Catchin' up on Singapore

Now that we're settled in at our Hong Kong hotel (and Internet access is free!) I can catch you up on our last two days in Singapore. On Tue we visited the Library Supply Centre, which is their technical services department, and the National Library (central library).

The Library Supply Centre houses their technical services department and serves as a warehouse for their last copy (of a title) collection (about 500,000 items-see picture) and their floating collection. The floating collection is a sort of "just in case" collection of popular titles. When the branches need more copies of Harry Potter or some other popular title, they can request more copies from this collection. Their tech services dept processes about 4,000 items per day and about 1.5 items per year. Items are moved on a conveyor belt system from one station to the next in the processing cycle. Items are given a barcode & put in a barcoded bin (see picture). They have a process management system that can track the bins & any item so they know where it is in the process cycle.

The library buys about 65,000 titles a year: 75% in English, 15% Chinese, 5% Malay, & 5% Tamil (matches breakdown of their demographics). They can have over a thousand holds on blockbuster titles such as Harry Potter. They weed about 250,000-300,000 titles per year. Last copies and donated items are never withdrawn; they are sent to the depository collection in this building. They receive about 10,000 gift items per year, but they only accept gifts from other libraries, organizations, and prominent citizens. Branches do not accept gifts. One must write a letter to the director of the National Library Board to get permission to donate material.

When items are weeded from branch collections, everything is sent to this warehouse. Books that don't need to go into the last copy collection are stored in another storage facility to wait for their annual book sale which is held in the Singapore exhibition hall--think Smith College book sale to the tenth power.