National Library, Singapore / Lee Kong Chian Reference Library

Overview

The National Library, Singapore, is the flagship library of the National Library Board (NLB), located at 100 Victoria Street in Singapore's Civic District. It houses two libraries under one roof: the Central Public Library and the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, the latter occupying levels 7 to 13 of the building.

History

The library traces its origins to 1823, following a suggestion by Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore. The school library was expanded by residents in 1844 into the Singapore Library, a subscription-based institution that frequently faced financial difficulty; in 1874 it merged with another collection to form the Raffles Library, in exchange for government assumption of its debts. The library relocated to a separate Library and Museum Building in 1887 as part of the Raffles Museum. Its collections closed briefly in February 1942 during the Japanese invasion, reopening in April 1942 as the Syonan Tosyokan under Japanese administration before reverting to British control after the war. In 1953, Chinese community leader and philanthropist Dr. Lee Kong Chian offered S$375,000 toward a free, multilingual public library, on condition that vernacular languages be promoted; the British government matched this with S$625,000. Lee laid the foundation stone for the new Stamford Road building in August 1957, and the building opened in 1960 as the Raffles National Library, later the National Library of Singapore, officially opened by Yusof Ishak, Singapore's first president. This Stamford Road building operated for over four decades before being demolished in 2005 to make way for the Fort Canning Tunnel. The current National Library Building, designed by T.R. Hamzah & Yeang, opened to the public on July 22, 2005, and was officially inaugurated on November 12, 2005, by then-President S. R. Nathan. A S$60 million donation from the Lee Foundation in 2003 supported the S$208 million project, and in recognition the former National Reference Library was renamed the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The National Library Building holds more than 2.5 million items across formats, including physical books, magazines, CD-ROMs, microfiches, and newspapers, including 77 foreign daily titles, making it the largest public library in Southeast Asia. The Lee Kong Chian Reference Library's National Collection, its core holding, comprises over 1.7 million items focused on Singapore across the country's four official languages, spanning history, politics, economics, socio-cultural development, and the arts, alongside rare materials dating to the 15th century. The Central Public Library, occupying Basement 1, holds around 310,000 books.

Access and Usage

Reference materials at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library are for on-site consultation rather than borrowing, with access also available via email, phone, and digital reproduction services; the library supports researchers through fellowships, inter-library loans, and microfilm access to historical newspapers and documents.