Game2Read - READ! Singapore 2010

This event, Game2Read, was launched today on 26 Jun 2010, at the Plaza of the National Library building:


It's jointly organised by NLB and Singapore's Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA), as part of READ! Singapore 2010.

Here's a short video I put together from today's launch.

LINK

You can still catch the events on Sunday, 27 Jun 2010 (and there's one more on Sunday 18 July 2010). Here's the key events, from NLB press release, dated 26 Jun 2010:

1) Gaming competition
A gaming competition between the top regional all-girls DotA celebrity team, PMS|Asterisk*, and the recently crowned Singapore champions for Heroes of Newerth (HoN), an all-boys team, Princess Council.
Date: Saturday, 26 June 2010
Time: 2.30pm – 4.00pm


2) Cyberwellness exhibition
Find out more about cyberwellness topics presented by SCOGA on gaming addiction, cyberbullying, netiquette, health and nutrition, and more.
Date: Saturday – Sunday, 26 – 27 June 2010
Time: 11.00am – 6.00pm


3) NLB book loans on books related to gaming and sports
Over the two-day event, Public Libraries Singapore will be showcasing more than 500 gaming and sports related books. Books on World of Warcraft, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Soccer, amongst other titles will be available for loan.
Date: Saturday – Sunday, 26 – 27 June 2010
Time: 11.00am – 6.00pm


4) Quest collectible cards available for redemption
Quest fans will be able to redeem a packet of collectible cards, with every four books borrowed, at the mobile borrowing station at Game2Read. Quest is a year-long reading initiative to cultivate the love for reading in reluctant readers, especially boys aged 7-12 years old, with the use of collectible cards.
Date: Saturday – Sunday, 26 – 27 June 2010
Time: 11.00am – 6.00pm


5) 'Journal Singapore' Boardgame
Designed by Monsters Under The Bed, 'Journal Singapore' hopes to engage youths and the public-at-large in Singapore's history.
Date: Saturday – Sunday, 26 – 27 June 2010
Time: 2.00pm – 6.00pm


6) Book discussions
Books selected for READ! Singapore 2010 such as Legend of the Condor Heroes and Romance of the Three Kingdoms will be discussed during the sessions.
Date: Sunday, 27 June 2010
Time: 1.00pm – 4.00pm


7) Game2Read Hour
GTR Hour will be held after the two-day event. This is a nation-wide call for gamers to take a break from gaming and pledge a gaming hour to reading for one hour on 18 July, 2.00 – 3.00pm under the Read! IT initiative. Jointly organised by NLB and Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), this initiative aims to encourage members of the public to go online to view celebrity gamers, amongst many others, read live via the Internet.

There will also be onsite activities at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), which include a cosplay festival, and a talk by Koei on how they adapted the successful series of Romance of the Three Kingdom games from the book.

This activity is opened to all. Interested parties can log onto the website, www.scoga.org/gtr, to support their favourite gamers from Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Counter Strike and DotA.
Date: Sunday, 18 July 2010
Time: 2.00pm – 3.00pm

Highest Number Of Singapore Literary Works Selected For READ! Singapore 2010

Still going strong since 2005.

The 2010 theme is "Roads Less Travelled". Selected titles are posted at readsingapore.nlb.gov.sg.

Release Date : 26 May 2010

Poetry is included for the first time in this nation-wide reading initiative

SINGAPORE, 26 May 2010 – The National Library Board (NLB) officially launched READ! Singapore 2010 today. Into its sixth year, the nation-wide reading initiative promotes a culture of reading fiction among Singaporeans. The theme of this year's campaign is “Roads Less Travelled” which aims to encourage Singaporeans from different walks of life to share their perspectives in making unconventional life choices.


Selected works feature Singapore literary talents
In line with the theme, eight novels, eight short stories and five poems in the four official languages, written by well-known local and international authors, were selected by the READ! Singapore Steering Committee, with one title voted by the public. This is the first time that poetry is included to provide a greater variety of literary works. The selected works explore the different scenarios in which the characters took the roads less travelled in their lives. Each of the short stories is translated into the other three official languages and compiled into four anthologies, together with the poems, to encourage Singaporeans to read across cultures and communities. This year's selection also features the most number of literary works written by Singaporean and Singapore-based authors.


