented at the 14th Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 20-24th May, 1996, entitled “The Study of Local History in Hong Kong: Progress and Problems”.\n\n2\n\nLan Tien-wei dates the beginning of the study of Hong Kong history to the 1910s when the former Hanlin scholar Chen Botao revised the Dongguan Local Gazetteer. In this case, of course, Hong Kong was only a minor part of the study. In the 1920s and 1930s, some archaeologists began excavations in the Hong Kong region, but since prehistoric archaeology is a different branch of knowledge with techniques of its own, it will be excluded from this paper (See Lan Tien-wei, “Hong Kong Studies in the Past Seventy years” (in Chinese), Chu...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213965, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nAs of 15 March 1998, the library collection had increased to 3,429 volumes. A total of 240 volumes were added during the year. There was a reduction of books purchased by Dr. James Hayes from Australia. However, a large donation was received from the Command Library (British Armed Forces Library), amounting to around 60 books. Most of these books are about Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia. Donations of books were also received from Dr. Gillian Bickley, Dr. James Hayes, Dr. Li Shu-fan, Mrs. Patricia Lim, Mr. Liang Xi-hua, Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Dr. Anthony Siu, and The Hong Kong Archaeology Society.\n\nMembers of the Royal Asiatic Society visited the Hong Kong Collection of the University of Hong Kong Libraries together with the Hong Kong University Museum on 22 November 1997. The comprehensive collection of books, records, newspapers, microfilms and other documents is renowned as the best collection relating to Hong Kong in the territory. The group was given a guided tour by the curator of the Special Collections, Mr Y.C. Wan. Mr. Wan also gave a brief history of the unique collections in the Rare Book Room. Members were particularly interested in the antique maps of Hong Kong and China.\n\nTo help publicise and promote the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, as part of the University of Hong Kong Libraries' digital project, it was suggested that selected articles of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society could be mounted on the HKU Libraries web server for wider access. The proposal is still under consideration because of copyright concern. Consent of the authors is required to launch the project.\n\nAs of November 1997, the RAS Collection is available for searching on the Internet (http://www.uc.gov.hk/ucpl) via the On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) of the Provisional Urban Council Public Libraries. Users may search the catalogue by author, title, subject, and/or keywords. The RAS collection is one of the special collections in the City Hall Library.\n\nxxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214168, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 26, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "# Appendix D\n\nThe RAS Volunteers\n\nThe main task of the RAS Volunteers is to assist the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) by inspecting, reporting on and, if deemed worthy, grading, old, interesting Western and Chinese style buildings. Such research also often involves visits to the Public Records Office, libraries etc. to obtain further information. The results of inspection and research, by the RAS Volunteers, are finally passed to the Antiquities Advisory Board for formal recommendations for possible grading and preservation.\n\nDuring the 1998/99 year two formal meetings have been held between the Volunteers and the AMO and a visit was paid to view the Reverend Carl Smith's Card Index System.\n\nBuildings inspected and researched during the year included churches and religious buildings, military installations such as old gun emplacements, terraces and an old pawn shop in Johnston Road, Wanchai. A full programme of structures, to which visits have to be paid, lies ahead. New members, especially those with an appropriate expertise to offer, are welcome to join the Volunteers.\n\nThe RAS Volunteers are led by two experienced surveyors who are both long-time residents of Hong Kong: namely Bill Greaves and Council member Bob Horsnell. We are grateful to both of them for the amount of work they put in leading the Volunteers. We are also grateful to the Volunteers themselves.\n\nXXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214620, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH LIBRARY REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1999/2000\n\nAs of 1 March 2000, the library collection had increased to 3,950 volumes. A total of 246 volumes were added during the year. Donations of books were received from Mr. Solomon Bard, Mr. Rowan Callick, Dr. Edward C. Harris, Dr. Patrick Hase, Dr. James Hayes, Mrs. May Holdsworth, Mr. David Mahoney, Mr. Robert Nield, Mr. Geoffrey Roper, Dr. Dan Waters, Hong Kong Museum of History, and Hong Kong Public Records Office.\n\nFollowing the success of the book, Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong, the Society's new book: In the Heart of the Metropolis: Yau Ma Tei and Its People, represents another breakthrough and was successfully launched in December 1999 at the Foreign Correspondent's Club. Edited by Dr. Patrick Hase, the book consists of photographs by members of the Cathay Camera Club and portrays Yau Ma Tei as the “economic and social heart of West Kowloon, the heart of 'real' Hong Kong in recent decades.”