The Lee Kong Chian Reference Library

Whilst in downtown Singapore, I took the opportunity to visit their National Library Board building in Victoria Street. First stop was to the basement floor where the Central Library was located.

My main objective was to pass along to their Central Library two copies of Let the Aisles Proclaim. I had felt that it was very important that Singapore possess the book as the history of Penang Free School is so closely intertwined with the history of their Raffles Institution itself.

That done, it was also an objective to visit the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. Asking around, I was informed that my destination should be the 11th floor where I could seek access to the digital archive of the old Singapore newspapers. There are, after all, certain newspaper stories which cannot be accessed online from the Web and can only be referenced directly from their resident computer terminals.

The resources here were impressive and the staff very helpful. All in, I must have spent some two hours on this floor and was rather reluctant to move on. The Lee Kong Chian Reference Library is definitely worth visiting a second time and perhaps more often too.