FAQ

A1: You can hold borrowed materials online on SearchPlus via MY LIBRARY CARD.

For illustration, please visit: https://library.hsu.edu.hk/place-hold-item/

A2: The overdue fines vary depending on the kinds of material you have borrowed.

• $1 per opening day for Circulation Collection
• $2 per opening day for Multimedia materials/Serials materials
• $2 per opening hour for Course Reserve materials

Fines can be paid at any Service Counter by Octopus Card only.

A4: The duration for borrowing Library materials:

• 150 days for academic staff,
• 60 days for postgraduate students,
• 28 days for management and support staff or students excluding postgraduate students.

For the following kinds of materials, the duration applies to all library users:

• Three days for Multimedia materials and Serials materials
• Two hours for Course Reserve materials

For Course Reserve materials borrowing within two hours before closing on G/F, you may keep them overnight, and they must be returned before 9:30 am on the next opening day.

Please note that all borrowed materials can be renewed, except the following library materials which are not renewable:

• Materials reserved by other library users
• Materials from Course Reserve Collection, Special Collections, and Serial Collections

A5: You can get access to journals and newspapers. Details as below:

A6: Items can be renewed via login “My Library Account”. Please follow the steps shown from the link: https://library.hsu.edu.hk/renew-an-item/

A7: If you are an academic staff, you can borrow up to 100 items; if you are a postgraduate student, you can borrow up to 50 items; if you are a management and support staff or student excluding postgraduate students, you can borrow up to 30 items.

A8: Yes, except for materials, which are not renewable, mentioned in A5. All overdue materials can be renewed via “My Library Account” in case that no other users have requested. Fines will be continued accumulating daily on all overdue materials until they are renewed.

A9: You are expected to bring the books to the Service Counter for renewal. Alternatively, you can renew them online by logging in “My Library Account”.

A10: “Recall” means a user has made a request for the library materials which is currently checked out by another user. The loan period for the recalled materials will be shortened to 14 days from the date of recall. All books of Circulation Collection are subject to recall.

A11: Please change your PIN for logging in “My Library Account”. The new PIN will also be used as the PIN of self-check machines.

To change your PIN, please log in to My Library Account as shown by the following link: https://library.hsu.edu.hk/login-my-library-account/

A12: Click the “Course Reserve” on the Library homepage. You can then search books by Course Code, Course Name, Instructor name or Department.

A13: There is a possibility that the book is being used in the Library and it has not been checked out by the user. You are welcome to approach our Service Counter for assistance.

A14: You can remote access (including Residential College) to e-resources via EZproxy, by logging in with your Windows account.

A15: From the Library web page, type in the title of a journal article in the search box. You will be able to check whether the Library provides access to the journal article you are looking for.

A16: Reference books, newspapers and the current issue of serials; Materials from Special Collections, CFA Collection and CPA Collection.

A17: The red dot indicates that the book is a Course Reserve material which can merely be borrowed for two hours at a time. They must be returned directly to the G/F Service Counter.

A18: You may make a copy of a document that is smaller than A4 or A3 size. Before photocopying, please select appropriate paper tray that is based on size and orientation of your document.

A19: Any room booking which is not claimed after 15 minutes will be made available to other users. Please check in to your room in time to secure your reservation.

A20: Yes, the Library serves Affiliate Card Members. After graduation, you can continue to access to the Library and use library materials from the Collections by holding a valid HSUHK Affiliate Card. While visiting the Library, you can access most of the e-resources available on-site.

Please visit our Affiliate Card Members services page for more information.

A21: If you are a full-time academic staff, management and support staff, postgraduate student or undergraduate student, you are eligible to borrow the cards and benefit from the privileges of other University Libraries.

For the details of loan policy of the Library Card services, please visit our page on Access Resources @ Other University Libraries (https://library.hsu.edu.hk/access-resources-other-university-libraries/).