\n\nTo promote the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch), an exhibition of over 55 photographs extracted from the archives of the Society, illustrating domestic, industrial and commercial buildings and interesting street scenes in Sheung Wan and Western District in the 1960's, was held at the foyer of the University of Hong Kong Libraries from 3-21 January 2000. These photographs were supplemented by two old maps and a few air photos from the HKU Map Library as well as some books and pamphlets from the Main Library to provide more detailed illustration in some areas. The result was very promising; there were questions and emails expressing interest in the activities of the Society. Library users were particularly enticed by the photographs since some of them or their relatives/friends were residents in the surrounding area prior to redevelopment in the mid-1970's. The book: Hong Kong Going and Gone, which was compiled from part of the photographic survey, became a high-demand item, both for research in architectural structure as well as Hong Kong studies in the 1960's. 25 copies were sold, 14 new members were recruited, and more were recorded later.\n\nInvestigation was made into the possibility of setting up an exhibition\n\nxxxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214948, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nAs 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.\n\nxliii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215173, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 269, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "231\n\nTHE HKBRAS VOLUNTEERS\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nThe RAS Volunteers really began in the summer of 1991 when a meeting was held over lunch in a restaurant in Wan Chai. This was attended by Professor David Lung, Chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board, Mr Alex Yip, then Executive Secretary of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, and Dr Dan Waters, Council member of the HKBRAS.\n\nLeading on from there, volunteers were invited from among HKBRAS members and from the membership of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. The response was reasonably good and some 20 odd members, from both societies, submitted their names. The first get-together and briefing was held in May 1992, in the old Museum of History in Kowloon Park.\n\nThose present included historians, architects, surveyors, a civil engineer, lawyers, and others, many with a wealth of local experience. In addition, there were a few members who were interested and just wanted to tag along, help where they could, and learn something in the process.\n\nAt that first briefing, the Volunteers were split into four or so groups and the intention was for each group to operate independently. Assignments were provided by the Antiquities and Monuments Office and generally consisted of inspecting, surveying, researching, and writing up reports on various buildings, both Chinese and Western. Preparatory work was carried out for consideration by the Antiquities Advisory Board concerning the grading of buildings and the Volunteers made recommendations. The research frequently necessitated visits to the Public Records Office, libraries, and similar institutions.\n\nAlthough a great deal of useful work was undertaken, progress was not entirely satisfactory. With a group consisting of, say, four persons, there was sometimes difficulty in agreeing dates when all participants could meet. Then, on the agreed date, possibly there were some who did not turn up. Because of such factors, enthusiasm and numbers of Volunteers unfortunately gradually dwindled.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215244, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 21, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "relatively few take part in our various activities. Council will continue to keep this aspect of our membership under review. Council would like to target its action towards encouraging local Chinese in certain particular occupations and positions to become members, and will consider further ways of achieving this.\n\nTo some degree, our shortage of local Chinese members is a reflection of our poor numbers of Student Members. If we could succeed in getting more students to become Student Members there would be a good chance that they would retain membership after they left full-time education. Council has discussed ways of improving the numbers of Student Members, and will consider the issue again later.\n\nCouncil is also aware that the number of Institutional Members is unsatisfactory. We would like the Journal to be available in every University which has a School of Chinese or Oriental Studies, but, to date, we are very far indeed from achieving this. Even within Hong Kong sets of the Journal are not yet available in all our tertiary institutions, nor in more than one of our Public Libraries. Various possibilities as to how to improve the position have been considered, and Council will continue to look into the matter. One possibility under active consideration is a new category of membership - Honorary Institutional Membership - which would make it easier for the Society to send sets of the Journal to appropriate tertiary institutions on a reciprocal or zero-cost basis where this seems appropriate.