Closure of library@orchard: D-Day (Part 2)

[From Part 1]

One of our library@orchard citizen reporter, Jean, was "live" blogging while waiting for the event to start. She arrived at the library early to make some final touches to her video tribute to library@orchard.



Hey, don't think she's a person with too much time on her hands. She and Alice (another of library@orchard's citizen reporter) are PhD. candidates in one of our local university. Speaking of Alice, here's her post about the Moving On Party).

At 6pm, the fun began.

The library had a magician going around the library, inviting people to take part in his magic tricks.


Library customers could also have commemorative photos taken, and printed out on the spot.


It was still "business as usual" for the library. Staff were still serving people at the counter.


At the entrance, we had student volunteers helping to register guests.


Moving around the library, I noticed quite a few people whipping out their cameras and snapping away.

None of the library staff had the heart to stop them. After all, it was the last day of capturing the library@orchard in photos and saving it for prosperity posterity. Who knows, perhaps one day they would be the ones to contribute their photos back to the library collection.

There was food for guests (about 300 guests registered). The food was gone, fast!


We were treated to songs, sung and performed beautifully by... arrgh, I forgot their names! (can someone kindly fill me in by leaving a comment?)


When they sang "Leaving on a jet plane", I bet there were tears in the house.



While the performance was taking place at the Programme Zone, it was also "business as usual" for some library customers.


My colleagues, Ian (Manager, Children's Library Services) and Jaclyn (Librarian), did an excellent job being the MCs.


At one point, there was a technical hitch so Ian got Jean to share some thoughts about blogging for library@orchard, among other things.


There was a prize-giving to winners of a loan promotion (iPod Nanos!), more videos (which I'll elaborate in Part 3), and then the NLB Board members penned their words
on a board as a final parting gesture of sorts.


Finale: 9pm.

Everyone was ushered out of the library (staff included).

The glass doors were locked as a symbolic gesture of the closure.



There were tears from some staff, library volunteers and some members of the public.

The library@orchard obviously meant a lot to them.

While the new "library located in Orchard Road" will not be the same as library@orchard for some people, NLB promises that it will be better. So by 2010, we'll see our library@orchard librarians Jillian and Lynn welcome library customers to the new premises:

(btw, staff are assigned to other branches; No, they don't get paid vacations when the library is closed, lol)

Next: Part 3.