Here i am finally in the national central library in Singapore; the biggest, the tallest in Singapore. No doubt i am awed by its design and really feel proud being Singaporean to have seen such a vast library in comparatively tiny Singapore, ever described as an insignificant red dot in the world map.
I am also impressed by what I saw within the building. Nice décor with spacious areas for which we are not required to walk carefully less knocking someone or something down. But yet, nothing is ever perfect.
Space is big but it doesn't relate to a big quantity of books. Loads of half empty shelves that gave a very cold feeling towards the warmth of reading. Slightly made up by some mini exhibition of some kind on every level; the family tree exhibition, the building of nation etc etc, but it just didn't have that warm feeling.
The old raffles road library has that feeling definitely. And I don't understand why those mini gardens in the new library is not open to public!! I don't mind going out to sit under the cloudy sky and read my books! Well, I do understand that those small little inconsiderate brats will eat there, drink there and even urinate there to dirty the place, to show that they have been there!
Another to take note is the lack of seats! I had such a hard time finding a comfortable seat and I never found one. Have to resort to sitting on the floor! It's warm with carpeting but it's dusty as well. Lol. A lot of libraries lacked seating capacity and somemore, I should not have come on a Saturday. There are kids flying around and yelling like it's their home and adults thinking they have gained weight by occupying seats for two when they haven't come to realization that they are just one person!
Furthermore, when I went into the Lee Kong Chian reference library, i waas barred from entering all because I carried a bag that can fit an a4 size paper. I don't understand the rationale! Stealing is a problem but it has always been for reference sections and don't they have those fanciful expensive theft alert system. And if that is ever activated, I don't think any one can escape the security guards! The only way for them to escape fast is to jump down from the 7th floor and best thing, no window is open! All of them are sealed!! The next funny thing was the big tables at the reference section!! It can work as my bed man! But yet, nothing except the laptop I brought and those books I took from the reference section were on it.
The funniest thing to happen is that there are not enough lockers around for usage! I am apparently using a fucking big bag. And the other best thing, I carried my cashcard, my ez link but no coins!! Remind me about Singapore ever being cashless. To change for coins, I had to go down from 11th floor to 7th floor! Such great convenience!! And to think that the national library board apparently still doesn't have enough not common sense to know the society changes and that the govt is recommending strongly for a cashless society!
In conclusion, nice library, nice environment but frankly, I didn't manage to find a lot of materials for my business projects. I will have a better chance with school libraries. The above events are funny but im not laughing.
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