5 . User Guide of Tsinghua University Libraries

Welcome to the best place of Tsinghua Yuan — Tsinghua University Library. Here we have magnificent buildings, abundant resources, convenient facilities, professional staff, considerate services, free atmosphere, etc. We are ready to provide warm welcomes, great supports, and best services for you.

Activate Borrowing Services

As a new user, you need to activate borrowing services by clicking on our homepage. The system adopts INFO system for identification. For freshmen, activating identity on the Electric ID Service System is required before first login. Post-doctors graduating from other universities shall submit a copy of their doctoral dissertation (博士毕业论文) together with their IC Card when making an application at the library card center to open your library privileges.

Borrowing Privileges

Upon presenting a valid university IC Card, you can access and borrow books according to the privileges listed below.

Online Reservation

You can reserve books that have been checked out to other users. You will be informed by E-mail or WeChat once the requested book is available. The requested books will be kept at loan desk only for 3 days.

Renewals

You may renew books online and the new return date is 8 weeks after the renewal day. You may renew books for many times, however, the longest period for general books is 32 weeks (224 days).

Fees for Late Return

Readers who fail to return the books by the due date will be charged ¥ 0.20 per day per book.

8 . Family plays an important part in much fiction, of course, but sometimes the short story form has offered us an insight into family life that the longer novel does not. Here are some for you to taste.

Prelude is one of Katherine Mansfield's longest and finest short stories. Because Prelude is a modernist short story, the emphasis is on characters rather than plots. Mansfield is using the Burnells’ house-move, and the period when they are busy settling into their new home, as a situation to observe family, women and class.

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) wrote just one novel and fewer than thirty short stories, yet she is regarded as an important twentieth-century American writer, with He among her most celebrated and critically praised works. An important theme of Porter’s work is the search for meaning in a modern and increasingly materialist world.

It is a short story by the Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), originally published in the New Yorker in 1948. The story centers on an elderly married Russian couple who move to the United States; their son is suffering from paranoid delusions (妄想症) and has been limited to a care center. Signs and Symbols focuses on the couple’s attempt to visit their son and its result.

This short story was originally published in 1949. It involves an adult speaking to a child. It is about a young boy who runs from home and goes down to the nearby lake, where he gets into a boat and refuses to speak to his mother. The story ends with the mother bonding with her son.

10 . “A good book is easy to find.” That is the message on a sign at Hernando Guanlao’s home in the Makati area of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.”

Guanlao has transformed his home into a free public library. Visitors can borrow the books inside for free. Guanlao says he hopes his library will inspire people to read, especially the young.

The 72-year-old told reporters that his library includes books that all students can enjoy —— from young children in Kindergarten to older students in grade 12. And also his library has books for readers of all interests. His home is filled with thousands of available books.

He calls his library Reading Club 2000. It contains many different kinds of books, or genres. Genre is a group of artistic, musical, or literary works that share a particular style, form, or content. “There are history books, novels, children stories in my library,” Guanlao added proudly, “and there are cookbooks, science fiction, and even medicine books.” Almost everyone can find a suitable book, all for free.

He started his library more than 20 years ago when he set 50 books on the walkway in front of his home. Guanlao’s collection has grown greatly over the years —— thanks to a continuous supply of books from donors.

Speaking of donors, he said, “They just leave boxes of books outside my house.” He has also started donating books himself. He sends reading materials to public schools in far-away communities.

Guanlao’s efforts come at a time when reading ability among students in the Philippines remains low. The Program for International Student Assessment reports that reading scores in the Philippines are among the lowest in the world. Students in the Philippines are also facing learning delays in math and science.

Guanlao is firm about his goals, “My mission is to give away used and donated books to others at no cost,” he said, “and to promote education through literature.”