GE JIANXIONG, a distinguished senior professor from Fudan University in Shanghai, has been appointed director of the library at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen), he announced on his social media Tuesday.

In his open letter posted on the library’s website, Ge expressed his intention to visit CUHK-Shenzhen’s various departments and colleges, and communicate with the faculty and students to enhance the library’s service to its readers.

In addition, he revealed plans to establish a permanent advisory committee for the library, comprising representatives from different departments, colleges, student associations, and graduate student associations.

As a Ph.D. supervisor at Fudan University’s Institute for Chinese Historical Geography Studies, Ge has previously served as director of Fudan University’s library from 2007 to 2014. He outlined his commitment to applying his professional expertise and experiences in research and teaching to organize lectures in the library.

“Since the age of 5, I have never left schools or universities, devoted to reading and always benefiting from libraries. Even though I am close to 80 years old now, I’m determined to continue reading and share the experience of reading with everyone. In April, I will conduct two lectures to interact with everyone,” he wrote in the open letter.

A Zhejiang native, Ge was born in 1945 and holds a Ph.D. in history. He is an established researcher in historical geography, Chinese history, population history, immigration history, cultural history, and environmental history, having published over 100 academic papers and dozens of books.

Offering more than 3,000 seats and over 80 seminar rooms, CUHK-Shenzhen’s library boasts a collection of 170,000 books, 2.12 million digital books, over 2,200 types of multimedia materials, 204 academic databases, and more than 300 service terminals.  (Cao Zhen)