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Cheng San Community Library

Cheng San Community Library is located at 90 Hougang Ave 10, #03-11, NTUC Hougang Mall, Singapore 538766. It is the third library of the National Library Board (NLB) located in a shopping mall. It was the first library of the NLB to acquire and display works of local artists in an effort to promote the local arts scene. It was officially opened on 6 March 1997 by the Member of Parliament for Cheng San GRC, Zainul Abidin Rasheed.

History
Cheng San Community Library was opened to serve the residents of Hougang, Cheng San, Serangoon Central and Upper Paya Lebar. The library has a total collection of about 179,599 books and magazines. It has served more than 1,089,683 visitors and has registered 1,237,905 book loans as of December 2002. It is the first library to adopt the bookshop concept of shelving books. It is also the first library where the cluster concept in multimedia services was introduced.

Art Display
Cheng San Community Library put up works of local artists on display to the public in an effort to promote the local arts scene and to promote art appreciation among library users. This prototype of featuring local art work was followed in other libraries later. Among Cheng San Community Library's acquired collections are sculptures and paintings of both known and budding artists, such as Ng Eng Teng, Iskandar Jalil, Hassan Z.Rahim, Saik Fahn Ein and Lim Tiong Ghee.

Description
Cheng San Community Library is spread over an area of 1,467 sq. m. The area houses a Customer Service Counter, Children's Section, Storytelling Room, Adult Section, Young People's Section and a Reference Section. There are about 2,496 reference books, 165,934 lending books and 11,169 magazines in this library. Books and periodicals for lending are available in four different languages. It is a fully computerised library with eight multimedia stations, a bookdrop service, self-check borrowing machines and self-service borrowers' enquiry service and payment terminals. Library users can access Online Public Access Catalogues, read daily newspapers and access digital library services at www.elibraryhub.com.

Programmes
Story telling sessions are held for children at 3:30 pm in Chinese and in English on Wednesdays and Fridays respectively. Video shows are held for children every Saturday at 11:30 am. A programme called "Songs and Rhymes @ the library" is held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month for children. Schools hold class visits to the library. User education and information literacy programmes as well as reading programmes are held for school children. School students are encouraged to join the Community Involvement Programme and the Young Friends of the Library Programme. Special programmes are held during school holidays such as art & craft programmes, puppet shows, magic shows and special story telling sessions. User education programmes and parenting talks are held for adults. Library orientation programmes are held every first Monday of each month for adults.



Author
Naidu Ratnala Thulaja



References
National Library Board. (2003). Cheng San Community Library information sheet. Singapore: Author.

National Library Board. (2001). About us: Milestones - 1997. Retrieved on February 6, 2003, from  www.nlb.gov.sg/aboutus/abtus_milestones.asp#1997


Further Readings
Changing with the times. (1997, April 11). The Straits Times.

Teoh, E. (1997, March 7). $15.6 m plan to upgrade six public libraries. The Straits Times, Home, p. 46. 

The information in this article is valid as at 2003 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Architecture and Landscape>>Building Types>>Public Buildings>>Libraries
Public libraries--Singapore
Libraries--Singapore
Law and government>>Culture and community>>Public libraries
Science and technology>>Library and information science>>Library and information services



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