\n\nIncome\n\nOur Honorary Treasurer will shortly give his Report on the finances of the Society, and I do not want to say anything here which he will discuss later in greater detail, and, doubtless, greater accuracy. However, I must say that the overall position of our finances at the end of last year was generally satisfactory. The Society is in a sound financial state. We made a very small net deficit for the year (about half of one per cent of our total expenditure), but our cash income from all sources is holding up well. Council does not consider that there is any need at this point in time to seek an increase in our Membership Subscriptions, although Council reserves the right to seek such an increase next year, should the financial position during the year make this prudent.\n\nXVIII", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215246, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "It is likely that before the next AGM a full-scale donation drive will have been begun: members will, of course, be kept fully in the picture. In the meantime, preliminary discussions with the University of Hong Kong Press on the possibilities of establishing a series of monographs, funded by the Fund, and possibly to be called the \"Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong, Local History Series\" have shown considerable promise. Even though the Fund is not yet formally in being, donations of a little under $2,000 have already been made to it, which is a hopeful sign. Please watch this space for further details!\n\nLibrary\n\nOur Hon. Librarian will shortly give a Report on the work of the Library of the Society for the year, and I do not wish to anticipate what is in that Report. However, I must mention the move of the Library from its previous crowded location in the City Hall to far more spacious and satisfactory premises at the new Central Library in Causeway Bay, since this is one of the most important achievements of the Society during the last year. The Society has been looking forward to this move for several years. Now our books are housed in a fine space. They have all been treated with appropriate preservation measures. Our rare and valuable books are housed separately in a secure room. Now the Library is kept in a way appropriate to its status as one of the most important research libraries in Hong Kong.\n\nI am glad that so many members of the Society took advantage of the two visits the Society arranged to see the Library in its new setting. As you no doubt are aware, the books in the Society's Library are on permanent loan to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. They remain ours, however. They are available to any member of the public to read, but only in the Reference Library of the Central Library. Members of the Society, however, who present their Membership Cards, can borrow our books (other than the rare and valuable ones). Furthermore, members may go into the stacks and work there (a small desk for the use of members has been provided). The Library is an important asset, and I am particularly glad to be able to report on its present flourishing and satisfactory situation.\n\nCouncil is anxious to continue to expand the Library, and thus to continue its development as a major research source for the study of\n\nPage XX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215737, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "each case this has been followed by sending a complete set of our Journals to the institution in question. As a result of this initiative, the number of Institutional Members of the Society has increased during the year from 9 to 21. We are continuing to keep this development in the front of our minds, and more new Honorary Institutional Members are likely to be approved during this next year. We hope in particular to agree arrangements which will allow us to get sets of our Journal into libraries in Peking and Canton. We are also currently looking into ways to increase the number of University Libraries with sets of the Journal, in Europe, America, and East Asia, and I hope to be able to give a full report on this next year.\n\nWe have also agreed with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government to improve the holdings of the Journal in the Public Library Service of Hong Kong. We found when we investigated the issue, that there were eight sets of the Journal in the Public Library Service in Hong Kong, but that not even one of the sets was complete, and several were missing up to half the volumes. All the missing volumes have now been replaced at the Society's expense, and agreement with the Libraries Service reached so that every major public library now has a complete set. There are two sets in our library within the Central Library at Causeway Bay, and a third set in the public Reference Library of the Central Library, and sets in all the Regional Libraries (City Hall, Kowloon, Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun).\n\nThe daughter of one of our Members who died recently has returned his set of the Journals to us as a donation, together with a large number of the Hong Kong Government Annual Reports. This very welcome and generous donation has allowed us to prepare another set of Journals which will, in due course, be donated to another library in Hong Kong. We are currently looking at possible sites for this set, in the context of an investigation into the holdings of the Journal in the libraries of Hong Kong's tertiary institutions, and in other scholarly libraries here. I hope to be able to make a further report on this issue next year.