Reopening of Sengkang Public Library and Upgrading of NLB Apps Functions

I still remembered the day it was opened. It was on Saturday morning, 18 March 2017. As a bibliophile - or ardent reader, I was very exciting that the Sengkang Public Library was finally to be reopened again. The shopping mall had undergone a major renovation and it took about a year to complete. The library was only opened few months later. This was the nearest library from home and since it was new, most of its books were definitely new and crisp :)

My bestie and I were queuing to enter the reopening Sengkang Public Library :)

I reached there quite early. There had been many people queuing before me. Perhaps I was one of the 'kiasu' Singaporean who joined the queue. Hehehe... I called up my bestie who stayed nearby the mall to come and join me. She loved reading too and was as exciting as me. She reached about half an hour later. We waited for some time until the Guest of Honor reached the library. When he came, they started the opening ceremony and in a while, we entered the library slowly.

Children's heaven :) - Sengkang Public Library

Woahhh... Just like other libraries in Singapore, this one never failed to impress its visitors. A user-friendly furniture and safe environment space were especially designed for early literacy learners (a. k. a. children) and they were pampered with many new varieties of picture and wording books. As what I mentioned, most of the books there were new, fresh, and crisp!!! Parents did not have to worry of the gem spreading between the old torn pages books :)

Fiction books section - Sengkang Public Library

The above section - adult fiction - was my-most-often-visit area. Before going there, I checked the NLB Apps (NLB - National Library) for the availability of books that I wanted to borrow (Hahaha.... again, a 'kiasu' Singaporean :P). So once entered the library, I immediately looked for the them and secured it with me before taking pictures and getting detailed look on the library's layout and design. Lol!!!

My loot on that day :P - Sengkang Public Library

New book - Fresh and crisp!!! Yummy!!! - Sengkang Public Library

And just like other renovated library, this one was equipped with Audiovisuals material and various magazines' rack, designed in such modern style :)

Audiovisuals Material - Sengkang Public Library

Magazines' rack - Sengkang Public Library

But unlike its previous structure, the new one was divided into two floors. The one I mentioned above was located at the upper floor. While in the lower floor, there was reading space, multimedia corner, newspaper reading area, and shelf for general books and non-English books.

Multimedia and newspaper reading area - Sengkang Public Library

General Non-Fiction, Art, Travel, Religions, etc. - Sengkang Public Library

To make it convenient and easy, they had improved the NLB Apps by allowing users to fasten the borrowing process. Last time we used to queue for the machine and borrowed the book using our ID or other form of library card. With the Apps, we just had to scan the book's barcode from our phone right after taking it from the shelf. So we eliminated the precious waiting time :)

Barcode scanning - NLB Singapore

With NLB Apps, we could check the book's availability at different locations by searching the title and/ or author of the book that we wanted to borrow. You could also reserve it with a fee of S$1.55 per book and collect it at the library of your choice.

NLB Apps Search page

Check the book's location availability or simply reserve at a cost!!! - NLB Apps

Other than physical book, now we could also borrow the E-book from the Apps. To read it, we had to install the Overdrive Apps into our mobile phone, and used the NLB log in ID and password to proceed reading or downloading it.

How the E-book looked like in Overdrive Apps

I knew about the E-book since some time ago but only recently I downloaded it because I could not manage to get the book that I wanted to read physically from the library. They were always in the hand of other readers (on loan). Haha... How impatient I was, wasn't I?? :P

I could download the Overdrive Apps using the tablet too and read it there (bigger words and screen were definitely better for me). So with this function, I no longer had to wait so long to read the book that I yearned for :) We were given 21 days to finish reading it and the Apps would automatically deleted the book that we downloaded. And I think if it was not enough, I could borrow it again as long as it was available. Well, let's see!!!

Library Quote by Isaac Asimov (Pic source: Google.com)

So, hopefully this post could add greater knowledge for those who did not usually borrow book from Singapore library. And after reading this, they could now advise their dear families and friends about the functions that they might not aware of previously. This would definitely create convenient and save their time. Happy downloading the Apps and playing with it lah!!! Cheersss..... :)