New initiatives to engage youths and the community-at-large
Apart from meet-the-author sessions, book discussions and reading carnivals, READ! Singapore 2010 will feature the first-ever infocomm-enabled nation-wide reading event, Read! IT.

Organised by NLB and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, Read! IT will feature teams of readers simultaneously reading over a two-hour period at six different venues on 18 July 2010. They will be streamed online via a collaborative platform, www.readit.sg (operational from 1 July 2010 onwards). The public can view the six reading groups creatively read or present their selected books in the form of a live dance, mime performance or skit. They can also tweet about Read! IT, vote for their favourite team and participate in online teasers to win attractive prizes.

Another highlight of this year's campaign is Game2Read, a joint initiative with the Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association to encourage the gaming community and youths to re-discover the joy of reading. This will be done through book discussions on gaming-related titles, gaming competitions, a cyber-wellness exhibition and other activities related to gaming and reading. These activities will be held over a two-day period from 26 to 27 June at The Plaza, National Library Building.

“In this digital age, it is common for youths to spend many hours online on social networks and playing their favourite computer games. Through Read! IT, Game2Read, and various other exciting programmes organised as part of READ! Singapore 2010, we want to engage more youths and the wider community to pick up the selected literary works, read and discuss with one another, and in the process, cultivate a passion for reading and lifelong learning. We hope that the programmes would spark their imagination and encourage them to discover new possibilities in their lives,” said Dr N Varaprasad, Chief Executive, NLB.

READ! Singapore 2010 will run from 26 May to 30 August. During this 14-week period, Singaporeans can look forward to a wide range of reading-related events happening at various locations around Singapore.

LINK

Encouraging students to read: Allow them to exercise choice

Came across this New York Times story (via LISnews), on how a Middle School teacher in the USA, Ms. Lorrie McNeill, allows her students to choose their own books for their literature class. Subsequently her students have to discuss the books with their teachers and peers, and also have to keep detailed journals about their reading.

This quote from the NYT article sums up the rationale of such an approach:

"... assigning books leaves many children bored or unable to understand the texts. Letting students choose their own books, they say, can help to build a lifelong love of reading."

The preceding paragraph quoted proponents of the traditional approach saying that assigning students what to read "builds a shared literary culture among students, exposes all readers to works of quality and complexity and is the best way to prepare students for standardized tests".

There are merits to assigned readings. It depends on the objectives. But the quoted arguments for the "teacher knows best" traditional approach seem weak to me.

A narrow list of reading materials, no matter how "good", has inherent limits on promoting a broad "literary culture". And what is a literary culture" anyway? One's ability to appreciate and analyse stories, or simply having the common experience of reading (maybe hating) the same text? "Quality" is also subjective (whose standards -- the student or the teacher?) And tests can always be redesigned and still have some degree of standardisation.

What I agree is on the complexity of the chosen book. Complexity could be in terms of ideas, plots and sub-plots, sub-texts, allegories and analogies, writing and language styles. For instance, E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops and Frank Herbert's Dune are both considered Sci-Fi classics, and could be said to relate to human society and relationships. But Dune is a lot more complex and detailed, with much more depth in the characters and plot.

Overall, if we are talking about students between the ages of 13 to 16 (i.e. teens), my sense is that complexity is less of an issue compared to getting them excited about reading. The bigger problem is getting students genuinely interested in reading, in the context of the classroom.

Perhaps a hybrid approach could be adopted: students get to propose their text and teachers, with the school librarians, would evaluate what the students proposed.

Which also means there should be some guidelines or criteria on what is deemed as appropriate selections and what is not. Make such guidelines available, so that students can evaluate and justify their selections. In that sense, their learning begins even before the class formally starts.

The best guidelines would have some degree of subjectivity. So in cases where teachers and students choices don't agree, students should be allowed to discuss options with the teacher. The discussion process would allow teachers to evaluate the students reading and analytical abilities.

So I feel Ms. McNeill is definitely on the right track, where motivating students to read is concerned.

And if students are motivated to read, then they are more likely to learn better.

Chance to win NDP '09 Preview tickets & Fun Packs: Public Libraries Singapore - READiscover Singapore!

