It is my pleasure to be here to mark the re-opening of the Ang Mo Kio Community Library, an upgraded library that has served the community since 1985.

When it was first built, Ang Mo Kio Community Library was the only two-storey building in the northern region of Singapore. As part of the National Library Board’s upgrading plans for older libraries, Ang Mo Kio is the fourth library in our first generation libraries, after Toa Payoh, Marine Parade and Bedok, to be refurbished with new and convenient services and facilities to better serve the residents.

My ministry seeks to provide quality living environments that cater to the social, recreational and community needs of our citizens. This will surely only be complete with a learning hub in every town centre. And today, much of a community’s information, learning, and to some extend social and recreational needs are fulfilled at our libraries.

The 200,000 residents of Ang Mo Kio, and its neighbouring estates of Bishan Town and Serangoon Garden Estate who have waited eagerly for this re-opening, are now rewarded with a library that is equipped with two new and exciting library services – Indian Library Services and Mind Matters - on top of what have been staple offerings; music posts, multimedia stations, designer café and self-help kiosks to carry out library transactions

Last year, more than 22,000 Tamil books were borrowed from this library, making it the library with the highest number of Tamil book loans in Singapore. The library expects this number to grow, bearing in mind the relatively high Indian readership and community in the Ang Mo Kio Town area. Thus, the introduction of ILS to this revamped library is timely. I believe, it will be effective, in meeting the increasing demand for Tamil material and promoting greater awareness of Indian language, culture, heritage and the arts.

From what I have gathered, ILS will be a treasure trove of information and resources about Indian culture and civilisation. An area of more than 220 square metres has been specially allocated for the 6,000 print and non-print materials for the Indian Library Services for experiential learning on the ethnic community. Our librarians have beautifully decorated the area with an exquisite Indian flavour, using rich fabrics and spices.

I am pleased to note that about 20 per cent of the material from ILS will be English books on Indian culture. This will certainly encourage other races to learn about this culture and civilisation whilst helping to promote racial harmony.

The introduction of the ILS is an extension of the National Library Board’s efforts to build up a collection focussing on Asian Library Services. It has also successfully introduced Chinese and Malay Library Services at Tampines Regional Library and Bedok Community Library respectively over the past few years. These specialised language services help to promote Asian culture and provide a platform for library-goers to understand their neighbours better.

I would like to stress that our ethnic diversity, and our position as a point of confluence between Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western civilisations is a key competitive advantage for Singapore. We cannot be just another Chinese city in China, or an Indian city in India. If that is all we aspired to, we would be a second class city because there would always be bigger and potentially richer cities in China or India. Our destiny is to be an international city with the diversity of Singaporeans being a key factor for our ability to serve the world. This library, and indeed the networking which the National Library has established with other libraries internationally are part of the essential infrastructure that we are building for this future.

Mind Matters is another unique service theme at the Ang Mo Kio Community Library. As its name suggests, various learning opportunities have been designed at this library to arouse curiosity and stimulate learning. In fact, I have been told the library building itself is meant to epitomize the human brain, with different areas serving different mental functions.

Library goers will be able to play intellectual challenging games, acquire thinking skills and attend interesting library programmes to acquire knowledge.

The unique collections at this library will be supported by what has become another NLB signature delivery: innovative programming through community partnerships. As in other branches, this library will be collaborating with educational institutions and community groups, such as the Management Development Institute of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Management, the Singapore Intellectual Games Centre, the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society and the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers.

In addition, I understand that the library will be working with individual experts-in-field who have generously volunteered to share their know-how with the public free-of-charge. The library’s collaboration with community representatives demonstrates the integrative way with the library provides an enriching learning experience to the community by tapping on its talented members.

I am confident that this revamped Library will serve as an anchor destination to inspire the imagination and champion the cause of promoting knowledge and lifelong learning for the young and old.

On behalf of the residents, I thank the National Library Board for upgrading this library and bringing to us these wonderful learning services in such a beautiful environment.

I am now pleased to declare the Ang Mo Kio Community Library open.

Thank you.

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