A local historian of Hong Kong commented Monday that the possible shutting down of the British Council library in Hong Kong at the year's end does not matter, since Hong Kong's public libraries can always provide books one wants.
Arthur Hacker, who is also a former Hong Kong government civil servant and Hong Kong resident who lives in the scenic Discovery Bay on Lantau, was well remembered by the Hong Kong community for his acerbic criticism on the British Council in Hong Kong in the local and international press in 1997 for weeding out about 20,000 valuable books on English literature and arts back then.
His comment came after British Council sources in Hong Kong told Xinhua that by Dec. 31 this year, the council is expected to wipe out its library or reduce it to a tiny reading room due to the lack of funding from the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth office.
Hacker once said he was once very angry about the council's move in 1997 because he thought such a move meant the local Chinese community would have a less-than-informative source for research purposes.
But now when asked by Xinhua to comment on the possible wiping out of the British Council library here by the end of Dec. 31 this year due to the lack of funding again, Hacker remarked, "Now the closing of the library would mean very little," adding the lack of the "valuable materials" there has substantially lowered the library's significance.
Although Hacker still sounded satirical about the possible loss of library support to a language institution's promotion of arts and culture, he stressed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (HKSAR) public library system will suffice in supporting local academic research.
Hacker praised the public library system here for always being capable of providing him with the sorts of books he wants for historical research, such as those on western architecture, history and literature.
"You can always find things you want; only that you need to travel to libraries located in different districts to get what you want," he said.
Asked which public library he loves to frequent most, he named the City Hall library. "At the City Hall library, you can search for books based on the subject headings. But at the Central library, unless you have the book title, you need to use the computer catalogue system," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2002)