This is a collaborative effort between the Public Libraries Singapore and the National Day Celebrations '09 organisers.

From the Public Libraries webpage - www.pl.sg/readiscover:

WIN NDP PREVIEW TICKETS & FUN PACKS

Borrow FOUR items for a chance to win. At least one item must be from the Singapore Collection [SING].

• 1 Jul - 31 Jul prize: Four pairs of NDP preview tickets
• 1 Aug - 31 Aug prize: 100 NDP Fun-packs

Terms & conditions:

• Loan receipts for FOUR items must be dated 4th - 26th July 2009.
• Draw date will be on Monday 27th July 2009. Winners will be notified by phone. NDP 1st August 2009 Preview tickets are to be collected at Woodlands Regional Library.
• At least one Item must be from the Singapore Collection [SING].
• Loan receipts cannot be used in conjunction with other reading promotions.
• Combined loan receipts are allowed but must be under the same borrower's name.
• The Library reserves the right to amend any of the above terms & conditions.
• There is no limit on the number of entries submitted.
• NLB's decision is final.

The library has also prepared a list of suggested reads (1.2MB PDF) from the Singapore Collections. The book are selected based on the National Day Celebrations '09 themes: "Our Way of Life", "Our Places and Streets", "People & Stories of Singapore", "Our History & Heritage", "Our Heroes".



Extracts of selected books are posted at the Read and Reap blog:


More information at www.pl.sg/readiscover (last accessed 19 Jul 09).

READ! Singapore 2009

It's back!

The annual reading initiative was launched by the NLB on Friday morning, 22 May 09, at the Conrad Hotel (the hotel is one of the main sponsors):


From the NLB press release, 22 May 09

Exciting New Initiatives To Reach Out To Families And Youths Through READ! Singapore 2009
Release Date : 22 May 2009

• The iconic event returns with a series of new activities and book discussions to enhance the reading experience of Singaporeans
• Highlights include the inaugural “Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010” and 144-hour Reading Marathon

SINGAPORE, 22 May 2009 – The National Library Board (NLB) today officially launched READ! Singapore 2009, the iconic nationwide reading initiative that aims to promote a culture of reading fiction among Singaporeans. In its fifth year, READ! Singapore is aptly themed “Dreams and Choices” to encourage Singaporeans to stay focused on their goals during these challenging times.

In line with the theme, the READ! Singapore Steering Committee has selected eight novels and eight short stories in the four official languages, written by well-known local and international authors. The selected novels and short stories explore the choices made by the characters in their journey to fulfil their dreams. Each of the short stories is translated into the other three languages and compiled into four anthologies to encourage Singaporeans to read across cultures and communities.

From 22 May to 31 August this year, Singaporeans can look forward to a host of exciting reading activities at various locations islandwide. For the first time, READ! Singapore will hold a Singapore record-setting event with a 144-hour Reading Marathon. Participants will form teams of not more than 12 members to read the selected READ! Singapore literary works or other stories of their choice for a continuous period of six hours per team. After completing six hours, each team will pass the baton to the next team to continue the reading marathon. The event will run from 3 to 9 July at The Plaza, National Library Building.

Additionally, READ! Singapore is reaching out to youths in the region with the inaugural “Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010”. Organised in partnership with Reader's Digest, this short story writing competition is held in celebration of Singapore hosting the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. Youths aged 13 to 17 years can participate by submitting short stories on the theme, “Dare to Dream: Stories of Imagination, Passion and Sporting Excellence”. Winning entries will be selected and published in a book to be distributed to athletes during the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore next year as part of the national effort to promote sporting excellence.

“Through READ! Singapore, we hope to reach out to not only Singaporeans, and also youths in the region to build bonds through a shared love for reading. READ! Singapore can be a platform to inspire all Singaporeans to reflect on their priorities in life, explore new horizons and work towards their dreams,” said Ms Ngian Lek Choh, Deputy Chief Executive, NLB.

The selected short stories have also been produced into audio books for Singaporeans who are not able to experience the joy of reading a book due to age, illiteracy or handicap, to participate in the READ! Singapore book discussions. The audio books feature forewords by RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, in English; Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower, in Chinese; Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, in Malay; and Mr S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Education, in Tamil. The short stories are narrated by popular media personalities from local radio stations including 938LIVE, Capital 95.8FM, Warna 94.2FM and Oli 96.8FM.