\n\nStructured Membership Drive\n\nLast year I also announced an initiative to seek to encourage Membership among selected target groups, particularly students of our\n\nxxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215759, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LIBRARY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 2002/2003\n\nAs of 1 March 2003, the Library collection had increased to 4,856 volumes. A total of 476 volumes were added during the year. The number of additions this year is double that of last year, which was 247 volumes. Donations of books were received from Mrs Anna Baker, Mrs Lorna Christofis, Mrs Valery Garrett, Mr Michael Guilford, Mrs Patricia Lim, Mrs Ann Marden, and Dr Dan Waters. We would like to thank all our donors and welcome future contributions of old and rare books or journals. The new additions are treasures for our Library.\n\nOur Library has also been enriched by some very valuable and interesting gifts from a number of societies and institutions. Dr Patrick Hase brought back, from his visit to Shanghai Library, a superb copy of a two-volume reproduction of a series of nineteenth century Chinese woodcuts from Shanghai; the University Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong sent us a beautiful booklet on The Lugard Tribute; the Siam Society contributed 34 issues of the National History Bulletin: the Cultural Institute of the Macao SAR Government contributed 91 issues of the Review of Culture; and the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities sent us their Bulletin as part of the newly established exchange programme.\n\nWith assistance from the Hong Kong Central Library, processing of the Arnold Graham Collection was finally completed. The Collection was donated by the late Arnold Graham in 1995 and sent to the City Hall Public Library directly without being catalogued. To facilitate access to this collection, efforts were made to process these materials soon after the move to the Central Library in 2001. About 77% of the records were successfully matched against University of Hong Kong Libraries' records and the Hon. Librarian searched or did original cataloguing for the remaining titles. The Collection comprises a total of 423 volumes, with 361 volumes in English and 62 in Chinese. These are shelved as a separate section in the Rare Book Room and can now be searched through the online catalogue of the Hong Kong Central Library, RAS Collection.\n\nA survey conducted last year on the Journal of the Hong Kong\n\nxlix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215760, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society reviewed that all the major public libraries which include Hong Kong Central Library, libraries at City Hall, Kowloon, Shatin, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan and even the RAS Collection have incomplete holdings of the Journal. Since it is important to keep the Journal up-to-date, copies of all missing volumes, including the Indexes and Seminars, were provided to all the public libraries at the Society's expense. While Hong Kong Central Library will continue to receive one free copy that comes with the Library's institutional membership, payment will be made for renewals for the Journal for the other five branches.\n\nIt has been the normal practice of the Hong Kong Public Libraries to record subject talks conducted at their venues. Prior consent is sought from the speakers to do this. For legal protection, Council Members agreed that RAS speakers will also be requested to sign the same form for RAS lectures. In order to better preserve the content, it was decided that tapes of RAS speakers will be digitized if permission is granted. The Hong Kong Central Library has kindly offered, free of charge, to digitize these tapes since they are produced by the Library. The digitized version will be stored in the Multimedia Information System, available for convenient access in the larger Public Libraries via the System. The RAS Library will also be given one audio CD for each of the tape digitized for borrowing or archival purpose.\n\nHong Kong Central Library has also sent us a list of past recordings of all the RAS lectures held at City Hall Library, 78 in total dating back to 1988. Since none of the speakers had given consent to record their talks before and it would not be feasible to seek retroactive consent, it was agreed that while these tapes will be digitized for preservation purpose, the CDs will be placed in the RAS Collection in Rare Book Room, available for use in the Library but not for loan. The audio tapes will also be stored in the Rare Book Room, serving as back-ups.\n\nAnother digitization project that will be undertaken by RAS is a collection of old RTHK radio programmes related to the history of Asia and Hong Kong. Due to limited resources, these tapes probably will not be digitized by RTHK. In order to preserve the culture and heritage of Asia, Council members expressed interest and investigations will be conducted into the feasibility of digitization and projected demand for the finished project.\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216129, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 428, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "362\n\nMay 1859 after the departure of Sir John Bowring, but was revived with the approval of the parent Society in London and reconstituted as the Hong Kong Branch in December 1959 under the active patronage of the Governor, Sir Robert Black. It is currently very active and is in a sound financial position.\n\nThe Library\n\nSimilar to other branches, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society set up a collection of books within its field of interest, relating to Asia and its culture. As a result of the merger with the Medico-Chirurgical Society, it had the benefit of inheriting all the books from this Society.