Freetoblog.blogspot.com: Exploration of the New National Library

What is your first impression to a library? Dark, dingy, boring, deathly pale zombie liked librarians walking silently around. Dusty books kept of the shelves with cobwebs. Nothing but thick collections of gothic books cramped up in every single shelve space. They may be the valid for libraries during the 1970- 1990 but let history live in the past. Behold the new generation libraries of today.

Although the latest National Library has been opened for almost half a year, I never really found time to enter and explore. So, after months of procrastination, Jer and mavis got me down to explore and experience the hype about the newest state of the art building at Victoria street on ~~18 Dec 05~~ 17 Dec 05. This library was constructed to replace the old red brick wall library at stamford road.The library building itself was really tall and it stretched way above 17 stories high. Impressive, considering that 17 (or more) stories were nothing but library exhibitions, galleries, books, drama centres, historical references and etc...

My first impression upon entering the library was like... "Woah... Almost 70% of the external architecture was made up of glass and metal. Totally futuristic. There were almost no sign of bricks and the ugly grey concrete. Just white, black, silver and transparent materials. Simplistically classy.

Futuristic Architecture (1)

Futuristic Architecture (2)

Upon entering, one will be overwhelmed by its massiveness. Warm lights made the place comfy and art pieces displayed gave the place an aura of tranquility.

Library entrance view from top level

Drama Centre

There were interactive exhibitions, level after level showing the stuff ranging from history to modern day facilities and services provided by the library. To be honest, I was never a fan of libraries until today. There are so many unique things to explore at every corner. You just have to see these exhibits!

One of the hanging banners at the exhibits

Funky banner hung above another exhibit

Traditional library cards used almost 2 decades back

A historical exhibit

Any idea what this device is?

Ancient tap relic?

It's a antique book press!! Initially, I thought it was some ancient tap from some sewage system. Haha. Anyway, this device was used by librarians to repair old and tattered books in the past. Kudos to all those librarians who must have spent lots of time repairing books which shared a wealth of information!

As I went up the building, there was something which I totally did not expect. Huge plasma televisions were on every level greeting visitors coming up form the escalators. They were showing various information on upcoming events and workshops. There was even a SKY GARDEN! Awesome. Sometimes, people even forget that they are stepped inside a library. There were even couples taking wedding photo shots at the sky garden. How cool can that be?

Sky garden at the library

Apparently, I must give special mention about this person. (I think he is a very rich business man). I've seen his name on the National library plaque, seen the main lecture theatre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) named after him, and also seen the business school at Singapore Management University (SMU) named under him. There could be more buildings/ facilities named under him but I've yet to discover them.

A plaque in his honour from the old national library.
(Now displayed as an exhibit)

He must be a really well respected man. Thank you Mr Lee for contributing to our education facilities for the general public. (He may be reading my blog)

Did I mention the toilets? They're really quite well designed. Apparently, it seems that the toilet designs vary from level to level. So here's a photo of one of the male toilets. It looks really nice right? Sorry dudes, no pic of the female toilet. :P

Arty designs in the male toilet

Contrary to what I expected, I only saw 2-3 levels filled with books. I think they were the top few levels. Check out the American style decor on this level. The ceiling was exceptionally high and it gave a modernly granduer feeling.

This level spans up to 2.5 storeys high.

The colour of the background

changes every few minutes

Books nicely stacked on the shelves.

Latest book additions on display

The books look really new and they were nicely spaced out on the shelves. I didn't see any ancient relic books though. The rest of the levels were all digitised and computerised. All the information from the library is now a click away. Even the OPAC search computers look really cool.

OPAC computer terminals with a artistic tinge

After exploring around, Jer and Mavis finally decided to check out the books. Here's a snap shot of them looking really "engrossed" reading the books. Haha. Jer is the one in blue. Mavis is the one in white.

Candid shot of the gals browsing.

Mavis was browsing thorough some arty fashion book when she showed me this drawing! OOoo.

Kinky fashion drawing

Feeling kind of bored. We decided to take a shot to immortalise our visit!

Jer (left), Mavis (centre) and the better man(right)

The gals sit back and relax on the sofa

Creepy shot of 2 "souls" looking at an ancient painting

Considering the fact that the sky was getting really dark and droplets of rain started to fall against the glass panels, we decided to leave the place and go all the way down using the elevators.