Public Consultation on the Libraries and Archives Plan 2021-2025

National Library Board (NLB)

Consultation Period: 11 Jun 2020 - 31 Jul 2020

Status: Closed

INTRODUCTION

Libraries and archives function as gateways to knowledge and culture, playing a fundamental role in society by supporting learning, literacy and education. They help shape new ideas and allow creativity to thrive in a knowledge-driven society.

2. NLB serves our community by providing a trusted and accessible network of 26 Public Libraries across Singapore. Together with the National Library and the National Archives of Singapore, these are community spaces for friends and family to gather in their pursuit of knowledge and love of reading. NLB also nurtures a deeper appreciation and awareness of Singapore’s history through programmes and collections.

3. Over the past twenty years, NLB has constantly evolved to meet the changing needs of our patrons and partners. Our three previous master plans have seen NLB embark on a range of new initiatives, from developing new collections, fostering important partnerships to putting in place a digital infrastructure to support Singapore’s knowledge ecosystem. 

4. We are now working on a fresh blueprint, titled The Libraries and Archives Plan 2021–2025, that will allow us to prepare and plan for the future needs of our stakeholders. We started formulating the ideas in this document before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore and around the world.  The temporary closing of our libraries and archives during the circuit breaker period called for a rethink of our service delivery methods.  It prompted us to accelerate the piloting of ideas that we were developing in order for us to continue engaging with our patrons and providing them easy access to resources.  For example, we organised online programmes, seeded digital learning communities and curated learning resources for adults.   

5. Globally, libraries and archives are finding new ways to respond to the pandemic and its longer term implications. The full implications of COVID-19 on libraries and archives are not entirely clear, but we believe that the emphasis on preparing citizens for a digital future and the need for learning will remain.  We will continue to evolve and adapt in a post COVID-19 world. 

6. However, the plan is not complete without the views and feedback of our most important stakeholder – the Singapore public. Your views will help shape our plans, allow us to serve your needs better and enable us to create the libraries and archives of tomorrow.

7. This consultation paper will set out the key ideas of the Libraries and Archives Plan 2021–2025. These will form the core of our strategy and we hope you can share your thoughts on what we have planned. 

OUR OBJECTIVES

8. The Libraries and Archives Plan 2021–2025 is about understanding the future of NLB’s customer needs and developing a plan to meet them in a changing world. As such, we have engaged various internal and external stakeholder engagements to solicit their views. Through these channels, we created four strategic thrusts that will help us achieve our vision.

1. STRATEGIC THRUST ONE: INSPIRE LEARNING COMMUNITIES
   We create opportunities for people to learn and discover together, at different stages of their lives, igniting the joy of learning, and thus helping to create a vibrant and informed society.

2. STRATEGIC THRUST TWO: CONNECT WITH HISTORY AND CULTURE
   We collect our experiences today to become memories for tomorrow. Through different platforms, we hope to display our shared history and culture in a vibrant manner.

3. STRATEGIC THRUST THREE : DELIVER CUSTOMISED AND PERSONALISED SERVICES
   We want to personalise content and seamlessly deliver it both physically and digitally to our users to cultivate learning and knowledge discovery through usage of technology.

4. STRATEGIC THRUST FOUR: EXPAND AND EMPOWER THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS
   We will foster partnerships at the individual and institutional level to scale-up our services and meet the needs of different users. 

9. These initiatives take into account the external and internal considerations to support NLB’s plans. They are fundamental mindset shifts both in the way we aspire to deliver better services to patrons and in enabling our people to be discerning, well-equipped and agile. 

YOUR VIEWS MATTER

10. Libraries and archives are important parts of our lives. As focal points for learning in the community, libraries and archives help to create an educated and informed society while inculcating a lifelong passion for learning. With your help, we can shape our libraries and archives to better fit your needs.

11. More details of the Libraries and Archives Plan 2021-2025 are available in the Annex. 

SHARE YOUR VIEWS

Visit https://go.gov.sg/a89661 to tell us how we can serve your needs better. 

Annex The Libraries and Archives Plan 2021-2025 [PDF, 5,152 KB]