Not a possibility, but a reality: sharing unique content via Open Access

Libraries are fully aware that sharing unique collections through open access is becoming critically important. Many institutions have attempted to take on the task of digitizing their local unique content in their collections and present it openly accessible to the world. This paper describes the award winning Chinese Medicine Digital Project which has been developed by the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) Library in close collaboration with faculty in the School of Chinese Medicine at HKBU to integrate traditional unique content of Chinese medicine into the learning, teaching and research of the HKBU community and beyond. Research shows that access to Chinese medicinal content has been limited and scarce. In recent years, there has witnessed an increasing demand for health information related to Chinese medicine throughout the world. Making such unique content available to the world is of great significance to scholars, doctors as well as those who need medical treatment. Because of the open access nature to the unique content, these databases have been accessed by many users around the world with valuable information not otherwise available to them. They serve as examples of how knowledge can be managed and packaged in a way that provides easy and convenient access to users. The lifecycle of these databases illustrates how Chinese medicinal information is created and recreated, organized, disseminated, preserved and more importantly openly accessed. The success of such projects can serve as a model which demonstrates how technology is used to present the unique content in a local context to the outside world and at the same time to enhance learning, teaching and research of the institution.