Saint Francis University Library

Library Service Updates (February 2022)


Extension of Opening Hours

In order to meet the growing study and research needs of both full-time and part-time students, the Library has extended the opening hours on Saturdays since the beginning of October 2021. The new opening hours from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. offer a flexible alternative to users who may not be able to visit the Library on weekdays.

During the revision week and examination period from 20 December 2021 to 11 January 2022, the Library further extended the opening hours to 10:00 p.m. on weeknights so as to accommodate the additional demand for services.

It is also worth noting that, for the first time since its official opening, the Library opened on a public holiday (27 December 2021) to provide regular services for users.

Throughout the revision week and examination period, high usage rates were recorded in multiple time slots.


The Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When the elevator doors open on the level 4 of the CIHE campus, the first thing that catches your eye upon entering the Learning Commons is probably the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Installed near the entrance, the statue is erected in commemoration of the mother of Jesus Christ. Set against a blue-sky background, it is placed in an elevated position on a white marble base surrounded by beautiful flowers.


Christmas Celebrations

To create a festive atmosphere for the Christmas season and the New Year, a six-foot tall Christmas tree embellished with flashing colour lights and shiny ornaments has been put on display at the entrance of the Learning Commons since early December 2021. Other delightful objects are also exhibited to enhance the sense of joy and happiness. The staff and students are keen to take photos with the giant tree.


Round tables with Power Sockets

To support the increasing collaborative e-learning needs of students, the Library has added 3 round tables with power sockets to the Learning Commons. Do feel free to use all these facilities for individual study or group discussion purposes.


Additional Water Dispenser at the CBCC Library

In addition to the water dispenser at the Learning Commons, the Library has installed a new one near the SEN reserved table at the CBCC Library. The provision of a dispenser on each of the library premises will offer greater convenience to users.


Institutional Repository

Officially launched on 15 November 2021, the Institutional Repository archived thousands of publications produced by members of the CIHE community. The holdings include journal articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and others. The repository provides a platform where scholars and researchers can share and browse useful resources that will support their academic and educational endeavours.


EndNote Workshops

To help improve the quality of research papers, two EndNote workshops were held in early December 2021 in dual mode (both face-to-face and Zoom). The primary purpose was to demonstrate how the reference management software could be used to extract bibliographical data from various sources and to convert them into academic references that were widely accepted in the scholarly community.

If you would like to download the software for free and learn the basic referencing skills, please refer to Library Guides – EndNote or join our workshops in the second semester.


Enhancement of E-Resources

The Library strives to provide a wide variety of e-resources to meet the learning, teaching and research needs of users in different subject disciplines. Recently, the Library has subscribed to the following e-databases:

E-Databases Introduction
Academic Search Ultimate An upgrade of Academic Search Complete, this is a multi-disciplinary research database that provides more than 12,000 full-text periodicals, books, reports, conference papers and videos in nearly every academic discipline
JSTOR A digital archive of scholarly journals and primary sources in Humanities, Business and Social Sciences, covering full-text articles of more than 2,600 journals from 1,200 publishers
Visible Body Physiology & Pathology A 3D anatomy learning tool that covers nearly 6,000 3D anatomy models, 50 physiology topics and over 50 conditions in cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems, which enable students, clinicians and researchers to explore how the core processes of the human body work
APA PsycINFO A citation database published by the American Psychological Association that provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature, covering diverse areas in applied psychology, developmental psychology, personality and psychological disorders
Active Reading An interactive learning tool for developing reading skills from elementary to advanced levels, with video introductions, controlled practices and exercises on various themes such as prediction, vocabulary strategies, inference, skimming and topic sentences
Clear Pronunciation 1 (Sounds) An integrated database that consists of audio clips, videos and interactive exercises that help learners drill and practice the 43 English phonemes: vowels, consonants and diphthongs
Clear Pronunciation 2 (Speech) A database that provides a wide range of accent and pronunciation models to help learners recognise and accurately produce word stress, sentence stress, connected speech and intonation

Users can now get access to more than 170 e-databases in different subjects in the Database List of the Library Guides both on and off campus.