Foreword

 

Initiated by the CityU Library in 2005, the OAPS project strives to provide students a quality platform to share their findings with peers during their academic pursuits and to engage them with the global community. The year 2014 marks the ninth anniversary of the project, and we are most delighted to have another two academic departments joining us for the first time, including the Department of Management and the School of Creative Media. With the support from departments, there has been a steady growth of papers since 2006. The number of papers received this year has increased by 34%, and the accumulated number of papers at CityU in the past nine years has risen to 365 with contributions by 525 students affiliated with 20 departments.

 

The OAPS papers have been well used by the scholarly community. Not only can OAPS papers be accessed locally and remotely from the Library Catalogue, but they are also searchable on major search engines and digital library alliances. The usage of OAPS papers is increasing. The fulltext download of OAPS papers grows 108% in last two years. A citation search also reveals that quite a number of CityU OAPS papers have been cited by scholars and students worldwide.

 

Through engaging students with the global community, it is also hoped that OAPS can serve as one of the means to broaden their horizons and nurture their multicultural sensitivities. This year, we are pleased to invite a student from Kansai University of Japan, whose paper written in Chinese was recommended for the Project, will join with other awardees to share his writing experience at the Ceremony.

 

In recent years, the Project has been making steady strides towards internationalism and has developed partnerships with a rising number of premier universities worldwide, including in the USA and in various regions in the Asia-Pacific Rim, such as Mainland China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. As of April 2014, 3,113 papers have already been collected among member institutions, including City University of Hong Kong, University of Southern California, Waseda University, Kansai University, Nanyang Technological University, National United University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xiamen University and Feng Chia University. The OAPS Project will continue to expand and branch out to more local and overseas institutions.

 

One of the Library’s core roles is to equip students with knowledge and skills to become competent scholars and professionals. To achieve this end, the OAPS will continue to endeavor in training our students to have high academic aspirations and recognizing their achievements in an increasingly global society.The achievement of OAPS would not be possible without the gracious support of our partner institutions, the dedication of faculty members and the unfailing support from academic departments. Taking this opportunity, we would like to congratulate this year’s award-winning students and wish that their enthusiasm for learning will thrive with their academic pursuits.

 

Professor Steve Ching
University Librarian