About Rare & Special eZone

This eZone is the search and retrieval interface for accessing publicly available digitized materials from the HKUST Library’s University Archives and Special Collections. The digitization work commenced in April 2013, and materials are continually being added to the eZone.

Collections covering different themes will be processed and added to the eZone in coming years. Materials which have been selected for digitization illuminate significant stages of civilization development in the East and the West, and highlight where they overlapped. Among them you can find:

• Beautiful antique maps of China produced by European cartographers as early as the 16th Century
• Maps of China published in the early 20th Century and those by the Colonial Government of Japan in Taiwan
• Travelogs of China by westerners from the 16th to 19th centuries
• Rare books in the history of science, by revolutionary figures including Euclid, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Fourier, and more
• Rare thread-bound books published from the Qing Dynasty to the early 20th Century, revealing the human landscape of China in that era.

The collections also include HKUST archival materials and graduate theses.

The eZone lets you browse or search easily to discover and explore these treasured publications electronically. This is made possible by a generous donation from Dr Ko Pui-shuen in December 2012. Her donation has enabled the Library to digitize many materials previously kept from convenient access due to physical limitations. The high-quality images made available through the eZone will benefit and enlighten scholars as well as the public all over the world.

Should you have any questions about or suggestions for the eZone, please contact us at library@ust.hk.