Information and Library Center (VNU Hanoi): Ready to welcome new students

Deputy Director of the Information and Library Center, Vu Thi Kim Anh

USSH students have the highest number of visits to the LIC digital library at VNU.

Could you please introduce the Information and Library Center of Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and the system of materials related to the social sciences and humanities at the Center?

Established in February 1997, after more than 20 years of development, the Information and Library Center (the Center) has become a leading library in the country. The Center's mission is to provide information, library, and documentation services and products to all staff, lecturers, and students at Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The Center has a system of four Information Service offices located at training facilities and dormitories belonging to Vietnam National University, Hanoi: General Information Service (144 Xuan Thuy Street, Cau Giay District); Foreign Language Information Service (2 Pham Van Dong Street, Cau Giay District); Natural Sciences and Social Sciences Information Service (334-336 Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District); and Me Tri Information Service (182 Luong The Vinh Street, Thanh Xuan District).

Students can access information at the Information and Library Center.

The center currently manages over 7,000 m².², of which more than 4,800 m²The area is dedicated to the reader service area and document storage with thousands of bookshelves and over 1,200 seats. The Center's technological infrastructure includes a cluster of 15 high-configuration, modern, high-performance servers; 250 workstations along with an intelligent network system with connection speeds of 100/1000 Mbps and 2 Scanrobot 2.0 MDS Treventus digitizing systems; and a smart library equipment system including magnetic gates, 24/7 book receiving and returning machines, and self-checking machines...

Regarding printed materials, the Center currently has 114,000 book titles (400,000 copies) and 400 journal titles. In terms of digital resources, the Center has 55,000 digital learning materials (textbooks and e-books), 31,000 theses and dissertations, and 2,000 scientific research projects. In addition, the Center also has external digital resources including 53,000 e-books and 4,100 e-journals from databases such as Springer, ScienceDriect, Bookboon, and Mgraw-Hill; and 10 accounts from the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Information (which allow access to other databases).

Specifically for Social Sciences, the Center has 7,788 internally generated digital document files (theses, dissertations, scientific research projects, etc.); 4,120 textbooks, and 9,274 reference materials in its subject database.

In terms of ranking of digital libraries of internally generated documents in Vietnamese universities, the Center ranked first (in 2019) and 75th in the world (May 2020).

General reading room at the Information and Library Center

It is known that over the past year, the Center has undertaken many innovative activities such as digitizing learning materials and adding new books and learning resources. Could you please elaborate on these innovations?

In line with the digital transformation policy of Vietnam National University, Hanoi, since the beginning of 2019, the Center has significantly strengthened the development and provision of digital library services. Specifically, it has promoted the digitization of existing materials in the Center's book collection and materials collected from training units under Vietnam National University, Hanoi; and simultaneously built a digital learning resource database (textbooks, reference books) for all disciplines of the 12 training units. As a result, staff and students of Vietnam National University, Hanoi can easily access materials for each discipline and subject on computers and phones, anywhere, anytime.

In addition, the Center has strengthened its communication efforts, especially during the social distancing period due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure that a large number of staff, lecturers, and students of Hanoi National University have access to digital learning resources to serve their learning, teaching, and research needs. Furthermore, the Center actively introduces and guides staff, lecturers, and students of Hanoi National University in installing and using the VNU LIC e-book reading software on mobile devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets.

The effectiveness of the aforementioned key activities resulted in an impressive increase in the number of digital library visits in 2019, reaching 5,524,735 visits (compared to 2,991,784 visits in 2018). Notably, the number of visits from students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities was the highest in the Hanoi National University system, totaling 242,388 visits, an increase of 11,576% compared to 2018 (2,076 visits).

How would you assess the level of reader satisfaction with the quality of the Information and Library Center's activities recently?

At the end of 2019, the Center conducted a survey on the knowledge base of students at Hanoi National University, with the participation of nearly 4,000 people. The results showed that 49% of students' knowledge came from the library; 40% from lecturers; and 11% from other sources. Regarding satisfaction, over 90% of survey participants were satisfied with the library's quality.

Automated book return system at the Information and Library Center.

Creating the best conditions for new students.

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities recently welcomed over 2,000 new students. What preparations has the Information and Library Center made to welcome these students?

To welcome students of the QH-2020-X cohort, the entire Vietnam National University, Hanoi in general, and students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular, the Center has actively implemented the following: Sending official letters to all training units from the beginning of July 2020 requesting cooperation in library services for the 2020-2021 academic year; proactively proposing meetings with the leaders of all training units within Vietnam National University, Hanoi to exchange and agree on the content and procedures for coordinating library information services, especially the development, promotion, and provision of digital learning materials. The Center also contacted the student management departments of the universities to coordinate plans for guiding first-year students on library use, preparing the necessary facilities, equipment, internet access, organizing the document collection, updating essential content for new students on the website, and printing 12,000 leaflets to distribute to first-year students. Specifically for the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Center sent a soft copy of this content to be integrated into the university's student handbook.

Group study room at the Information and Library Center

Could you be more specific about the benefits offered to new students?

The Center dedicates all resources and creates all the necessary conditions to provide materials and services to students. Specifically, for digital materials, students are provided with accounts and have the right to access all these resources anytime, anywhere. For printed materials, students can borrow up to 8 textbooks (150 days/book) and 3 reference books (10 days/book) at any of the Center's 4 Information Services rooms.

Students can use the VNU LIC app installed on their phones instead of a plastic card to check in at the library, and even borrow printed materials if the Center has received student data from their training unit. And of course, they can use the Center's library space free of charge.

Textbook lending room at the Information and Library Center

With such innovation and thorough preparation, how does she expect the Center to meet the learning needs of students at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities?

The Center has made great efforts to innovate; however, for these innovations to be as effective as desired, the Center greatly needs the support of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. I hope that, with the enthusiastic cooperation of the University, in the coming time, the number of digital library uses in 2020 will not stop at 243,388 as in 2019. In my opinion, this increase is synonymous with the acceptance and satisfaction of the Information and Library Center's ability to meet the needs of students in general and students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular. And this is what makes us happy.

Thank you very much, Madam!

Please refer to the information about services at LIC.