All of our services work on the same principle: We want to meet the needs of our patrons, no matter where they are.
Up Close and Personal
Since the early 1990s, NLB began co-locating libraries with shopping centres and community centres to bring the library to the people, succeeding in attracting busy professionals and commuters, many within the age of 18 and 35 years, a segment that previously had a low number of library users. By existing in our patrons’ community and social spaces and tailoring library services to their lifestyles, NLB was able to engage patrons in new and effective ways.
The Library@Orchard, situated in the heart of the city, revived a love for reading in many people when it first opened in 1999. The newest co-located library, the Clementi Public Library opened its doors in 2011.
Tapping on the power of the Internet for content discovery
The findings of the 2005 OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) report on Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (which took into account responses from Singapore users) suggested that users are more likely to turn to search engines than libraries when looking for information. It seemed only logical for NLB to push content to our users’ space.
By making Infopedia articles searchable on Internet engines such as Google, access increased from 400 to over 200,000 per month.
NLB also leverages on social media through various Twitter accounts and MyLibrary Facebook application, leading to increased interaction with patrons’ facebook friends and allow them to recommend books and post reviews.
With the mobile phone fast becoming indispensable in one’s everyday life, lower data charges being offered by service providers and better phone capabilities in new phone models, NLB embarked on the development of a service to stay relevant with our customers. Launched in February 2009, the Library in Your Pocket (LiYP) is an easy-to-use mobile portal packed with popular library services such as checking accounts, searching the catalogue and downloading of e-books, all packaged in a clean, uncluttered interface for ease of use, navigation and speed of loading.
Fresh off the success of LiYP, NLB launched MobileRead in 2011 in conjunction with the annual Read! Singapore programme (a nationwide reading initiative), an application giving smartphone users free access to over 300 stories written by international and home-grown authors in all four national languages. MobileRead continues to be a popular platform in delivering Read! Singapore content to book lovers across Singapore.
MobileRead can be downloaded from the itunes or Google Play store.
