ENG-2007 — Page 459

Recreation, Sport and the Arts | 387

Registration Office. The public libraries system provides free library and information services to meet community needs for knowledge, information, research and recreation and to support lifelong and continuous education. It promotes reading and literary arts and offers library extension activities to people of all ages.

In all, Hong Kong's public libraries have 10.57 million books and 1.54 million multimedia materials. It has 3.56 million registered borrowers who borrowed more than 58.4 million books and other library materials during the year.

Hong Kong Central Library

The Hong Kong Central Library is a major information and cultural centre housed in a 12-storey building with a total floor area of 33 800 square metres. It has a stock. of 2.29 million books and other items and provides a wide range of library facilities. The facilities include a multimedia information system, a central reference library with six subject departments, an arts resource centre, a Hong Kong literature room, a map library, a language learning centre, a young adult library and a toy library.

There are also facilities for hire. These include a 1 500 square-metre exhibition gallery, a 290-seat lecture theatre, two activity rooms, a music practice room and eight rooms for holding discussions. It received its 30-millionth visitor in January 2007.

In addition to its regular cultural activities and talks, the library organises a wide range of cultural programmes for large audiences, such as the lecture series - 'Celebrating 120 Years of Medical Education: Explore the World of Medicine Public Lecture Series' and 'Public Lectures on History and Business in China'. Other talks held during the year were entitled 'The Choice Between Life and Death', 'Cosmopolitan Hong Kong', 'The Development of Hong Kong Past and Future' and 'Talks on China and Hong Kong' relating to the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR.

Improvements to Library Services

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The Hong Kong Public Libraries works continuously to improve the service to the public by increasing the stock of books, enhancing the reference and information. services, information technology and promoting reading habits.

In December, the small library in Shun Lee Estate was moved to larger and more comfortable premises at the Shun Lee Tsuen Sports Centre.

An Education Resource Centre opened in May, providing books and reference materials of interest to teachers, researchers and members of the public. It has a stock of 24 000 books and journals. There are also computers at the centre.

A community libraries partnership scheme, called Libraries@neighbourhood, launched in late 2005, is becoming increasingly popular. Under the scheme, public libraries collaborate with non-profit-making organisations to provide reading materials to people in their communities. At year-end, there were 54 such libraries set up across Hong Kong.