Library Hop #6 - Let's hop to Ang Mo Kio Public Library

I have visited Ang Mo Kio library a couple of times for craft sessions but have not really explored the library until recently. The library is a stand alone library with very few amenities around. The MRT station is quite a distance from the MRT station. (About 15 to 20 miniutes walk) There is no shelter and not many buildings near the library, it can get pretty hot walking from the MRT station. Many times, I prefer to take a bus instead.

Covering an area of 4,277 square metres, the library spans two levels in an isolated building of its own. Ang Mo Kio Public Library was officially opened on 17 August 1985 by Mr Yeo Toon Chia, Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio Constituency. It was closed in April 2002 for upgrading and officially re-opened on 25 January 2003 by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of State for National Development.

The name Ang Mo Kio is synonymous with phrases in the Hokkien dialect which either relates it as the "Red Tomato", or the "Bridge of the Caucasian".
Can you spot the Ang Mo Kio here? These paintings are found on the ceiling outside the library.

On level 1, it is mainly the Children's collection and Adult's English Fiction collection. If you need books on Parenting and Family matters, they can be found here too.  Programmes are usually conducted in the Programme Zone which is located at this level. If you find yourself hungry or thirsty, you may want to pop by the Cafe Galilee next to it.

Programme Zone

The special collection of this library is the wide Tamil Collections which is located at Level 2. Ang Mo Kio Public Library carries one of the most comprehensive and varied collection of print and non-print materials in Tamil among the public libraries. This includes fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, and newspapers.

Entrance to the Tamil Collection. Look at the pillars! Don't they look Indian?

Such magnificent set of chess and sculptures! 

Also, on the second level are the adult Non - fiction books. I find that the books are categorised in an organised way. At one glance at the information provided next to each shelves, you would know which shelves to head to to hunt for the books that you need. I was looking for recipes then.



Back to the Children's collection at Level One. Look at what I have found! These shelves of
books are particularly useful for children who are taking Chinese are their second language.
Hanyu Pinyin books are Chinese-English Bilingual books are found here. I knew other libraries offered these books as well but they are not categorized in such eye-catching way for library goers to find them easily.



All in all, if you are looking for Tamil books or in a rush to grab some Chinese -English bilingual books, this is probably the library for you.
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Books recommendation

I would be introducing 3 interesting books in this post. 2 are related to ballet while the last one is related to family tie.

1) Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake / James Mayhew

2) Ella Bella Ballerina and The Nutcracker / James Mayhew

Reason for choosing the books
If your child loves ballet, the books I am going to recommend today should be able to entertain her well enough, especially these two a famous ballet pieces.




Synopsis: - For both stories, Ella Bella drifted/ transported into the world of both famous ballet scenes. In Swan Lake, she met Odette and tried to unite her with her prince.
In Nutcracker, she joined Clara to fight against the evil mouse king.
On the last page book, young readers would learn about the origins of each ballet.

Although the stories are probably nothing new to me but definitely a great introduction to little girls who loves ballet. Both books are beautifully illustrated , Little One loves them very much and we are looking forward to borrow new titles!

Trixie Ten / Sarah Massini
Synopsis: - Trixie finds her 9 siblings too noisy and decides to leave home.  After she leaves home, she discovers other animals with plenty of siblings too. She misses home thereafter.

Reason for choosing the book:
From the book cover, you realised that Trixie is a fingerprint. Not surprising, her siblings are all fingerprints. Even the animals that she met are made from fingerprints! It gives you an idea of creating art pieces made of fingerprints.

The book has various illustrations which are good for young readers who are learning to count. 

The book is also good to instill that family ties are important regardless they are annoying or not, they care about one another.


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Address

4300 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6

Singapore 569842

24-hour Bookdrop

How to get there

Nearest MRT: Ang Mo Kio

Bus Interchange: Ang Mo Kio

Buses: 13, 86, 162, 138, 851, 852, 853

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Library Hop # 5 :- Let's hop to Library @ Orchard

Library@orchard reopened!  We went for a short visit recently.

Library@orchard, is originally situated in Ngee Ann City on 21 October 1999, a shopping mall within the famous Orchard Road shopping belt, designed to cater to the needs of young adults. It was closed on 30 November 2007. It re-located and finally open on 23 October 2014 at 277 Orchard Road, #03-12 / #04-11 Orchard Gateway. It is the first 2- storey public library to be situated in a shopping mall.

The library carries the largest collection on design and applied arts. The upper level is cosy with various personal spaces to enjoy reading while the lower level carries the biggest magazine collection in a public library. In fact, it is a magazine wall. These magazines are hot items, we peeped in several of them. The popular ones, like National Geographic, are empty. The library houses quite a number of Chinese magazines. The videos are available on the lower level too. These are unique collections of animation. The book collection is great, there are even ladders to access books on higher shelves. A pity that they do not have a dedicated collection for children.

This is also the first public library in Singapore to allow users to self-collect books they have reserved even beyond the opening hours. However, users have to collect them within the mall's opening hours.
You can check items out and exit at both levels.

entrance at level 4 

history of Orchard Road

magazine wall at level 3. We love its neat look. The disadvantage is you do not know whether any magazines is available until you open the drawer.

