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As a form of education, distance learning currently shows great promise and the role of online libraries in delivering off-campus information services increases. This paper presents a comparative analysis of measures undertaken by traditional academic libraries in China and Italy in response to pandemic restrictions on educational operations during the lockdown period. The study utilized a specially developed questionnaire, carried out through an online survey, as a means of collecting data from library users (students and teachers). The study population includes 102 random library patrons, including 64 students and 38 teachers who were using services of academic libraries in China at the time. Through comparison with other studies, the quarantine responses of Chinese libraries were identified. The results of the study show that COVID-19 responses of libraries in China went in a direction similar to those in Italy, but the final decisions varied because of different levels of technological development. This knowledge may be used by libraries to identify areas for improvement. The results show that Chinese libraries were more effective in overcoming quarantine restrictions than those in Italy. The overwhelming majority of respondents reported that they had positive experience learning remotely and would not mind if distance learning programs continue to function after the pandemic is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the spatial renovation of university libraries in various countries has focused on readers' needs and followed the trend to develop learning spaces as a primary spatial form. In this study, we reviewed six spatial dimensions affecting student users' learning experience. Specifically, we built a theory- and practice-based conceptual analysis framework to measure users' satisfaction with recent spatial renovations at three university libraries in Wuhan, China. We used SPSS statistical software to conduct multiple linear regression analyses of spatial satisfaction. The findings show that five spatial dimensions significantly affect students' satisfaction with library space, namely, service facility availability, quality of interior design, physical environment elements, spatial diversity, and learning space controllability. Service facility availability is the most critical factor affecting spatial satisfaction. In this study, we present empirical, evidence-based space elements that enhance user satisfaction with library spaces, and provide targeted design suggestions for future library space renovation and the optimization of space allocation and expansion of space services at university libraries in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reference services have been developed in China for nearly a century; however literature shows that very little research has been done on users' perception of reference services in Chinese academic libraries. To fill the research gap, this study aims to examine how Chinese undergraduates perceive, understand and use the reference service. A survey was employed and conducted in a comprehensive Chinese university with about 19,000 undergraduate students. 433 valid questionnaires were received. ANOVA was adopted to examine overall reference service satisfaction variation among respondents in different programs. The study reveals that library resources and reference services have been improved in China during the past twenty years, especially with the great support of Project 211 and Project 985 by the Ministry of Education of China. However, there is still more to do to change libraries from book repositories to modern user-centered information services and to improve historically underdeveloped user services in Chinese libraries. Libraries and librarians in China need to more actively embrace the philosophy that library resources are to be used and librarians are there to serve, to thoroughly promote reference services and render them more visible, and to diligently learn, adopt and apply technology to provide quality reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student deep participation in library work allows students to actively participate in library operation and become deeply involved in library service and program development. There are usually two levels of deep participation: level I refers to the employment of student assistants in different areas of library routine work, ranging from shelving to IT support; and level II refers to the engagement of students as library partners or collaborators, working with librarians to complete independent project. Sharing Tsinghua University Library's experiences, we provide a holistic view of how the two levels of student deep participation are implemented at an academic library, with a focus on level II. We seek to generate a thorough understanding of the practices and benefits of student deep participation, and encourage academic libraries to create more opportunities to deeply involve students in library work, and to ultimately demonstrate the value and relevance of the library to the campus community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a list of books received by the journal "Europe-Asia Studies." The books cover a range of topics related to Russia, Ukraine, and China. Some of the titles include "Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics, and Security in Putin's Russia," "Russia's War Against Ukraine: The Whole Story," and "China's Digital Authoritarianism: A Governance Perspective." The books provide diverse perspectives on these subjects and may be of interest to library patrons conducting research on these specific topics. [Extracted from the article]

