Today, we celebrate the opening of the Bukit Batok Community Library. It is a modern amenity sited conveniently in a shopping mall centrally located in the Bukit Batok community, next to the MRT station and bus interchange. It will have some 120,000 volumes of books and access to electronic and multimedia information. It is part of the network of regional, community and children’s libraries, which forms the infrastructure for our new national library system.

Even with the libraries of the previous generation, Singapore was already doing well relative to most other countries. Our library system, which is 175 years old, made books available to all Singaporeans through a network of libraries. This helped raised literacy rates and cultivated a love for reading.

Now we have taken a further step forward, that will place us ahead of other countries, at the leading edge of libraries worldwide. We are changing the concept of a library from being a repository of books to a learning centre, a place which helps people to access information worldwide using technology.

What librarians do has not changed fundamentally for 5,000 years. Librarians handle, acquire, manage and disseminate information. But the nature of that information has changed. Information is now not only in the form of printed books, but also pictures, sounds and moving images. Our libraries therefore carry not only books but many other print forms, CDs and CD-ROMs, videos, laser-discs and DVDs.

Technology also enables us to access information outside the physical borders of the library, in other libraries and indeed outside the country. By using IT, people can surf the Internet, or electronically access information from repositories of information worldwide. IT allows this to happen faster and better, more conveniently and affordably.

It is fashionable to talk of a Knowledge Economy and a Learning Nation. But it is not often clear what these buzz-words mean, or more importantly, how to go about achieving them. Is it to become more creative? Is it to learn more? The answer is yes, but not just at the individual level. A Knowledge Economy and a Learning Nation is about acquiring and using knowledge to generate value-added as a team at the work-place and as a nation.

This needs to be supported at the national level by infrastructure. Government has pressed ahead with laying the physical infrastructure to make Singapore an Intelligent Island. Soon every household and workplace will be connected by a high-capacity optic fibre network. The national libraries will be a major user of this national broadband network. The Library 2000 plan set out how the National Library network could use IT to disseminate information and speed up the pace of learning in Singapore. The government then launched a S$1 billion plan to upgrade Singapore’s public library system.

The new Bukit Batok Community Library is part of this plan. With PCs and broadband internet connection in every library, people are not limited to what is physically stored in this particular community library. Rather, this is a conveniently located place, with a warm and friendly ambience, that people can come to, to search for general knowledge or specific information that may be located anywhere. The Library’s mission is not just to lend out available books to people, but to make it easier for users to get, manage, analyse and apply information.

The use of technology goes beyond IT. I am happy that the Library Board is launching here today what is probably the world’s first Radio Frequency Identification Technology application in a library. Books will be scanned automatically as they are returned. The library can instantly cancel books and other materials when borrowers post them through a "book-drop" box. Readers will no longer need to queue up to return books. Library staff will be able to sort books and return them to the right shelves much faster. Misplaced books can be speedily found. The overall turnaround time for books will be quicker.

The Library’s vision is to use this technology to make the library’s services even more accessible. They hope eventually to have book-drops at shopping centres, schools, even MRT stations. The books will be returned physically to the library by post or delivery service. Already, books can be ordered and delivered to the borrower for a fee. If they can make the vision a reality, people will not need to physically travel to the library to get the material they want. Eventually, all the national and community libraries will be linked up into one single network so that the entire collection of books and other materials nationally will be conveniently accessible to everyone.

The radio frequency identification technology is thus the first step in an imaginative and far-reaching logistics concept. It is interesting on its own, but only yields its full potential when coupled with the new logistics concept. This is a good example of thinking-out-of-the-box, of dreaming, creating and learning. Developed locally by Singapore Technologies Logitrack in collaboration with the National Library Board, this local innovation has economic and business potential for many applications, including security access, retail transactions, and logistics management. Libraries elsewhere have heard of Singapore’s experiment and made enquiries. I hope this example will spur Singa-pore firms to develop new and innovative products for local and international markets.

The new Bukit Batok Community Library is an excellent example of what a Knowledge Economy and a Learning Nation might look like. The library is still there, but what a different and exciting library it will be! It has redefined its role and how it serves the community to become a place to gather knowledge and to learn.

Singapore faces many challenges as it enters the 21st century. But we are well placed to make Singapore a cutting edge economy, able to create new value in different and exciting ways. In the knowledge age, a competitive Singapore has to be a learning nation and a creative society.

I congratulate the National Library on its imaginative and successful project, and take great pleasure in declaring the Bukit Batok Community Library open.