Some 150 library staff and leaders from across China and the Asia-Pacific gathered at NYU Shanghai for the 2026 Sino-Foreign Joint Venture University Library & Asia Pacific Business School Librarians’ Group (APBSLG) Conference from October 21 to 23.
First held in 2014, the annual conference brings together librarians and administrators from China’s Sino-foreign joint venture universities to share and address trends in library services and academics. For the first time, this year’s conference was organized jointly by NYU Shanghai Library and the Asia Pacific Business School Librarians’ Group (APBSLG), whose members represent senior librarians from leading business schools in the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the course of three days, the conference focused on the theme of cultivating the library of tomorrow, exploring how academic libraries respond to evolution of the role of libraries within a changing academic landscape. Representatives from 11 Sino-foreign joint venture universities – including the University of Nottingham Ningbo China; Duke Kunshan University; Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; and Singapore Management University – were in attendance.
“Every year, we come together to navigate challenges that are unique to our institutions and to share knowledge and experience openly without holding anything back,” said NYU Shanghai Director of Library Xiaojing Zu, who opened the event. In her speech, she asked how libraries can stay rooted in higher education’s core mission of teaching, learning and research, uphold their role as stewards of information, evidence and truth, and sustain the trust of users.
Co-chair of the Asia Pacific Business School Librarians’ Group Sumita Govindan from Singapore Management University Libraries acknowledged that academic libraries nowadays face sweeping shifts from AI advancement to evolving research and teaching models. She said the conference provided a timely platform for attendees to exchange their experiences and findings.
NYU Shanghai Provost Bei Wu welcomed the participants, affirming the important role that libraries play in connecting academic systems and supporting collaboration across cultures.
“As a researcher myself, I owe part of my academic achievements to the rich resources and services libraries provide,” she said. She also pointed to generative AI as one of the most immediate challenges to long-established practices in teaching, learning, and research.
In the keynote panel followed, library leaders from NYU’s three degree-granting campuses drew their own experiences and cross-campus collaborations to explore how they build resilience.
NYU Dean of Libraries Kristina Rose highlighted recent disruptions such as policy changes, the lingering effects of the pandemic, generative AI, and climate change. NYU Abu Dhabi Library Associate Director for Research Services and Strategy Beth Russell argued that libraries must move toward “radical resilience,” reshaping strategy, spaces, and services to lead through uncertain times.
AI was the key topic throughout the discussion. Rather than viewing it solely as a threat, the three speakers said it has made skills such as information literacy, source evaluation, bias detection, and understanding of information production even more important than ever.
NYU Shanghai Director of Library Xiaojing Zu encouraged librarians to communicate their impact more effectively. “We are very good at doing the work, but we are not always good at talking about it,” she said. She shared experiences from NYU Shanghai’s Library, saying they approach resilience in three areas: operational, technological, and financial. Its AI approach is to “start small, think large,” while encouraging students to avoid cognitive off-load in the learning process. The Library has also created an AI working group to build staff confidence with the technology.
Participants engaged in lightning talks, sharing best practices for contributing to student success, supporting academic research and teaching with AI-assisted tools, reimagining library spaces, and strengthening collaborations between libraries. Programs offered participants practical training in academic presentation skills, leadership, literature searching, and the use of emerging technologies.
For Rebecca Maniates, a librarian at NYU Abu Dhabi, who attended the conference for the first time, the gathering provided plenty of inspiration for how to utilize library space and engage with faculty.
She said she was struck by how libraries throughout the region are finding ways to help students navigate a rapidly changing information environment. “Technology is shaping how we engage with our users and, in a sense, our own place in the university as well.”
May Yan, director of the Library and Estates at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China said that as relatively new institutions in China, Sino-foreign joint venture universities share common characteristics and face similar challenges.
“We meet once a year to look back at the key issues that have emerged over the past year and to think about what may lie ahead,” she said. “The conference is about sharing experience, learning from one another, and working together to respond to common challenges.”
Yuhanis Yusoff, associate director of the Tanoto Research & Learning Hub at INSEAD’s Asia campus, said the value of the conference lies in meeting face to face and sharing best practices.
“It’s the personal stories, the personal experiences that everybody shares,” she said. “We can’t be learning by ourselves. We have to be learning as a community.”