High rolling track ladders to access to higher shelves

This shelf for storing DVD is quite unique and pleasant. A chic design.

You can test play the DVDs before borrowing

On the upper level, there are secluded spaces (cocoons) for people who wants to do their readings. There are 5 cocoons in the library but Little One only managed to find 2.

Reading space

Cocoon

Despite the lack of children books here, Little One still finds joy in locating the above cocoons. She thinks they are good hide and seek spot. 

Children book recommendations for pre-schoolers.

Reason for choosing the books:
Little One chose this series of books herself. She likes the cute illustrations. The books are filled with pictures and easy to read. This set of books are written by local author, Anna Phang, illustrated by Debbi P.

1) I want a puppy too!
This is a good book to tell children that taking care of pets is not a simple task. Great responsibilities is required from the owner. It is not simply just having fun with the pet. Little One used to ask for pets. After reading this, it dawn on her that taking care of pets is not easy task.

2) I Don't want to wash my hands!
Unhygienic Chicken Cha Cha does not like to wash his hands until he was hit by some serious germs that made him really sick. This book is good to teach children that personal hygiene is important.

3) I have Constipation!
Chicken Cha Cha is having constipation! The book offers great ideas for children to resolve the problem.

And do you know, this set is one of Winner of the Silver Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards 2014 under the Best Book Series -Picture Book? Little One loves this series a lot and she talks to me excitedly that she wants to read them again when she saw me writing this blog. Her reason: she finds the story humorous and the illustration cute. The best part? She still remembers the moral of the stories.

Tips for nurturing good readers
-Allow your child to pick his or her own book. He/She would be interested to listen to the story especially if it is something he/she had chosen. If the chosen story is too wordy and you do not have the time to read and summaries to the child, just explain that the book is too difficult for his/her level. If the child insist on having the wordy book, what you can do is a story telling from looking at illustrations.

How do you nurture good readers? Do you have tips to share?

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Address

277 Orchard Road
#03-12 / #04-11 Orchard Gateway
Singapore 238858

How to get there

Nearest MRT: Somerset
Buses: 7, 14, 14e, 16, 65, 106, 111, 123, 143, 175, 502, 502a, 587, 590, 598

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Library Hop # 4 :- Let's hop to Central Public Library

We have been so caught up with our March holidays and a couple of goodbye posts,  I thought I could complete this post mid April just in time for Earth Day on 22nd April. However, little one had a cut on her middle finger and have to be absent from school for 1 whole week , then I fell sick soon after that, in the end, I only had the time to blog this now.

This month, we are going to hop to the Central Library.

Central Library holds the first green library for children. It is so meaningful to blog about it this month, isn't that so? Meanwhile, I shall be blogging probably for a couple of months on environmental issues. So, to start the ball rolling with Central library. How green exactly is the library?

National Library building evening shot

History

Located at 100 Victoria Street, the basement of the National Library Building, the Central Library is full of history. It was first started by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1823 as a library to support the educational aim of Singapore Institution (Now known as Raffles Institution)

This library never had its own building till 1950s. It was officially open 12 November 1960 by the President Yusof bin Ishak. Mr Lee Kong Chian had contributed 16% of the total cost of the building then. The building was formerly at Stamford Road but had since closed on 1st April 2004. The building is being demolished to make way for a road tunnel and SMU.

The new building at Victoria Street was opened to public on 22 July 2005 and officially opened on 12 November 2005 by President S. R . Nathan. Central Library occupies the basement of the building, covering a floor area of  6,407 square metre. It shares the building with the Drama Centre managed by National Arts Council. 

Over the years, the library collection builds up. It provides a wide collection of books, it also contains the largest collection of fiction books compared to the rest of the Public libraries. Being close proximity to schools such as SMU and NAFA, it also holds a good collection of Business and Designs and Creativity titles.

The World's first Green Library for children is found here too.

How green is the library?

To begin with, let's start with the library building. Just to list some eco-friendly features
1) Glass panels to let in natural lights , reduce the usage of indoor lighting
2) Light shelves to reflect lights deeper into the building 
3) Incorporating environmentally-friendly technologies such as smart sensors to reduce energy consumption.

• Rain sensors -> reduce amount of water required to water plants during rainy days.
• Light sensors -> dim or switch indoor light when there is enough natural lights
• Motion sensors within escalators and taps-> switch on only when in use.

4) 14 landscaped gardens , besides being pleasing to the eyes, regulate daytime temperature in the building.

The Central Library

Book exchange corner is located just outside the library. The programme is extended to community clubs, schools, Residents' Committee centre as well as corporate offices. If you have any old books which you do not read any more, why not donate them rather than throw away? You can give these books a new lease of life.

