The Macao Public Library offers services which allow readers not only to find their preferred books online anytime anywhere but also to reserve and borrow the books at the nearest branch for quality reading.
The Library has recently departed from traditional book processing procedures, aiming at bringing new arrivals to readers as soon as possible. When new books arrive at the Library, the librarians will make a quick and simple registration and upload the information onto the Macao Public Library website, where readers can reserve them once successfully locating their information.
Online reservations for items in process may be a trivial service for readers. However, it actually involves a colossal amount of data and delivering of the inter-library items to process such reservations, which require the support of system and the cooperation of reader service librarians from different branches.
Following the introduction of the new library system in 2015, the Macao Public Library finished the conversion of bibliographic data and the handover of bibliographic system for branches previously under the IACM in 2016, thus not only enhancing the bibliographic data but also making the catalogued yet waiting to be shelved items available to the public.
Meanwhile, librarians of all branches need to conduct a library inventory to check the system information accordingly before readers can search the items and make reservations on the website. Upon readers’ return of the items, the Library has to recall the items for cataloguing and further process them before proceeding with the task of shelving for circulation.
For more information, please visit the following website: https://www.library.gov.mo/zh-hant/service-guide/reader-guide/reserve-service
LIBRARY MAGNIFIER
Source: © Ossip van Duivenbode
China
Tianjin Binhai Library
Having become a heated topic since its opening in October last year, Tianjin Binhai Library has been dubbed ‘the most beautiful library in China’ by netizens. The five-storey Library boasts a maximum collection of 1.2 million books and houses various reading rooms, book storage rooms, resting areas and so on, while featuring extensive educational facilities on both sides of the building. The most popular spot of the Library is the main atrium reading space, where readers will feel the illusion of being surrounded by hills of books, as the space is enclosed by terraced bookshelves with stacks of books piling up. The terraced bookshelves also serve as seats for readers to sit on and leisurely read. In addition, among the ‘hills of books’ stands a spherical auditorium which integrates knowledge with multimedia by means of projection, bringing a whole new library experience to its users.
Address: Great Avenue, Binhai CBD Area, Tianjin
