Research Engagement: Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

Belt and Road is an economic initiative proposed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, which impacts many countries in the Belt and Road regions. At the University of Hong Kong, China and Belt and Road Economies is a recurrent topic under the designated strategically oriented research themes. This is an ideal topic to gain deeper insights into the shifting contexts in scholarly communication as well as recent library strategies to engage at a deeper level in supporting a strategic research theme. In today’s digital environment, facilitating access to the full range of local, external, virtual and collective resources organized around researchers’ workflow is not an option but a mandate. Grey literature presents an important dimension beyond the traditional scholarly resources in supporting this global interdisciplinary research theme. This paper will present the strategies of the HKU Libraries in providing the wide spectrum of scholarship in two research initiatives to address the broadening scope of contents for deeper research connections and engagement. An “inside-out” approach in addressing the widening scope of research collections and output has extended the spectrum of both academic and grey literature to provide stronger evidence and perspectives for any investigation and analysis.