OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council Conference 2012, National Library of Malaysia, 3-4 September 2012.

1. Peter E. Sidorko & Y.C. Wan
University of Hong Kong Libraries
4 September 2012

2.  Build a digital repository for the collection,
conservation, presentation and dissemination of Hong
Kong’s history, culture and heritage
 Collect from different sources materials in textual,
graphic, audiovisual forms and present on the web to
readers in an interactive and user-friendly way
 Provide free and open access to the general public,
students, teachers, and scholars, in Hong Kong and
other parts of the world

3.  Hong Kong in brief
 Key Collaborators
 Background
 The Project
 Deliverables
 Tasks Ahead
 Feedback

5.  Situated at the south-eastern tip of China
 A total area of 1,108 square kilometres, comprising
Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsular and the New
Territories
 A population of about 7.1 million, mainly ethnic
Chinese
 A Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s
Republic of China
 The world's most livable city, according to the
Economist’s annual livability index, 2012

6.  ‘A barren rock with hardly a house upon it’, some 170
years ago
 Ruled by the British for more than 150 years
 From a place of no particular importance to a financial,
trading and business centre
 A city with many histories, each written for its age,
with different audiences in mind and from different
points of view

7. Hong Kong Government
Hong Kong Jockey Club
Centre of Asian Studies &
University of Hong Kong Libraries,
The University of Hong Kong

8.  Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), the
government department which provides leisure and
cultural activities for the people of Hong Kong
 It operates the Hong Kong Public Libraries (76
libraries), Hong Kong Public Museum (18 museums),
civic centres, parks, performing venues, etc. all over
Hong Kong
 Education Bureau helps coordinate the School
Memories Programme

9.  One of the largest racing organizations in the world
 Operates on a not-for-profit business model whereby
its surplus goes to charity
 Over the past decade, it has donated an average of
US$128 million every year to charities and community
projects

10.  A research facility established in 1967 to promote
interdisciplinary research on Asian topics within the
University of Hong Kong
 Hong Kong Culture and Society programme was one of
the Centre’s three flagship programmes
 CAS was incorporated by the Hong Kong Institute for
the Humanities and Social Sciences on 1 July 2009

11.  Established in 1912 to contribute to the teaching,
learning, research and knowledge exchange pursuits of
the University of Hong Kong
 Its collection of Hong Kong materials, particularly
print ones, is the largest in Hong Kong
 Has been digitizing its contents since the mid-1990s
(http://lib.hku.hk/database/)
 Partnered with CAS on a number of Hong Kong-
related projects

12. From a Government Initiative
to a Collaborative Project

13.  Project initiated by Dr Patrick Ho, former Secretary for
Home Affairs of the Government, in 2002
 Conceived as Hong Kong’s response to UNESCO’s
Memory of the World Programme which calls for the
preservation of valuable archive holdings and library
collections all over the world through digitization to
guard against collective amnesia
 LCSD was asked to take up the ‘Hong Kong Memory’
project in mid-2004

14.  LCSD started the project by setting up a small project
team
 Proceeded with a feasibility study; awarded the
contract to a multinational hardware and software
company after conducting a tendering exercise
 The company took up the IT part and commissioned a
historian from CAS to look into content development

15.  Feasibility study report accepted in 2005 by LCSD,
which to our surprise, did not proceed with the project
with government funding
 HKJC was asked to fund the Hong Kong Memory
project instead
 HKJC was supportive to the funding request but
insisted that content development of the project
should carry more ‘weight’
 Recommendations set forth in the feasibility study
report were abandoned

16.  In early 2006, CAS & HKUL proposed to HKJC taking
up the project for 5 years: CAS handling contents and
HKUL providing IT support
 In August 2006, HKJC approved funding of up to
US$6.8 million to the project for the first 5 years (Nov
2006 to Oct 2011)
 At the same time, LSCD agreed taking up the project
after the first 5 years
 In 2011, HKJC agreed funding the project for 2 more
years (until Oct 2013) using the unspent balance of the
2006 allocation

17. Six Years On

18.  Project coordinators from CAS and HKUL are
responsible for daily administration of the project;
submit quarterly report to HKJC
 Hong Kong Memory Working Group advises on the
project’s development
 Joint Meeting on the Hong Kong Memory Project,
quarterly meetings coordinated by LCSD and attended
by representatives from LCSD, HKJC, CAS and HKUL