3,000 copies of audio books in the four languages will be distributed to voluntary welfare organisations such as the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped and Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home.

For more information on READ! Singapore 2009, please visit: http://readsingapore.nlb.gov.sg/

Sharedcopy

Books In The City: Public Libraries Roadshow at Chevron House, Raffles Place (30 Mar - 1 Apr 09)

If you happen to work at or near Chevron House at 30 Raffles Place, do drop by the Public Library booth.



You can borrow books on the spot, join as a NLB library member (or Digital Library members to access eResources), sign up for e-Reminder services, return your books there even.

Parents can pick up Children's books. Adults will find titles from subjects like Business and Finance, Travel, Fiction etc.


Selected Audio Book titles are also available.



To keep things interesting, there are prizes to be won.








It's part of the public library's effort to promote reading and the use of public library resources to working adults at the Raffles Place area.

The 3-day roadshow is from 30 Mar to 1 Apr 09.

Speaking in Croatia (Part 3) - Pictures of the Istria Book Fair

[From Part 2]

This was the opening ceremony, which was on Day-2 of my visit.


The "12th Dreamlike Book Fair in Istria" [Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri], held at Pula (found an old 2007 press release, here).

The crowd rushing to be first into the fair.


It's a yearly affair, organised by the city of Pula. A reading festival and book publishers' exhibition combined.





The Croatian Librarians rountable Croatian Library Association "Librarians' Weekend" session, at which I spoke yesterday, was also part of the programme. This is certainly something for Singapore to consider!

The fair organisers found it a strategic fit to include [an informal] conference for librarians, who were based in various parts of their country. Naturally the librarians attending the conference "Librarians Weekend" would also end up buying books for their libraries.

The fair also has a Children's festival called Monte Librić.


The Croatian librarians who were hosting me were mostly (if not all) Children's Librarians. They kept mentioning "Monte Librić", and spent a lot of time in this room, shopping for books for their library (and for their family as well).

Seemed to me the book fair was very well attended each day, on a weekday no less. The rooms (where the publishers displayed their books) always had people milling around. I'm not sure how the sales were though.

Interesting, various speakers and participants at the Librarians' Roundtable Weekend session kept remarking at how majority of Children's Literature published in Croatia was of "poor quality" (no, I don't understand Croatian; just so happens there was a translator).

Will blog more about this in another post.

[Next: Part 4]

Happy birthday, library@orchard

The library@orchard will turn eight this month. You might want to leave them a happy birthday greeting.

In a recent talk I gave, about one-third said they didn't know library@orchard had a blog. And they thought the library was already closed.

I'm not surprised relatively few Singaporeans are aware of the library@orchard blog (and all the NLB library blogs, for that matter). But that's the nature of blogs, if you ask me. Generally speaking blogs are good for attracting a specific niche of audience. Not everyone who go online are interested in say, what's happening to library@orchard.

But for those are want to stayed informed after the library closes and moves to a new site, the blog is a useful information source. It's an official source, but not official-sounding.

OK, what's the Return-On-Investment (ROI)? (as some would inevitably ask).

Let's say the library@orchard blog gets around 50 unique visitors a day (just my guess and not an official statistic). That number may not be fantastic but that's 50 more people the library wouldn't be able to reach once the library is closed (the NLB website is too cluttered and not easy to post frequently).

Even if that number is halved for the next two years (during the relocation), we're talking about 18,250 unique visitors in total (25 visitors x 365 days x 2 years). That's a good number, relative to the costs of maintaining the blog.

Costs like staffing and hardware are Sunk Costs. There are no specific costs just for that one blog (at least to my knowledge). So there ought not to be any additional expenses to maintain the blog once it's up.

In fact, there's also the continued library@orchard branding, the "online presence" and the goodwill being sustained with the blog. If we factor that all in, the costs are even lower.

One more thing -- my colleagues and I have this idea of inviting "citizen-reporters" to cover news leading up to the day of closure. Details are still being worked out but I can share that those who volunteer will get an inside-look and access to areas normally out of bounds to the public.

