The National Library Board of Singapore has expanded its digital offering during the circuit breaker period. This also is in conjunction with World Book Day, 23 April 2020.
Minister for Communications and Information, Mr S Iswaran published a Facebook post on the National Library Board’s expanded digital offerings to Singaporeans who are quarantined or practising social distancing measures at this time.
Additional Digital Resources For Citizens to Access at Home
“The role of our libraries has become all the more salient in these unprecedented times with COVID-19 and the circuit breaker period. Our libraries are playing an even more important role now to ensure that Singaporeans remain mentally active and engaged through reading and learning, while staying at home. Digitalisation helps to catalyse this” Mr Iswaran wrote.
The National Library Board has enhanced accessibility to its resources and services by moving its talks, exhibitions and programmes online.
“For example, all its talks, programmes and activities have been moved online. I am especially heartened by the positive response to NLB’s digital storytelling sessions for children on Facebook Live. More than 66,000 people have tuned in to the 14 sessions across the 4 languages organised so far. For adults and seniors, there are various online talks and exhibitions that they can access from the comfort of their home. Such online initiatives allow us to continue our pursuit for learning and knowledge while staying home and being online” said the Minister for Communications and Information
The Library Board’s mobile app has also been enhanced to allow patrons easier and quicker access to resources through unlimited checkouts on selected items and shorter waiting times.
National Library Board has over 600,000 E-books Available Online
The digital offerings have been expanded to cater to everyone – across all demographics and in the four languages. NLB has thus expanded its eBook collection to cater to different needs and choices.
8,000 eBooks with unlimited checkouts were added across various genres including local titles, classics and children’s books and languages which brings NLB’s eBooks collection to over 600,000.