With the growth of international student enrollment in Chinese universities, user perception has become an area of developing research in academic libraries. China's policy of opening up has led to the education and economic reforms allowing major universities to enroll international students. These changes have created an increasing need for libraries to be responsive to the information needs of these students. In order to serve these students better, universities will be expected to further understand how academic library services are currently perceived by international students. This is particularly the case at Wuhan University, which has experienced significant growth in international student enrollment. This study aims to discover the met and unmet needs as well as barriers encountered in library use by international students. Based on the information gathered, recommendations and future strategies will be formulated to improve the understanding of the information needs of non-native Chinese speakers in both the provision of services and the building of collections. The findings of this study reveal that Chinese academic libraries are considerably well perceived by international students. It also indicates that they have differing purposes, and differing needs for library services and information resources. This paper acknowledges that the study is limited to Wuhan University; however, there is a need for further studies on non-Chinese speakers, particularly, international students to obtain important information on their perception of library services and information resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of the study is to identify the core mechanism of how social networking sites use happens in the perspective of contextual factors and then examine the cultural difference in the motives for using social networking sites between China and Pakistan university students. An instrument was designed to calculate the various aspect factors and social networking use intention by using the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the information success model (ISSM). A survey was administered among university students of China and Pakistan. The purposed model was empirically tested by PLS-SEM to examine the influential factors on the use of social networking sites. To the best of our knowledge, there is no cross-cultural published study associated with contextual factors effecting use of social networking sites between China and Pakistan. Our findings show that there are indeed important learning and network factors that lead to social networking sites. This paper examines how cultural perspectives shape the use of communication technology by examining the patterns of using social network sites among university students in China and Pakistan. The results of the study show that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, perceived interaction and system use have positive and direct effect on the intention to use social networking sites for information communication. More interestingly, the use of such social networking factors varies sharply across countries with different market-based institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term preservation and long-acting utilization of digital resources are currently a hot topic internationally. In the past several years, library market budgets showed rapid and steady growth in China. The fast growth posed a challenge to the long-term storage of digital resources. Four years ago, the China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation launched a digital resource platform 'CNPeReading' to build bridges between upstream content providers and downstream customers, in which an integrated service model including a long-term storage implementation was presented. So far, CNPeReading has made satisfactory progress in providing better user experience, lower latency and higher availability for library customers. Also, many overseas publishers have rapidly adapted to the Chinese institutional markets through the CNPeReading platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese academic libraries have been devoting great effort into introducing next-generation online public access catalogs (OPACs) in order to provide a better user experience. However, there is a lack of empirical research on their usage. In this study, a transaction log file from a typical next-generation OPAC, the Wuhan University Library OPAC, formed the basis for an investigation of users' information behavior, using a clickstream data analysis framework. The 26,732,368 clickstream records in the original log file were cleaned, parsed, coded, then analyzed at the footprint, movement, and pathway levels. The results showed that the users relied heavily on the single-box simple search interface, seldom involved themselves in an exploratory search process, and preferred page navigation over search refinement when interacting with search results. The OPAC was used as a lookup tool to locate known academic resources and as a personal information management tool to utilize basic library services, instead of as a discovery tool as intended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with head librarian Wilson Chu of the Learning Resources Center (LRC) of Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) in Hong Kong, China is presented. Topics discussed include the academic programs offered by HKDI, the attitudes of library users, and the workshops on information literacy. Also mentioned was the combination of the programs of three campuses under Hong Kong's Vocational Training Council (VTC).

