TEXT_Yan Lam
PHOTOS_Panda Lei
All Libraries are about people. Libraries have always been at the centre of human development in literate societies. There is no development without knowledge and libraries are the systems responsible for maintaining and ensuring consistent and democratic access to it. — Francisco Peixoto
An educational or cultural system, or a library in particular, can only function to its fullest extent when it becomes connected with society. The Director at the University of Saint Joseph Library in Macao, Francisco Peixoto, remarked that no two university libraries are the same, because a university library is highly relevant to its student community, and professional library staff should serve to bring the students and the library together. “Learning to listen to what's in the users' hearts, what drives their minds and enriches their souls is, in fact, the critical factor to make a university library thrive, and our raison d'être,” he said. “Maintaining this relevance can only be achieved if we always keep people at the centre of all that we do.”
In Peixoto’s view, Macao has set an example for library development in other regions. A number of public and university libraries have been established in Macao since 2014 to provide services to a variety of users and, all local academic libraries have maintained contact and rolled out collaborations on a regular basis with a constant focus on students, teaching staff and research fellows to ensure the availability of the most relevant and important academic tools and resources. The Macau Academic Library Alliance E-Resources Centre has recently launched the MALA Hub database, comprising electronic resources from nine local tertiary institutions, which is definitely good news for researchers.
The public’s habit of using libraries is not developed in a day. Therefore, Peixoto believes that in order to provide more relevant services to readers, it is all the more necessary for library staff to stay up-to-date, sharpen their soft and hard skills and receive comprehensive training in various fields such as social work, psychology, arts administration, reading promotion and information systems. Peixoto also indicated the importance of establishing effective communication channels between schools and public libraries; reading habits and library usage patterns should be taken into consideration in reading plans formulated for educational institutions ranging from kindergartens to universities, with the aim of enlightening the public that libraries are an ideal place to visit for reliable information or a pleasant working environment.