\n\nThe Society in Hong Kong was not as fortunate as its Shanghai counterpart where the Government, in 1868, provided a site for its building at a nominal rent and later granted it in perpetuity to the Society.2 For many years, the Hong Kong Branch did not have any permanent site, and thus its collection moved from place to place.\n\nIn the early days, in 1849, as allowed by the then governor Sir S. G. Bonham, the collection was housed in a room at the Supreme Court building where the Society had its meetings. In 1859, when the Society ran into difficulties, the, by now, valuable collection of 400 books was placed in trust with the Morrison Education Society (formed in Canton in 1835) which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Supreme Court house. In November 1869, when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Colony to open the first City Hall, the Morrison Education Society presented its own library as well as that of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society to the first City Hall Public Library to serve as the reference collection. This laid the corner stone for the future relationship of the Society with the Hong Kong Public Libraries which eventually would become the permanent home for the Society's collection. In fact, following the resuscitation of the Hong Kong Branch in 1959, the President's first annual report stressed the need for ‘a meeting place of our own where we can build our Oriental library which should fill a special need'3 and expressed the hope that some accommodation could be made available in the City Hall. However, this was not realized until after several movements of both the Society and the collection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216132, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 431, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "365\n\nmicroforms, audiovisual materials, and CD-ROMs, covering oriental subjects and cultures, in varied languages, and has become a fine reference source. Some of the books provide eye-witness accounts of China over the past years. Many of these are old and out of print, available to the public only in this Library.\n\nThe Society has also established exchange programmes with many learned societies all over the world. The Journal forms the basis of the Library and sufficient numbers are printed for exchange. The Journal has a book review section which helps to bring in a useful nucleus of publications. Of high academic standards and interest, there has been an increasing demand for it from members and scholars overseas. The Collection is growing steadily as a result of the many useful exchanges established with other institutions.\n\nCollection access\n\nPost-1900 materials are available for loan. For security and preservation of rare and valuable materials, pre-1900 materials (with selected rare post-1900 materials) which might be difficult to replace are only for in-house use. The collection is also open to the academic community, students and the general public as it is the intention of the Society to aid scholarly research on China and the Far East.\n\nBibliographic aids\n\nTo facilitate the use of the Society's Journal, Mr. H.A. Rydings compiled two indexes, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Index to Vols. 1-10 (1961-1970) and Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Index to Vols. 11 - 20 (1971-1980), in 1972 and 1983 respectively. These two indexes combine, in one alphabetical sequence, entries for authors and subjects of articles in the 20 volumes of the Journal and cover the contents of the annual Journal from 1961-1970 and 1971-1980.\n\nIn addition, the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society is one of the journals enlisted in the University of Hong Kong Libraries' digital project on Hong Kong Journals Online which contains scholarly journals published in Hong Kong. This database is open to access worldwide and allows browsing of table of contents", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216133, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 432, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "366\n\nand keyword searching of author, title and journal. The full text of the articles will be displayed if copyright clearance has been obtained. Together with the printed indexes, the database, which provides greater coverage, and fast and convenient searching capabilities, will greatly assist scholars in locating information in the Journal for their research on Hong Kong and the Far East.\n\nAutomation\n\nWith computerisation of the collection at the City Hall Library, the Society's collection has become far more accessible than it was in the past. The Dynix Library System makes available bilingual access to the Society's records of both western and East Asian materials. Books, journals and other materials can be more efficiently retrieved by searching the automated catalogue, by author, title, subject, and/or keywords. The old printed card catalogues are no longer used and have been discarded. In November 1997, the system was further enhanced to allow remote access to the collection via the Hong Kong Public Libraries online catalogue. Users who are connected to the network may access the catalogue in offices or at home, and no longer have to take special trips to the Library for required information.