Reading enriches our life, and there is no better place for reading than a library.

The library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is nestled on the north side of the University’s Central Avenue. Hailed as one of the “foothill buildings” on campus, it presents a harmonious blend of tranquility and vitality, with the Administration Building on the right, and a corridor leading to the Student Centre on the left. The design of the library breaks the six-floor large volume into two three-floor C shape volume. Through turning and elevating, it becomes coherent with the entrance and green land of the campus, keeps the sight from central green land to the hill, and also maintains a natural landscape for the campus.

The library’s center is a hall with multi-storey-high book shelves and skylight. This space extends all the way to the bottom of the building, which is the reading room. The outdoor spaces of the library are yards, corridors, and platforms, and they fit to the indoors hall and rooms, creating frame view for both interior and exterior. The design is based on a high storage efficiency module, and leads indirect light to the reading space through transition from external wall to partition and wood and metal sunshade. On the elevation we designed recessed veranda and open wall, to support a thick and flexural upper volume. And along with people’s walk, they can get various views of this building with traditional image and temperament of university.

“The library embodies the spirit of the University”, said President Yangsheng Xu. In accordance with the education principle of the University, the library’s service is always rooted in the interest of the students and research.

LibGuides, the world's leading content management system, is introduced to the library to integrate its high-quality resources and to provide reference services of excellence. Leganto, an internationally aligned resource list management system, is also available at CUHK-Shenzhen Library for teaching staff to create, access, and manage course resource lists. Beyond that, the Library has adopted Alma, which is widely used by libraries in various countries, to manage resources, and Primo to help readers access library resources easily and efficiently.

With a total area of approximately 20,000㎡, the six-storey library offers more than 2,800 study seats, and a total of 320 search and service terminals. The library currently provides access to over 2.48 million e-books, 2,200 sets of audio-visual materials, and 105 academic databases (periodicals, numerical data, ancient books, etc.). It is open to the students and faculties for over 100 hours per week with its Internet service available on a 24/7 basis. Just as what President Xu pursues, “the library should be a quiet yet warm place for learning, scholarship and research.”

CUHK-Shenzhen library is now a member of the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS), the China Academic Social Sciences & Humanities Library (CASHL), and the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL). It has cooperated with hundreds of university libraries in China for inter-library loan and document delivery, and set up the "Shenzhen Document Network" with Shenzhen libraries, an effort to realize the inter-library loan of paper resources in Shenzhen and to support our university's academic research.

With its rich and easily accessible collection of resources, the Library is an academic exchange center for readers to discover and share knowledge.  Building on the university's ICT infrastructure, it is endeavored to establish an intelligent library system with the gradual introduction of advanced technologies. A shared learning space that supports creative thinking, encourages interactive and immersive studying and fosters lifelong learning is taking shape and will eventually serve as an integral cornerstone to the University's goal of evolving into a world-class research university.

Committed to forming an “Information Hub” as President Xu mentioned, the library will never cease to advance with the time. Growing alongside the students and maturing alongside the academic achievements, the library’s lifeline will stretch with this University.

 

Committed to forming an “Information Hub” as President Xu mentioned, the library will never cease to advance with the time. Growing alongside the students and maturing alongside the academic achievements, the library’s lifeline will stretch with this University.