A22: If you are a full-time academic staff, management and support staff, postgraduate student or final year undergraduate student (with written recommendation by academic staff), you are eligible to borrow the card and enjoy the privileges of other University Libraries.

For the details of loan policy of the Library Card services, please visit our page on Access Resources @ Other University Libraries (https://library.hsu.edu.hk/access-resources-other-university-libraries/).

A23: The Document Delivery Service (DDS) is to obtain materials which are not available at Library from document services suppliers. Full-time academic staff, research assistants, and postgraduate students are the eligible users. Please submit the online form to request for document delivery service.

For more information about the service, please visit our DDS page (https://library.hsu.edu.hk/document-delivery-service/)

A24: All types of resources, including books, journal articles and multi-media materials and more, with the option to search beyond Library collections. Some resources are listed as below:

• most journal articles from databases
• newspaper articles from databases
• e-books
• other electronic resources from open source

A25: All Library items which are found in the Classic Catalogue can also be found in SearchPlus. You can check holdings and current loans, renew borrowed materials, place requests on items and cancel a request on either platform.

A26: SearchPlus allows you to search across a wide range of Library resources which are held in the Library collection and Library’s subscribed electronic databases.  Those resources may not be indexed in Google, and therefore they are not searchable on Google.

A27: SearchPlus is a powerful search engine that provides fast and effective access to Library resources, but the content of individual journals and some specialised databases may not be searchable in SearchPlus. The inclusion of journal and database content in SearchPlus is determined by the arrangements between publishers and SearchPlus.

Below is the list of Library subscribed databases that are not searchable in SearchPlus:

• Britannica Academic
• Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP)
• China Statistical Yearbooks Database (中國統計年鍳數據庫)
• Communication Abstracts via EBSCO
• COMPUSTAT
• CSMAR Solution
• CulturalGrams Online via ProQuest
• European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 via EBSCO
• Factiva
• Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia via EBSCO
• HKET.com
• Hong Kong Tax Library
• HSUHK Business Translation Index
• Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System (I/B/E/S)
• Lexis China
• LexisNexis Academic
• LexisNexis HK
• Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts via EBSCO
• Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts
• Naxos Music Library
• Naxos Video Library
• Newspaper Source via EBSCO
• Oxford English Dictionary Online
• Oxford Index
• Passport
• Primary Search via EBSCO
• Refworks
• SCMP.com
• SSRN
• Teacher Reference Center via EBSCO
• Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS)
• Westlaw Hong Kong
• WiseNews / WiseSearch

A28: Certain ways can bring precise search results from SearchPlus:

• Search for a Phrase

• To search for a phrase by typing quotation marks around the phrase. For example, type “global warming” rather than global warming as one term.

• Use advanced search

• Search specifically within the title, author/creator, subject, ISBN, ISSN. You can also narrow down your search by publication date, material type and language.

• Refine your search results

• On your search results page, you can filter them with a set of “Tweak My Results” categories on the right-hand side of the search results screen. These allow you to narrow your results by selecting one facet value in the categories of “Topic”, “Creator”, “Collection”, “Creation Date”, “Resources Type”, “Language” and “Journal Title”.

A29: You may click on the “MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT” button (at the top right corner) to check current loans, renew items, check for fines and hold requests. You will also have access to other features such as “Search History” and “Saved Searches”.

A30: You should sign in to “MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT” before making a request for a particular item. Then, locate the item you wish to request. Click on the “Holdings” tab, under the “Request Options”, Click “Hold” to complete the request process. When items’ status is available on the shelf, the request item function is not applicable.

A31: For individual records, click on the envelope icon which is to the right of the preferred record, the result will be sent to your designated email address. When there are multiple records you wish to send, begin by clicking on the pin icon at the right of the preferred records to place these items in the “my favourites” (Please sign in to save items in “my favourites” for future sessions). Click the “my favourites” button (at the top right corner) to view your marked records. Email or print selected items in your list.