\n\nIn support of the Hong Kong Government's Digital 21 initiative, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society created an Internet website in 2001. This was done by Ms. Moody Tang and the website provides information on the Society, its history, activities, and publications on the Internet. Also, with the establishment of a hyperlink to the Hong Kong Public Libraries' online catalogue, the website offers an alternative gateway to the Society's collection. It also serves as a powerful vehicle in promoting the Society and its collection to scholars, libraries, institutions, and the world at large.\n\nConclusion\n\nFounded in 1847, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, through the dedication and support of its members, will continue to strive to provide a forum for the sharing of knowledge and experience, and discussion of common interests. The Library, moved to the new Hong Kong Central Library in May 2001, has finally found a home with modern well-equipped facilities where its excellent and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216134, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 433, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "367\n\nunique collection will be able to serve a much broader scholarly audience in the pursuit of Asian studies and scholarship.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. The Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 1, 1961, pp.1.\n\n2. President's Report, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 2, 1962, pp.3.\n\n* President's Report, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 4, 1964, pp.8.\n\n* Dr. James Hayes, the then President, selected a collection of books for an exhibition jointly presented by the Urban Council Public Libraries and the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society held in the Urban Council Kowloon Central Library between 18 November and 1 December 1987. A Catalogue of Books on China and Hong Kong in the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) Collection was also compiled and printed, and was available free to the public at the exhibition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216152, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 451, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "385\n\nINTRODUCING THE CONSERVATION SECTION OF THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT\n\nPAUL HARRISON1\n\nI am sure most members of HKBRAS regularly attend Hong Kong's museums and libraries. They might, however, not be familiar with all the work that goes on behind the scenes to make these institutions effective.\n\nOne group of specialists are the conservators. The author is employed as a conservator and is a life member of the HKBRAS. He is one of a team of thirty-five specialists who work at laboratories at the Museums of Art, Heritage and History, the Film Archive and the Central Library. These are further divided into ten specialist teams, to work on the many varied materials that these institutions collect. There is another similar team at the Public Records Office to conserve the Government's archives.\n\nA question that the author is often asked is 'What did you study to be able to do this?' The answer is that he has a B.Sc. in Archaeological Conservation, and an M.Sc. in Ancient Metal Working Techniques from University College London, and, accordingly, works in the Metals team. The other teams are Archaeology, Ceramics/Stone, Central Library, Film Archive, Historical Documents, Organic Materials, Paper, Photographs and Textiles/Natural History.\n\nThe other, curatorial, members of the section are locally employed chemistry graduates who after serving an apprenticeship at a museum head overseas to study a conservation discipline. Previously they all went to UCL too. Now people have been to Canberra University, Australia; the Canadian Conservation Institute, Rochester, New York, USA for Film Conservation; De Montfort University, Lincoln, England, and Southampton University for textile conservation; and Camberwell, London to study paper conservation. But training is a life-long experience and experienced conservators are sent on short training courses, overseas, to expand the skills base of the section.\n\nAnother question that I sometimes get is 'Can you do carbon-14 dating?'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216264, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "from last year and the year before. The SARS outbreak was to blame for some of this, since, in the early part of last year we were a little careful about putting events into the programme. Recently, we thought we were going to have to give up our lecture venue at the City Hall for some months, and so slowed the programme down, only to find that the long-awaited renovation and refitting of the Extension Activities Room had been put off, perhaps to the autumn, perhaps indefinitely, because of financial restraints. To put this into perspective, last year we had 17 lectures (2 more than this year), 9 local visits (5 more than this year), and 3 visits to places outside Hong Kong as against 4 this year. Last year the programme thus had 29 items on it, and this year only 23. In 2001-2002 there were 24. We will endeavour to do better during this up-coming year! The Council would welcome Members suggesting items for inclusion in the programme. Members willing to lead visits are particularly urged to put themselves forward!