Bukit Batok Public Library is located at

Bukit Batok Bukit Batok ( ), often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 10th most populo ...

on the third floor of

West Mall West Mall () is a shopping centre located in Bukit Batok New Town, Bukit Batok, Singapore, next to Bukit Batok MRT station. Background It was opened in 1998. It consists of eight storeys, for a total gross floor area of , and sitting on a land ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, next to

Bukit Batok MRT station Bukit Batok MRT station is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the North South line in Bukit Batok, Singapore. Until the opening of the Woodlands Extension, the station was part of the Branch line. Bukit Batok station is situ ...

. This is fifth

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

of the

National Library Board The National Library Board (NLB) is a statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Digital Development and Information of the government of Singapore. The board manages the public libraries throughout the country. The national l ...

that is located inside a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

. The library was officially opened on 21 November 1998 by Deputy Prime Minister, BG (NS)

Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former military officer who served as the third Prime Minister of Singapore, prime minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2024, thereafter serving as a Senior Minister of S ...

History

The library begun operating soon after the

was opened. The library is headed by Lim Puay Ling. It is a fully computerised library with a collection of 202,151 publications. It has served more than 1,419,634 visitors and residents from the Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak constituencies. As of 2001, it had 28,814 members and had given out 1,345,869 book loans. The library would be closed for renovation starting from 31 December 2023 and would reopen in 2025 in tandem with the mall's renovation works.

About the library

The library has a floor area of . It is home to: * 191,492

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

* 10,424 serials * 235

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service provide ...

materials. The library includes a customer service counter, an adult/young people's section, a children's section, an activities room, 13 multimedia stations and a reference collection. Facilities in the library include borrower's enquiry, six borrowing stations, two bookdrop services, browsing shelves of books and periodicals in four main languages and multimedia services.

RFID

It was the first library in which the

Radio Frequency Identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically Automatic identification system, identify and Tracking system, track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, ...

(RFID) Electronic Library Management System (ELiMS) was implemented. The Electronic Library Management System was developed together by Singapore Technologies LogiTrack and the National Library Board. The ELiMS system manages the tracking, distribution, circulation and flow of books in the library. The advantages of this technology are that it allows books to be cancelled immediately as they are returned through automated book-drops and the loan records of the borrowers are updated instantly.

Programmes

Two

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

sessions for children are conducted every Tuesday at 7:00 pm and 7:30 pm. Reading Bear programmes were organised for primary school.

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

children are also taken on class visits to the library featuring storytelling, craft, video shows and a tour of the library. Class visits for the

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

students includes multimedia services. The multimedia service is a basic information literacy programme on Internet strategies, search tools and evaluation of websites.

Junior colleges A junior college is a type of post-secondary institution that offers vocational and academic training that is designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations or support roles in professions such as engineering, a ...

, schools and other institutions are offered bulk loan services and book promotions or institutional loans.

School holiday An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...

programmes include video screening, storytelling in four languages and art and craft sessions. Adults can enjoy educational and informative talks, workshops, user education programmes and library orientation tours.

References

External links