We're not looking for "Top-bloggers" (they are always welcome, but not our aim). We're not that particular if you "can't write well".

We're more interested in those who are passionate about promoting reading and learning to Singaporeans.

If you're residing in Singapore and you're interested (or know of someone who might be), please email me - ivanchew@nlb.gov.sg or ramblinglibrarian@gmail.com.

Launch of BookCross@SG: Books need to be freed!

It's official -- Singapore has been recognised by BookCrossing.com as the first BookCrossing country.

And so mentioned Mr Scott Sorochak, President & CEO of BookCrossing.com, at the launch and MoU signing of BookCross@SG at the Plaza of the National Library this afternoon.



More details of how BookCross@SG works, at http://bookcross.sg

Apparently, "more than 2000 official hotspots have been selected to allow Singaporeans to exchange books".

The hotspots are not WIFI hotspots but BookCross@SG hotspots. Technically, you can leave books anywhere to be "crossed". But having a designated hotspot works just as well, particularly for those not familiar with the idea of random crossing a book (besides, having hotspots reduce the risk of a book being taken away by cleaners before they get a chance to be crossed). These hotspots will be given a customised BCSG sticker that will be placed at a prominent area for the exchange to take place.

It gets more interesting -- some of the hotspots are Taxi Cabs!

SMRT Taxis, to be exact. Hats off to my colleagues who pulled this off (and also the support of the SMRT Taxi company too). This was the cab that drove in as part of the launch.


Quick, go buy your 4-D number now! LOL


As part of the launch, the guests were told to reach under their seats. Taped to the bottom of each seat was an envelop containing a BookCross@SG book. Mine turned out to be a brand new Roald Dahl's "Tales of the Unexpected", yay! (Thanks to the kind sponsors who donated the initial lot of books for the launch).


OK, I admit the first thought that popped into my head was to hoard the book. But it just wouldn't be right. After all, Books need to be FREED!


Yes, yes. I promise I will free my book after reading it. Immediately.

Many of the guests gamely went to register the BookCross ID (BCID) of their book on the spot:


Where's the BCID?

You don't have to look for it like that! LOL (thanks to my colleague, Jillian, for posing):


It's usually at the back of the book cover:


And here's my registered entry at the BookCrossing.com site:


Some of my colleagues were already into the advanced stages of negotiations to exchange their books. Hey guys, you're supposed to read the books first!


I understand that a few months ago, my colleagues involved in this project met with some of the management team members of the BookCrossing Singapore (www.bookcrossing.com.sg). I wasn't at the meeting. I'm not sure what were the details of the discussion. But I understand there's some cordial understanding of how both BookCross@SG and BookCrossing Singapore can collaborate together. It'll be nice if the Mainstream Media would give some coverage to the efforts of BookCrossing Singapore too.

BookCrossing Singapore... BookCross@SG... in my opinion, there's never too many groups when it comes to promoting the reading habit. It's definitely a good thing to have both grassroots and national efforts in encouraging Singaporeans to read.

Today's event made me dig up some of my earlier posts, where I'd mentioned BookCrossing:

• 13 Apr 2005: "Meetup being planned for SG Bookcrossing in early May 05" (where I'd shamelessly appointed myself as the Meetup.com Organiser after discovering a Singapore BookCrossing group in Meetup.com; this group closed shortly after Meetup.com started charging for its services)
• 14 Apr 2005: "There's also "BookCrossing - Singapore" at yahoogroups" (where I was pointed to another BookCrossing group in Singapore; this one is still fairly active up till today -- BookCrossing Singapore)
• 19 May 2005: "Meetup is confirmed on Tuesday, 24 May at Toa Payoh Community Library" (an announcement of the meetup back in 2005)
  
• 27 May 2005: "What happened at the Meetup on 24 May 05" (a post-event reflection piece; that meetup was where I received my first BookCrossed book from Roxanne -- her blog is now gone, what a pity. I'm still in touch with Preetam from that meeting. I wonder how the rest are doing now?)

mrbrown joins 10,000 Fathers Reading

From mrbrown's contribution to the event blog:

Reading to the kids is something my wife is better at but I am betterat the sound effects and funny faces.