19.  Mostly full-time contract staff
 13 full-time staff are now working on the project, most
of them in content development
 Design work mostly outsourced
 High staff turnover

20.  Guidelines for applicants to prepare funding proposal
and budget
 7 assessment criteria for all funding proposals,
regardless of the amount of funding sought
 Funding evaluation and approval by a 6-member
evaluation committee
 An external assessor is required for funding request
exceeding US$25,000

21.  A key concern of the Government
 Engaged a legal consultant to compile a set of
copyright guidelines, based on copyright issues that
may be encountered by the project
 License agreement that allows the transfer of
copyrights from the University to the Government

22.  Project staff as contributors
 Individual researchers contribute, compile and
organize contents for the project with its funding
support
 Institutions/individuals contribute as content owners;
project staff compile and organize the contents for the
project
 HKUL as a contributor

23.  School Memory Programme, to promote the idea of
‘learning history by doing history’ to secondary school
students, by providing them training in collecting,
compiling, organizing and sharing school memories
 Our Digital Stories, to facilitate ordinary citizens to
record and share their real life history through digital
technology by providing a simple and user-friendly
digital tool and training workshops

24.  Developed by Beijing TRS Information Technology
Limited
 Hardware solutions from IBM

25. Other
Optional
Information Content
Applications
Retrieval Management
System System
e.g. Tagging,
blog, forum
Portal Administration System
25

26.  12 production servers, 1 backup server and a testing
and development server
 Support 500 concurrent users in the initial stage
 99.9% availability
 6T SAN storage
 Firewalls, with anti-virus, IPS and anti-spam

27.  2 Usability tests of the mock-up website (created by
the Greenstone software), conducted in 2009 in 2010
respectively
 The third usability test, conducted in 2011, was a trial
run of the production website

28.  Learning by doing
 Set up a company to host the website and transfer it to
LCSD after the first 5 years?
 Receive government subvention to continue with the
project after the first 5 years?
 Get LCSD involved in making major decisions?
 Involve in other Hong Kong history-related projects at the
request of HKJC?
 Cope with changes over the past 6 years

29. Hong Kong Memory
(https://www.hkmemory.hk/)

31.  The website acts as a depository of source materials in
different formats.
 The 30 thematic collections are categorized by subject
into 4 broad themes: (1) history and society, (2)
geography and environment, (3) art and culture and (4)
communication and media

32. Local Festivals Around the Year

33. Hong Kong Places

34. Calendar Posters of Kwan Wai-nung

35. Shaw Brothers’ Collection

36.  Formed with materials selected from one or more
collections and organized around a topic or a story
An Adventure in Kowloon
City During the Victorian Era

37.  A digital oral history archive which collects the life
experiences, perceptions and sentiments of Hong
Kong individuals
 Interviewees come from different age groups, places of
origin, ethnic backgrounds, social classes and
occupations
 Interviews cover a wide range of subjects such as
industry, education, community, housing, art and
culture, and social life in Hong Kong under the
Japanese occupation.

40.  2 satellite websites: one for schools (School Memories)
and the other for inter-generational activities (Our
Digital Stories)
 Encourage members of the community to use its
materials and to contribute to the project in various
ways

42. Next Year Will Be Crucial to the Project

43.  Roll out the collections and exhibitions in 2 to 3 phases
until the project is handed over to the government
 Work closely with HKJC and LCSD to publicize and
promote the website
 Engage the collaborators to help promote the website
 Meet the government’s timeframe/requirements in
handing over the web portal system
 Prepare and organize documentations of the project to
facilitate handing over

44.  Wrap up the project by completing the collections,
exhibitions, etc.
 Further enhance the website in response to user
comments in the remaining time
 Get LCSD staff prepared to take over the website and
further develop its contents
 Manage the ‘feelings’ of our project staff
“And Now, the End is Near …”

45. The Website Has Yet to Go Public

46. It took me several dollars to go to school
I had already dressed up to go to the game
centre to play Street Fighter
Why did you call me urgently? Luring me to
school to spend time on history
Why don’t we invite teachers and alumni
to sit down and have a chat?
Unveil the secrets of our school
The noble memories of our school will
not be lost for ever
Didn’t I love gaming? No more gaming for
the rest of my life?
Now I spend time at home on the history
webpage until my PC is hung
I forgot adding garlic whilst cooking, eating
baked beans instead
I have my heart in history now

47. Peter E. Sidorko (peters@hku.hk)
Y.C. Wan (ycwan@hku.hk)