Impression of the HKUST Library

To be honest, I am writing this blog on a computer in the library of HKUST. That is one of the many marvelous things I discovered about this library. ("Which computer are you using, exactly?" Well, you can see the computer immediately when you come to LG3 via stairs, and I can see the bookshelves in front of me. Has I made myself clear?) I chose to write it on this computer to make it more worthy of memorizing.

I have described in my previous blog the amount of books in this library, and how many significant, meaningful books and journals that cannot be easily found in SYSU can easily be found here. I've made a book list that I'm gonna finish this semester a couple of days ago. Though the list seems too huge for me to finish, I really don't think I can drop any of them. The "author" column of this list includes Feynman, Landau, Dirac, J. D. Jackson, C. Kittel, A. Pais and many other big shots. When I search for "Author=Feynman", there are more than sixty results, most of which are worthy of reading. When I showed the result page to Darth Maverick, he apparently showed his envy to this. One of the big problems is the categorizing method here is quite different from that of Mainland, but with the powerful searching engine provided by the Library, I don't think it's a big problem.

As to the journals, I've not come up with a way of using them efficiently, partly because I'm kind of freaked out in front of such a great amount of information and don't know what to do. However, I'll definitely try to make good use of them.

What's more, there are a lot of E-books that can be easily accessed. One of the problems I came across in Zhuhai is the great lack of exercise books, those assembled mathematical or physical problems, along with detailed solution. I have to search for them all around the Internet to get some. However, many such books can be found in the form of E-books in UST. Of course, the amount of E-books is far larger than that, and there's still a lot to be explored.

Even this single advantage will make me really appreciate this place. However, after I attended an Orientation Tour yesterday, I found that there are far more potential advantages that haven't been discovered. I believe, should I be able to learn to make full use of all these, the power released can be unimaginable.

All above are just trivial topics about a library, and now I wanna discuss the environment of this place.

The library is made up of five floors, and the majority of the books I needed are on floor LG3, while all the so-called "bounded periodicals" are positioned on LG1 (there's no LG2, by the way). Hence these are the places I'm gonna visit most frequently this semester. The books are arranged in a strange sequence. Generally speaking, the books are, doubtlessly, arranged according to their "call numbers". In order to go through all the books in the order of ascending call numbers, one have to move in S-shape. (It's kind of hard to explain without graph, but I can tell that it took me not a little time to get used to it.)

LG4 is for books on "Social Science & Humanities", such as economics and literature. There I saw some new technology called "compact bookshelves". There are too many books concerning these subjects, and too little room to keep them. Hence someone come up with this great idea of putting all the shelves on the rail, driven by motor. Hence, they can be "compacted" together, making it possible to put much more shelves in limited space. When anyone need a book, he simply push a button on the corresponding shelf, and the motor will move the shelves apart, making a corridor between them, so that he can simply walk in and fetch the book. I don't know which creative genius came up with this idea, but it was just marvelous!

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that there are many computers in the library, and students can use them for free. There is a special region, whose name I forgot, that has much resemblance with a Net Cafe. The computers there are fairly fast, and the keyboard is far more comfortable than that of my laptop. And, as many necessary softwares are installed, one can do almost anything related to studying and working there, and many things not related to them. A major exception is playing games, but it can make someone like me work efficiently without being distracted by the desire of playing them. Hence, I decide to use them more.

Beside these, several computers can be found in each level. They're not something that can only be used to search for books in the library, and nothing else, though they are supposed to do the job. Most of them can be used to access whatever website, like the one I am using now. However, unlike those in the "Net Cafe Region", it can only be used to surf on Internet, for only the browser was installed. That's enough for me already!

The desks and seat are not so different from those of SYSU libraries, and I'm not gonna explain them here.

The air-conditioner is really a little too "fierce". It's not a problem, though, as I'm more handsome in trousers and shirt, than in shorts and T-shirt. I can just wear more formally.

That's all for today, and I'll give more about the library if I found anything new, later.