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In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the University of Macau (UM) Library held an international conference on “library building and effective use of its space” on 1 December 2011, attracting over one hundred and forty experts and scholars from Australia, the U.K., the U.S., the Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.
At the opening ceremony, which was officiated at by Director of the Tertiary Education Services Office of Macao SAR Mr. Sou Chio Fai, UM’s acting Rector Prof. Simon Ho, UM’s Vice Rector (Research) Prof. Rui Martins, and UM Librarian Dr. Paul Poon, Prof. Martins noted that libraries across the world are faced with challenges arising from traditional print books being replaced by their electronic counterparts and students’ taking collaborative learning as their preferred mode of learning; and this conference aimed to explore ways of re-arranging and effectively using library space. Prof. Martins expressed hopes that the conference would be of some use to UM in the context of a new library on the new campus.
Dr. Poon said that the topic, “library building and effective use of its space”, was meaningful and pertinent to the present, and he believed that attendees would gain a great deal from the insightful views shared at the conference.
The following people delivered keynote speeches at the conference: Dr. Alex Byrne, the newly-appointed state librarian and chief executive of the State Library of New South Wales, Australia, and former university librarian at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia; Mr. Martin Lewis, director of Library Service and university librarian at the University of Sheffield, U.K.; Prof. Thomas C. Leonard, university librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.; Dr. Colin Storey, university librarian at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and Prof. Chao-Chen Chen, director of the National Taiwan Normal University Library.
