(1) Cooperative Collection Development
¡@¡@The holdings of each library of the four UST universities respectively have their own strength in the fields of science, engineering, culture, management and medicine etc. Each library focuses on the development of her core collection, and reduces the purchase of materials duplicate with the other three libraries as possible. Available resources will be maximized as well as made more efficiently accessible for learning and research use.
(2) Reciprocal Borrowing and Borrow Direct Service
¡@¡@One way to facilitate efficient access to available resources is reciprocal borrowing. A patron of each of the four UST university libraries can use his/her own library pass to enter the other three libraries and borrow books from there. In addition, he/she can apply the borrowing of books of the other three libraries through an online system and fetch the books directly from his/her library.
(3) Interlibrary Photocopy Service ¡@¡@
Another way to facilitate efficient access to available resources is the interlibrary photocopy service. A patron of each of the four UST university libraries can apply photocopies of non-returnable materials (including journal and proceeding papers) of the other three libraries through an online system and fetch the photocopies directly from his/her library. The price of the interlibrary photocopy service is reasonable and the turnaround time is about two days.
(4) Cooperative Digital Libraries Development
In the digital library era, the digitalization of library holdings and the provision of electronic services is a must. The four libraries share their domain and technical expertise to cooperatively digitalize library holdings and provide electronic services, with the eventual goal of providing more innovative services more efficiently at lower costs through common servers. Up to present, a federated search system for databases and E-journals (called SMILE) and an electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) system operate through common servers; a MOD (multimedia on demand) system is acquired through group purchasing (operates individually in three of the four libraries) and a majority of the MOD materials are shared among the four libraries. |