We’ve always believed in inculcating a love of reading to the kids. We both grew up loving to read too.

See also: mrbrown's post at his blog.

I told a few friends about the 10,000 Fathers Reading event. One of them emailed me: "If my dad hadn't drowned me with books, I don't think I would've loved reading as I do now."

She added that her dad used to bring her to one of the public library on his scooter every 3rd Saturday morning.

Parent's influence is so very important. And the kids will know it too, when they are older.

The event is tomorrow.

10,000 fathers wanted on Father's Day (on 17 June 2007)

I'm not kidding. They're really aiming to get ten-thousand fathers. You need to bring your kid(s) along though (but it seems there's no age restrictions on the ages of the dads or the kids, heh)

Celebrate Father’s Day at East Coast Park!
Date: 17 June 2007 (Sunday, Father’s Day)
Time: 11am - 6pm
Venue: East Coast Park, Area E2

Free admission. No registration needed.

Take part in a mass-reading event for fathers and children; Enjoy fun & entertaining programmes and performances; Fathers get a free goodie bag(while stocks last).

Details at the website - 10000fathers.nlb.gov.sg

I met a friend for lunch earlier this week. He told me it was only recently that he realised the impact the books made on his son.

He has been borrowing children's books from the library regularly, to read to his son. This week, when he took away a bunch of books to return to the library, his son started crying and uttered, "Books! Books!"

He said that made him realise that his son actually formed an attachment to the books and the stories. He has a daughter a few months old. I'm sure he'll want to borrow more books soon.

Incidentally, this reminded me of an earlier post of mine, about the role of parents in nurturing a child's reading habits. Sometimes, all the parent needs to do is to leave interesting books around the home. That's what I feel.

I understand there'll be storytelling sessions, soccer and reading, plus some other activities for the 10,000 Fathers Reading event. Each dad will get to redeem a goodie bag as a memento. Oh, mums aren't excluded.

How to participate in READ! Singapore (even if you are overseas)

This is a common question: "I'm interested in READ! Singapore, but how do I actually participate?" Here's what I tell people:

1. Get a few like-minded friends or colleagues together;
2. Pick on one of the 12 books to read and discuss (some people pick more);
3. Find a time to discuss (face-to-face, email, blog etc). Here's the discussion guides;
   
4. Take a picture or two of your session, with a short note of your main discussion and reflections. Email me. I'll get it posted in the library website.
   

If you are in Singapore and you can't find another person to discuss or to form a group, do contact your nearest public library and join the activities there. Too many to list here.

If you are overseas, like Loy (From a Singapore Angle), you can do what's he's planning to do!

You are not even required to read the entire book. Your group could agree on certain chapters to read, or read them aloud when you meet. My personal recommendation for the English books would be "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime".

The first book is really great for sharing with younger children or teens, who may not be fully aware of issues like race relations, prejudice and discrimination. The second book is an easy read, and useful in getting a glimpse of how life as an autistic child might be.

I'd be grateful if you could help spread the word around.


Tag: readsingapore

Watch a skit or listen to a story on the MRT

Tired of reading my posts on READ! Singapore? Sorry leh, I gotta support the hand that feeds me, right? I'm kidding. I make no apologies for something I believe in. : )

If you are in the Jurong East area this Thursday, 2 June 2005, you might want to check out this event:

There's a MRT ride from Jurong East station to Woodlands station, from 2.30pm to 3.30pm. On the train, a group of teens will perform a skit from one of the book in the READ! Singapore selection. The library hopes to sign up 80 teenagers/ adults for this particular ride.

To be honest with you, so far almost nobody has signed up... ...

Ok, even if you don't think you'll go for the ride, I'd appreciate if you can pass the word along.

If you are at IMM shopping this Thursday and going back north, your support would be most appreciated. Participants need to register at Jurong Regional Library before the event.

Tag:readsingapore

Parent's role in nurturing the child's reading habits

Parental involvement plays an important part in whether the children pick up the reading habit. I say this from personal experience. Both my wife and I are avid readers, and our parents have shaped our love for reading.

My wife said there was a point in time when her mother would take her on bus service 64 to the (now demolished) National Library at Stamford Road every Saturday. My wife also said she would rush to the counter to queue and return the books (those days before anyone dreamed of automated bookdrop). She reminded me how library users had to open the book to the right page to be stamped. If not, one would surely get scolded by the staff.

