Do You Know Your Music Students’ Information Needs and Library Usage Behaviors? Interview with the Music Librarian of the Hong Kong Baptist University

Abstract

The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is one of the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong that offers degree programs in Music. Supporting the teaching, learning and research needs of the Music Department is Katie Lai (Image 1) – who is currently serving as the Music Liaison Librarian, and the Head of Acquisitions Services at the HKBU Library (Image 2). In the following interview, Katie shares with readers her unique experiences, as well as challenges faced in building a music collection, consisting of Western classical, Asian traditional and world music. In addition, she will discuss the changing roles of music libraries and librarians in an environment that is dominated by online mobile technologies. Could we begin this interview by first introducing yourself, for example, your professional training and education background? For example, what did you study for your bachelor and master’s degree at university? I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from University of WisconsinMilwaukee, USA, and both my Master of Music in Chamber Music and Master of Information and Library Studies from McGill University, Canada. Why did you choose to work in the library area? I have never thought that I would become a librarian because I have studied music throughout. When I was in Wisconsin doing my bachelor’s degree, I had a group of friends from Hong Kong and one of them was the Associate Dean of the Library School there. Of course, he kept telling us how good their library program was, and we should consider library studies. At that time, I did not think I would go for it. But when I almost finished my master’s in Music, I thought I should give it a go. That was how I started my study in Library and Information Science. Could you tell us about your career path to becoming the Music Librarian at HKBU? After the library degree, I worked as the Performance Librarian in the Performance Library of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, overseeing the score and parts collections for large ensembles at McGill. A