ENG-2010 — Page 479

Recreation, Sport and the Arts ■ 401

In July, the Tung Chung Public Library, located in the Tung Chung Municipal Services Building, was reprovisioned, significantly strengthening the library services in the area.

The public libraries continue to work closely with the District Councils and local organisations to promote and develop further a partnership scheme, called Libraries@neighbourhood for lending books to people in all of Hong Kong's districts. By the end of 2010, there were 188 community libraries in operation across Hong Kong.

The public libraries work with the Education Bureau to provide library cards to primary school students to encourage them to use library services. Self-learning course materials from the Open University of Hong Kong are available to students in 16 public libraries.

Reference and Information Services

Reference and information services are provided at the Hong Kong Central Library and the five major libraries located in Kowloon, Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and at the City Hall, on Hong Kong Island. The Central Library also has a large store of reference material on Hong Kong studies and on international organisations. Professional reference services are provided at many libraries and resource centres.

Online reference services are an integral part of the HKPL's reference and information services.

Information Technology Initiatives and Digital Library Initiatives

The HKPL's Library Automation system is one of the largest computerised library systems equipped with Chinese and English capabilities in the world.

At the end of 2010, over 870 000 people had registered to use their smart ID cards as library cards and over 1 700 library computers had access to the Internet.

The HKPL's Multimedia Information System (MMIS) provides a powerful one-stop search facility enabling users to search multimedia archives and look for digitised documents via the Internet.

Outreach Programmes and Promotion of Reading and Literary Arts

Outreach programmes form an integral part of the library services. In 2010, the HKPL organised a balanced mix of activities for people of all ages. Regular programmes including storytelling sessions, book exhibitions, and community talks were held throughout the year.

A total of 21 010 library outreach programmes were conducted in 2010. A variety of reading programmes and reading-related activities were organised to promote reading and sustain an interest in reading. These included a 'Summer Reading Month' designed for children and their families, a series of meet-the-author sessions, and events held by the HKPL's reading clubs for teenagers and families.