This article presents a case study of Evergreen school libraries in the northwestern region of China, with a focus on their innovative approaches to community services and strategies of reaching out to local town residents and villagers. The data gathered for the case study included patron/school librarian interviews, observation of brainstorming by school librarians and principals, and analysis of library use data gathered from project schools. In view of known issues identified from existing literature, this study attempts to identify factors that potentially contribute to a school library's success or failure in serving its local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a rise in the technology for the production of electronic or digital materials, funders and administrators of libraries are increasingly leaning towards providing digital reading materials to users. In crowded cities like Hong Kong where space is a scarce commodity, the save-space feature of digital libraries is an even more attractive reason why users of library facilities in academic and public libraries are being encouraged to read electronic versions of publications. In this article we show that, however laudable the advantages of electronic books may be over physical print books, user preferences in every situation must be carefully analyzed before a paradigm shift from print to digital library resources can be successfully effected. The data for this paper come mainly from a survey of user preferences among students of the University of Hong Kong, which shows that an overwhelming majority (77%) of the respondents prefers print to digital materials. We conclude that the success or otherwise of the paradigm shift from print to digital libraries would depend on measures taken to encourage a positive attitude of users for digital library resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective - To assess the impact of a university library instruction program. Design - Survey questionnaire administered post-intervention. Setting - A mid-size science and technology university in Hong Kong. Subjects - Student and staff participants in either course specific or open (elective) library instruction workshops. Methods - Surveys were conducted to measure the perceived effectiveness of the library instruction program, including various types of course specific (CS) and open workshops (OW). Librarians responsible for teaching nominated the sample of workshops for evaluation. Students in all but one CS workshop were provided with a 14-question paper questionnaire in class by their course instructor, while participants in all of the open workshops and one CS workshop received the same questionnaire via e-mail. The questionnaires were distributed between four to eight weeks following the workshops in order to gauge the "enduring" impact of the instruction. Most questions were closed, forcing participants to choose an answer from a list or select from a 4- or 7- point Likert scale. Comments were also solicited. Results were summarised and analysed using SPSS software. The CS and OW questionnaires were studied separately to allow for comparisons between groups. Main results - Out of 133 workshops taught in the fall of 2004, 25 were included in the sample: 15 CS and 10 OW. The overall response rate was 68%, with 466 participants completing questionnaires. Most participants indicated that the workshops were useful for learning about sources and search methods for finding information quickly. The majority (72.2%) responded that they felt an increase in confidence when conducting library research and slightly more than half (57.9%) agreed the workshops led to an increased interest in using the library. The responses differed significantly for the CS and OW groups: OW participants consistently rated the usefulness of the workshops higher than CS participants. In regards to retention of skills, 68.5% of participants responded in the affirmative when asked of they had continued using the skills taught, with rates ranging from 56 to 83% depending on the workshop. There was little difference in perceived retention between the CS and OW groups. The skills most frequently identified as having been learned included the abilities to "form better search strategies" and "find better Internet resources." Written feedback included remarks on reducing class size and length, and increasing practice time and the number of handouts. Conclusion - A "delayed perception survey" revealed positive feedback from library workshop participants on questions about confidence, usefulness, and retention of skills learned. There was a significant difference in confidence levels reported between CS and OW groups, with OW participants reporting higher levels of confidence. The researchers surmise this might be a result of self-selection, as OW participants volunteered both to attend the library instruction workshops and to respond to the survey questionnaire. The short questionnaire is an efficient tool for assessing the perceived usefulness of library workshops for both course-integrated sessions and elective workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines that breakthroughs in news relating to dinosaurs will affect library collections much like ripples in a pond. Specifically, news releases on dinosaur discoveries in China. The news from China emphasized once more that the science of paleontology is not set in stone--it is merely written there. The first discovery, and arguably the more important of the two for librarians, is that a fossil of an early ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex shows the existence of protofeathers--precursors to the feathers on modern birds. The new species, named Dilong paradoxus, marks the first time feather-like structures have been directly observed on a tyrannosaurid, and supports earlier predictions by several paleontologists. The second discovery is that of a sleeping dinosaur. From what is described as one of the most complete skeletons discovered, this dinosaur died a peaceful death while curled up with its head tucked under the forearm, similar to how modern birds sleep. These two discoveries are important because they expand our understanding of dinosaur behavior and appearance.

There is a marked contrast between the approach to reference services in Harbin Engineering University, China and Northumbria University, UK. Both universities have experienced increased pressure on library services due to a rapid growth in student enrollment. In both institutions, the academic staff are a vital link between students and the library. The emphasis at Northumbria is not on the provision of a reference service for academic staff but on making them aware of the resources and how to access and use them. In Harbin Engineering University, teachers are VIP library users. Delivering an effective reference service to teachers will encourage students to use information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]