\n\nImproved Relationships with other Branches, and Extended Availability of the Journal in Libraries around the World\n\nCouncil has continued to take action to improve relations with our sister societies around the world, and has also taken action to ensure that full sets of the Journal are to be found in more Libraries, both academic and public. I am glad to repeat what I said last year, that full sets of the Journal are now to be found in all five of the Regional Libraries of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (in the City Hall, and in the Kowloon, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and Tsuen Wan Regional Libraries), with three sets in the Causeway Bay Central Library. Sets are also available in the Public Library Service in Macau, and in Shenzhen, as well as in Shanghai. Negotiations are in hand to get sets into the library services at Canton and Peking as well.\n\nAll the tertiary academic libraries in Hong Kong also now have full sets (two sets at Hong Kong University), as do the libraries of the Museums of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. We are in process of ensuring that the other Museum libraries in Hong Kong also get sets.\n\nDuring this upcoming year, Council will continue to try to increase the number of libraries around the world which have the Journal.\n\nxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216280, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LIBRARY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 2003/2004\n\nAs of 1 March 2004, the library collection had increased to 5,081 volumes. A total of 225 volumes were added during the year. Donations of books were received from Dr Patrick Hase, Dr James Hayes, Mr L. J. M. Litmaath, Mrs Mary Painter, Mr Andrew Tse, Mr Mynak R. Tulku (Director of National Library of Bhutan), and Dr Dan Waters. Gifts of books were also received from Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Foundation of Islamic Cultural Propagation in the World, Hong Kong Museum of History, The Siam Society, Sweden Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. The Journal of the Siam Society and the National History Bulletin donated by the Siam Society were personally brought back by our Council members, Mr Peter Stuckey and Mr Jason Wordie when they stopped by Bangkok. We would like to thank all our donors and welcome future contributions of old and rare books or journals.\n\nFollowing the journal replacement exercise with the Public Libraries last year, great effort was also made to identify missing volumes of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in academic and museum libraries in Hong Kong. To keep HKBRAS journals up to date so that users will be able to have access to the complete set, Council members agreed to send missing copies to these Libraries on the condition that they will take out a subscription for future issues. All the ten academic institutions including University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Lingnan University, and Open University of Hong Kong; as well as three museums, namely Antiquities & Monuments Office, Hong Kong Heritage Museum and Hong Kong Museum of History now have a complete set of the Society Journal. We will be sending Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences a set of the Society Journals soon and are in the process of granting them Honorary Institutional membership with the understanding that they would assist and encourage scholars in using their Museum to write articles on incidents\n\nxxxix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216281, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "of medical history in Hong Kong for our Journal. The Shanghai Library was also offered Honorary Institutional membership during Patrick Hase's trip to Shanghai,\n\nThe Arnold Graham Collection has now been fully processed and catalogued. It was sent to the Conservation Unit of the Hong Kong Central Library for fumigation in April 2003. The Collection comprises a total of 423 volumes, with 361 volumes in English and 62 volumes in Chinese. Since they are of historical and intrinsic value, the whole Collection has been moved to the Rare Book Room. A white round label with the initials ‘A.G.' indicating Arnold Graham is adhered to the spine of each book for easy identification.\n\nAt the Council meeting on 22 September 2003, it was resolved that borrowing privileges of Honorary Institutional Members be modified. One membership card will be issued to the Secretary of each of the Honorary Institutional Members and the membership card could be lent to any member of that Institution, but only to one member per month. Each member of that institution would be allowed to borrow only one book at a time for a period of 1 month. Regular members could borrow 3 items at any one time for 2 months with a maximum of 10 items.\n\nTalks of RAS speakers have been recorded in tapes for years. In order to better preserve the content, it was decided that these tapes be digitized if permission is granted by the speaker. The Hong Kong Central Library has kindly offered, for free service, to digitize these tapes since they are produced by the Library. The digitized version will be mounted on the Multimedia Information System, available for convenient access in the Public Libraries via the System. Since retroactive consent of previous talks could not be obtained, it was agreed that while these tapes will be digitized for preservation purpose, the CDs will be placed in the HKBRAS Rare Book Collection, available for use in the Library but not for loan. To date, 6 records (10 tapes) from 1988 to 1994 were digitized, available for listening in the Hong Kong Public Libraries via their Multimedia Information System; 34 records (37 tapes) are in preparation and 38 records (39 tapes) are pending for digitization. There are a total of 78 records (86 tapes).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]