Do you know that the Chueh Sheng Memorial Library owns a collection of 4,000 electronic journals? And how much does it cost the university? According to Prof. Huang Hung-chu, Director, Chueh Sheng Memorial Library, these resources would cost the school budget a whopping NT$10,000,000.00 per year.

Although it sounds so easy for a student to hook up onto the internet so that the content of an electronic journal would be made available on the PC screen; yet, do you also know that data acquisition costs money, not just money, but lots of it.

Then, how about the consumption status of such a wonderful resourceful library?

Again, according to Prof. Huang, dating back last year until the recent months of January and February, the average consumption curve would not reach the apex until the middle of the semester when students are expected to turn in their papers. During that time of the year, as students are pressured by their professors’ assignment demand, there is such a high percentage of consumption rate. Another ostensible phenomenon is that there are more users of the Chinese than the English medium in terms of journal consumption. “Because students are not handy with English,” as Prof. Huang continued to concede, “they give up the English journals in preference to the Chinese ones. They didn’t know that with a little more time and effort, they could learn more from the English source, and it’s a crucial test of one’s will power, after all.”

Starting April 22 thru 25, from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M., in room 301, the so-called “Guidance Room”, Chueh Sheng Memorial Library, a series of lectures on the subject of “Methods of Collecting Information” will be held. The lectures will cover technical know-how of finding data from within as well as outside school sources; of collecting information thru electronic tank and electronic journals, and the introduction and utilization of information thru the Internet. Faculties and students who are interested in this 2-day package deal should send your e-mail to the following address: http://service.lib.tku.edu.tw for enrolment. The deadline falls on April 22. The maximum capacity is 30 people for one class. But no additional students will be allowed once the capacity is filled.