HKUL: Library Support for Teaching and Research

Library resources

Find out information about our extensive holdings of print materials, e-journals, e-books and other resources to support your teaching and research.

Find@HKUL helps you discover the HKUL collection through a single search box in one go. The search can be extended to all 8 UGC-funded university libraries in Hong Kong and institutions worldwide.
Electronic Resources/Databases is the gateway to access electronic resources by subject, format or title.
Explore the Subject Guides which cover diverse disciplines including Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Music, Science, Social Sciences. Each guide comes with course/core resources, Internet resources, and other pertinent links to help with your research.
If your research is performed over an extended period, it would be a good idea to set up alerts in article databases or the library catalogue. You will then be regularly informed of new research information on your topic. In many databases, article alerts can be set up within a few simple steps.

IMPORTANT: Read special Tips on accessing via a publisher’s website, PubMed or Google Scholar.

Course readings

ReadingList@HKUL

Course readings can be set up with ReadingList@HKUL for student access via HKU Moodle or as a public list. The list can consist of a wide range of materials -- books, ebooks, online articles, YouTube or websites. Find out more.

Print coursepack

The Libraries provides coursepack service on the request of the faculties. A “course pack” is a compilation of learning materials, such as journal articles, book excerpts, in support of student learning for a course. AV & Reserve staff can help obtain copyright permission through the Hong Kong Reprographic Rights Licensing Society (HKRRLS). License fee is payable to HKRRLS. Through this service, students will be able to possess a copy of the course pack legally and instructors can distribute photocopies of licensed materials to students without infringing copyright. For more details on the guidelines and procedure, please visit the Print Course Pack website.

Linking to E-resources

To facilitate learning, you can establish links to recommended e-books and e-articles throughout a Moodle course, or in one’s blog or any web pages of your choice. To facilitate seamless access to these e-resources, please check if the URL is a persistent link with the EZProxy prefix – “http://eproxy.lib.hku.hk/login?url=”. Otherwise, it would be necessary to add this EZProxy string before the URL of the e-resource. With this, the e-resources vendor would know that the requester is a HKU user and therefore would activate the HKUL authentication screen.

Using copyrighted materials

Check out the Copyright in teaching and learning website at HKU website to know more about related legislation and guidelines adopted within the University.

Sharing your own creative works

If you wish to give others the right to share, use, or even build upon a work that you have created, Creative Commons (CC), the international system of intellectual property rights management, provides copyright licenses through which copyright terms can be changed from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” Creative Commons Hong Kong (CCHK) works with Creative Commons International to localize and promote the use of Creative Commons licenses in Hong Kong.

Managing student papers / Originality check for student papers

Turnitin and GradeMark

Turnitin offers Similarity Checking on students' work for proper citation or potential plagiarism in the University of Hong Kong. Grademark is an online tool for grading papers and rubrics. With the Moodle-Turnitin-GradeMark integration, teaching staff can set up student assignments in a Moodle class, mark the papers and perform similarity checking under the same platform. More details are available at Turnitin@HKU.

Getting materials available elsewhere

Interlibrary Loans and Article Delivery Services

For journal articles or books not available in the HKU Libraries, you may wish to request for Interlibrary Loan and Article Delivery Services online at https://lib.hku.hk/mainlib/ill.html. This service allows you to request books, book chapters, journal articles and other resources that are not available in HKU libraries but are available from other UGC-funded libraries in Hong Kong or other institutions worldwide.

BRO/ Suggesting materials for purchase

Academic staff can recommend books for purchase in HKU Libraries via Book Recommendation Online (BRO). The request will be considered by the relevant faculty or branch librarian. For other borrowers, please access BRO at http://lib.hku.hk/general/e-form/eform_book.html instead.

Knowledge exchange

The HKU Libraries collects, preserves, and disseminates in digital form, the intellectual output of HKU faculty and researchers through the University’s institutional repository, the HKU Scholars Hub. Through this open access repository, the Hub strives to make HKU authors and their research visible, with the goal of increasing all forms of collaboration. The Hub and the Libraries team developing this resource have won the University’s Knowledge Exchange Award (Non-Faculty Unit) 2012 for the value they add to the HKU community.

Submit your research publications or papers to Research Information Management System (RIMS) and display them on HKU Scholars Hub to increase their visibility and connect with researchers and peers worldwide. You can also refer to a sample ResearcherPage on the Hub or contact Hub through "Email-a-Librarian" (Select To: "Scholars Hub, RIMS (Research Output)" on the form) for further information.

Establishing your research network

Conferences

Academic Conferences Worldwide: ConferenceAlerts provides a convenient website for locating conferences under your research area or by region. You can also set up alerts so that you will be notified when there are conferences matching your area of interest.

All Conferences.com offers a global conference directory to locate conferences, conventions, trade shows, exhibits and events under various business or area of interest.

Scholarly societies

Scholarly Societies Project helps you acquaint yourself with academic associations under your research interest. It is an efficient channel to stay abreast of the latest news and events within your research network.

Publishing your research

Selecting a journal for publication

Identifying the appropriate journal for paper submission is one of the immediate considerations when publishing. Impact Factor, a common indicator adopted to measure the standing of a journal, might provide some insight in your selection process. There are two major databases subscribed at HKUL that would provide such data:

Journal Citation Reports provides annual data, such as Impact Factor, on science and social sciences journals.

Getting published

Throughout the publication process, you might need to hone your skills in authorship and other issues. Visit the following resources to help you get started:

Early Career Resources by Elsevier offers advice on how to plan a successful research career, tools to help you identify relevant scientific information and how to improve your chances of getting published.
Online Guide to Getting Published by Emerald where you will find support materials and insider’s guide for authors.

Assessing research impact

An issue of interest is publishing with impact. Although how this is measured might differ across disciplines, citation analysis is a commonly adopted measure for benchmarking and evaluation of a piece of work or a researcher. A number of citation databases subscribed by HKUL offer this bibliometric data:

Researchers may sometimes require a citation report in support of award applications. The Libraries offers a citation certification service at a fee. For details, please approach the Learning and Research Services.

Staying organized with EndNote

EndNote is a reference management tool that would help you get organized with your readings. It will also facilitate the citing of appropriate sources when you begin writing your papers. Visit the EndNote@HKU website where you can download a copy of the software on your computer. The site licence covers current HKU staff and students. To learn how to use EndNote, you can either attend one of our workshops or visit the online learning materials.

Information skills

Workshops, classes and demonstrations to guide your students

The Libraries offer information skills sessions on library resources as well as trainings on research strategies in the digital environment. If you would like to schedule a session for your students tailored to your specific courses, fill in the form and we will contact you to confirm and finalize the details. Requests are accepted for groups of more than 15 staff/students.

For a complete list of open sessions currently on offer in the Libraries, check our Training page.

Contact us

Ask a Librarian

The HKU Libraries provides scholarly information and relevant services in support of your teaching and research at the university. For any questions on finding information or using our services, please feel free to Ask a Librarian.

Faculty Librarians & Branch Librarians

Faculty Librarians and Branch Librarians help develop collections for assigned subject areas and serve as the Libraries' liaison to your faculty. Please feel free to contact your Subject Specialists if we could provide any further assistance.