Singapore 

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Formal Name:    National Library

Name of Librarian:    Mr. R. Ramachandran
Address:                   91 Stamford Road, Singapore 178896
Phone:    (65) 3323255   Fax:    (65) 3371470
E-mail:   ref@nlb.gov.sg

 The National Library of Singapore was established in 1958 following the passage of the Raffles Library Ordinance of 1957 under which the Raffles Library, a subscription library, became a public and national library. It was called the Raffles National Library until 1960. The National Library inherited the legal deposit functions that had been in force since 1886 as well as archival functions that had been added in 1938. With the National Archives and Records Center Act of 1967, the archives were separated from the Library and administered as a separate department but continued to be housed in the National Library until 1970 and headed by the same Director until 1978.

The National Library System consists of:
 The National Library: Central Lending Library, Reference Services Division.  Eight full-time branches.
 "As a public library, the National Library provides library materials and information in the four official languages for members of the public.  This is done throught the loan of books and the provision of reference and information services at the Central Library and eight Branch Libraries which are fully computerized and linked together through the National Library Network or NALINET.  Membership is free for Singaporeans and permanent residents; others are required to pay an annual subscription."

 - Special research collections for which applications for consultation may have to be made, such as:
  S.E. Asia Collection
  Arts Resource Centre Collection
  Asian Collection of Children's Books
  United Nations Collection
  Newspaper Collection
  Microfilm Collection
  Map Collection
  Picture Collection

 - The home reading collection which includes fiction and non-fiction books and magazines in Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English
 - Audio-visual services, with a collection of films, filmstrips, slides, records, audio and video cassettes and compact discs for use in the library

 "The Library serves as the central agency for the Singapore Integrated Library Automated Services (SILAS).  Since the official launch of SILAS in April 1987, 41 academic, government and statutory board libraries had online access to 6.1 million bibliographic records in the SILAS database.  SILAS maintains a national union catalogue that shows the location of library materials owned by libraries participating in the network.
 In 1993, the National Library's first Singapore National Bibliography (SNB) CD-ROM was produced.  In 1994, the second SNB CD-ROM issued included 28,340 records in roman script catalogued during the period 1967 to 1993.  The publication 'Singapore Periodical Index 1992' was printed in early 1994.
 The Library also serves as the national agency for the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system and assigns ISBNs to publishers for their locally published books.  It also serves as the national centre for the International Standard Serial Numbers to publishers for their locally published serials.

Bibliographic and other services

 - Signapore national bibliography
 - Singapore perodicals index
 - SILAS union catalogues (comfiche)
 - National Library Union list of serials
 - Accessions lists
 - ISBN centre for Singapore books
 - ISSN centre for Singapore serials

Reference Services Division

 - Reference, information and referral services
 - Reference collection of books, periodicals, indexes, catalogues, atlases, etc.
 - CD-ROM titles to facilitate literature searches
 - Reprographic services, including microfilm, photocopy, photoprint orders
 - Inter-library loan service
 - Faxed urgent document delivery service

Services Offered

Loan Services
 - Lending, reference and information services
 - online public access catalogue
 - online reservation service
 - telephone enquiry service
 - booklists on various subjects
 - photocopying service
 - bulk loan of books to organizations and institutions
 - educational and information programmes
 - talks, exhibitions, and library tours for schools, clubs and other organizations

Singapore Integrated Library Automation Service (SILAS)

 SILAS is a national bibliographical agency and a network linking all major Government and academic libraries, co-ordinating and improving access to the library information resources of the nation.

SILAS Database Statistics

No. of online library users 51
No. of titles in database 5,977,148
No. of titles in union catalogue
 Books 1,119,539
 Serials 62,260
 AV materials 63,753
 Maps 167
 Computer files 2,753
 Archival & manuscripts 21,788

Staff 415
Books, Periodicals and 3,133,846
audio-visual materials
Membership 874,471
% of Population Served 31.23%
Hours of Service 593 per week
Budget for FY'94
Ordinary budget $20.8m
Dev't budget  $6.1m
Library budget/capita $7.4