My wife remembers Pippi Longstocking (of the super red hair and jutty pigtails), Beverly Cleary's Ramona, Anne of Green Gables... (all the hardcover books, she says). And miscellaneous stuff. She would borrow 16 books at one go. By that weekend, she would have finished almost all the books. It would be, in my wife's words, a torturous wait for the week until the next library visit.

For me, I didn't discover libraries until much later, for my parents didn't bring us to libraries. Now that I think back, my parents nurtured my reading habit in a different way, particularly my father.

What my father did was to bring my siblings and I to the town center every other night after dinner. We would inevitably end up in the (now defunct) Oriental Department store.

I remember stopping by the small book corner and just reading and re-reading "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Rapunzel", "Jack and the Beanstalk". And there were Asian fairy tales and learnt how Redhill got it's name, about Moorthy the Mouse...

One time, when I was 10, my father bought a book titled "Model Essays and Compositions". He didn't make me read it, nor was he the type to vet my homework. He just left it on the table. I picked it up, read it, and learnt some tips on writing well. For inspiration, I continued to read Goldilocks and Jack I guess.

I only discovered about public libraries when some library staff came to my primary school. They brought a whole bunch of books for us to choose, made us library cards, and that's when I learnt I could borrow books for free (which is why I believe very strongly in outreach activities even today).

My wife discovered libraries much earlier than I did. But while libraries were important in sustaining our reading interests, I'd say it was our parents who laid the foundation.

At the end of my earlier post, I said that if parents were really serious about inculcating the reading habit in their kids, they should lead by example.

I would think leading by example doesn't always mean being voracious readers. As in my case, my parents didn't visit public libraries. But I would think they recognised the value that books played, and they did other things that helped influence me.

The NLB can build libraries, right up to people's doorsteps. But all would be moot if parents don't play their part, in all sense of the word.

Tag: libraries, library advocacy, life long learning

Cabbies participate in READ! Singapore

Correction: The author of 'XiNiEr' should be Mr. Chia Hwee Pheng and not Mr. Hwang Mengwen. My apologies for the error. (17 Aug 05)

28 May 2005. Saturday evening, 11pm to 12am. Ang Mo Kio Community Library (AMCL) hosted about 100 taxi drivers (yes, that many!). The book-talk session was the last leg of the READ! Singapore 12-hour marathon.

I have new-found respect for these cabbies. I shall call them Taxi Sifus ("Sifu" is cantonese for "teacher") from now on.

Supper was Teochew porridge. My colleagues expected maybe 30 Taxi Sifus at most, so the porridge quickly ran out some time before the start of the session at 11pm. Mr Wee Siew Kim (MP for AMK GRC) graced the session. I discovered later that the author, Singaporean Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, was there as well (Xi Ni Er's his pen name).


AMCL Programme Zone. Supper before the session.

The session was conducted in Mandarin. Five Taxi Sifus (three men, two women) were in the panel, each sharing their thoughts on a chapter or two from the book, "Short Stories" by Xi Ni Er.

NLB Call No.: SING XINE (Singapore Collection, Chinese)
Click here for item availability.

The Taxi Sifus in the panel took their task seriously. One took time during the day to write an essay. Another spiced his reading & sharing with dialect, much to the amusement of his fellow Cabbie Sifus. One of the women Sifu reflected on communication issues in marriages.


Five Taxi Sifus in the panel. The person standing is my colleague, Mr Peter Lee (programmes executive), acting as facilitator.

Most in the audience have not stepped into libraries for years. Some later registered as library members. Copies of the book was distributed during the session. It was heartening to see the cabbies flip to the chapters being discussed and reading the book.

I would have loved to see greater audience participation, as in questions or comments from the floor, but that might be asking too much. It was good enough to see them read the book, and stay till the end of the session.


Something you don't see often -- Taxi Drivers/ Cabbie Sifus reading in a group settting, and it's not their exams for the cab license.

Some of the cabbies took the initiative to get the author's autograph. It became an author signing as well! The author, Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, said conversations with Taxi Sifus formed part of his inspiration and material for the book.


The author, Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, is seated on the extreme right of picture.

Initially I thought the panelists might feel awkward but turned out they were highly enthusiastic and obviously spent effort preparing for it.

Ah! I forget -- most cabbies have no problem talking. Take a cab and you'll agree with me. I think what they need is opportunity.


The person standing is my colleague, Mr Peter Lee, Programmes Executive. He was facilitating the session.

I'm thinking, "How can the library create more of such opportunities in future?" And would all Taxi Sifus respond as they did like tonight's audience?

Probably not.

After the programme, one Taxi Sifu joked with me that it cost him $60 for the night to attend the session. Well, I won't deny that there are opportunity costs to such activities. Guess that's why there's a need to inculcate a habit of reading.


Library tour for Taxi after the session. The foyer of AMCL looks really grand from this angle.

In any case, it was a first for NLB to have so many Taxi Sifus in one sitting, attending a programme in a library setting. The book sharing ended at 12am, but the participants didn't leave until about 1am.


Tag: readsingapore

Radio interview: Parenting Today 93.8 FM

This afternoon's 'live' radio interview was much more enjoyable than I thought, and my fears did not materialise. It's more accurate to call it a chat show rather than an interview. That's what we did -- we chatted.

12.35pm: Zubaidah, Juffri, Jaime & I meet the chat show host, Ms. Susan Ng, at the NewsRadio studio. Susan gives a quick sketch of what she would cover. We ask a few questions. The 'live' show is unrehearsed.

Susan gives me permission to take pictures. It's my first time in a radio recording studio. We're ushered into the studio and sit in comfortable chairs. There are mikes in front of us. The headphones are used if we take calls from listeners.



1:08pm: The "RED LIGHT" comes on (signalling that we're on air). Susan starts by making a traffic-watch announcement off a screen. Heavy traffic along the usual roads, I think.

Then came the show proper. Susan introduces Zubaidah (my colleagues who heads the Children Services), Juffri (he's from Programmes & Events Management), and myself (Susan reads my designation as "Manager & Librarian, Service Management, Public Library Services" -- Ok, technically correct, but I'm responsible for the Adult & Young People services only and not the entire Service Management department).


The radio interview centers on the importance of reading, and what parents can do to get their children and/ or teenagers to read. I'm having too much fun to remember what we say exactly. Will have to listen to the recording later.

(A colleague listening to the chat show SMS me later, saying she heard every single word, and also my shameless plugs about our enquiry services, and my urging the listeners to talk to our librarians. Yeah, I might have been carried away).

1:30pm: We take a break. We return on air with NLB CE, Dr. N. Varaprasad. Susan gets him to share more about READ! Singapore. Dr. Prasad says READ! Singapore is not a campaign but an initiative. It's also not about using libraries per se, but making reading fun. The library wants to support the local booktrade by encouraging people to buy the books in the selection.


L-R: That's Susan in the foreground, followed by Juffri and Jaime (our Corporate Communications Executive).

Around 1:45pm: We take a call on air. The caller asks for clarification on the library's self-study rule. He asks if it was true that security guards "chased students out". I take the question. I say the library had spent much time & effort getting teens to come into libraries, so it didn't make sense for us to chase students away. But there has to be a balance.

(What I didn't add was that those who don't abide by the general rules, like making unacceptable levels of noise, would be asked to leave. More about self-studying in another post.)

2pm: Show ends. We are ushered out the studio. Susan remarks that we all said the right things, at the right time. Well, it's because you're a good host, Susan.


L-R: Dr N. Varaprasad (NLB Chief Executive), Zubaidah and myself (sharing a private joke).

Susan is a professional; a veteran in the radio business. She doesn't follow a script and sounds so smooth. She's a great supporter of reading & libraries, and she's promotes reading to her own children. I'm her new fan.



Before the end of the first segment, I closed off with this soundbite: "If parents are really serious about getting their teenage daughter or son to read, then lead by example."

Intuitively we know reading is a good thing, But we say we have no time to read. We have to catch up with our emails, watch TV, play computer games, look after kids...

There's no quick answers to this issue. I guess like many things in life, if we feel something is important enough, we'll have to find time to do it.


Tag: rambling librarian interview