What a green idea! You can recycle your used cartridges here

When you enter you would be greeted by recommended books in cardboard book stand (left) and sustainable light display (right)

Ongoing Exhibition, Moments of Motherhood, mixed media showcase by Paulina Constancia

 Below 2 pictures are taken in the Bamboo Garden , just next to Central Library. The red bricks look familiar? They are the very red bricks from the former National Library at Stamford Road. Sculptures of people reading books are the works of local artist Chong Fah Cheong.

I spotted shelves and shelves of books on knitting and crocheting.

A wide range of books on knitting

Children's section



The Tree House 
A closer look at this centrepiece. The leaves are made from recycled plastic bottles. An fantastic recycling project for display.

Children loves to climb up this tree to read books too

30 % of the books located at the Children's section focus on green topics such as animals, plants, nature, water resources, weather, environment, recycling and climate change. A good place to choose books to educate youngsters about nature.

Paper crafts

E reading kiosks. Plants are spotted behind

Mushroom shelf display at the Cosy Reading Corner

A cute craft spotted

Non fiction book recommendations for pre-schoolers.

Reason for choosing the books:
Since we are in a green library, why not read some green books?
I picked the following books from the library to read to little one. Getting her to know plants and animals of which many we have never seen before in real life.

The first 2 books are borrowed from the Central Library. You may get them in other branches as well.
I like the idea of introducing something familiar to little one. We all wear T-shirts. Where do they come from? What happen if they were old? Do you simply discard them? Or should we start to recycle them instead? Hopefully by introducing these 2 books she would treasure her own clothes more. She prefers to wear dresses and would reject pants or shorts. More than often, we realise she outgrows the T-shirts, blouses, shorts and pants after wearing a few times. By introducing how clothes come about, hopefully, she would learn to treasure more and not waste what Mother Earth had provided.

1) From Cotton to T-shirt by Robin Nelson
This is suitable to preschoolers. I have never seen a cotton plant in my life. This is fantastic! It describes in simple sentences how a T-shirt is made from fruits (cotton bolls) of cotton plants. 


2) Old Clothes by Daniel Nunn
A pretty informative book describing what happen to old clothes when we dump them away. The book introduces recycling to children in simple sentences. The book also give you some ideas how to reuse old clothes. They also give instructions on how to make your own sock puppet.

3) Tropical Rain Forest by April Pulley Sayre, published by Scholastic
I love Scholastic books, they are informative and yet simple to read to children. Although my little one may not grasp the concept of rain forest. This is a good brief introduction to what a rain forest is and what deforestation is. Little one loves to flip through the pages and ask about the name of the plants and animals.




Address

100 Victoria Street
Singapore 188064

Bookdrop: 24-hour

How to get there

Nearest MRT: Bugis, City Hall MRT Station
Bus Interchange:
Buses: 145, 197, 32, 51, 63, 7, 80 175 , SMRT 851, 61, 851, 61
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This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day 

Library Hop # 3 :- Let's hop to Queenstown Public Library

Let me introduce you the oldest library building that is still standing in Singapore. Let's hop to Queenstown Library.

Queenstown library is the library I have been visiting since young. It brings back lots of fond memories. The Queenstown polyclinic used to situate at the existing Margaret Drive Dormitory. Well, things very different now. Gone were the Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre and the Margaret Drive hawker centre where you can find cheap and delicious food. Gone were the HDB buildings that used to be in front of the library. Tah Chung Emporium was demolished even earlier. It was the place where my mom used to buy me toys and bring our family shopping around after a library trip. I still visit the place when I was having my tertiary education. Oops! Did I just review my age? With all these buildings gone, it is a no wonder nowadays people would comment this library is situated in a "ulu" (remote and out-of-the-way) place when they first visit the library. If you wonder whether the building would be demolished? The answer is no. I am glad that the building is one of the 3 buildings added to be conserved in Queenstown, bringing the total number to 6.

I still remember the location of  this photo from Queenstown library.  I used to borrow from and return books at these counters. They were not electronically scanned then. I remembered each book have a slip of paper paste on the first page and were stamped with a date stamp to indicate when we should return the books. Sometimes, when the books were so popular , you can see more than a slip of paper on the first page. I remember role playing as a librarian and ask my sister to borrow books (not library books)  from me. Then I get to stamp on the paper which we clip onto the first cover of the book. That was fun!

Source: One of the old photos display near the stairs leading to the 2nd storey

Queenstown library, a 2- storey stand alone library,  is located at 53 Margaret Drive. It was opened in 30th April  1970, by the then- Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Queenstown, being the first satellite town, is chosen to have the first full time branch library built. It was 3,195.85 square metres when it was first built. It was closed on 4th February 2003 for upgrading and reopened 8 months later on 31 October 2003 with a expanded floor area of 3,349 square metres with a initial collection of about 150,000 printed and non- printed items. Today, they have a collection of 210,000 books, magazines and audio-visual items.

On displayed in the library

Present look of  Queenstown Library -   2014

Layout:

1st storey : Children’s Collection, Adult Fiction,  Family and Parenting collection, magazines, newspapers, multimedia stations, programme zone, activity area and Café Galilee .

2nd storey : Adult Non-Fiction, Reference Collection, Young People’s Collection, Comics Collection, quiet reading room and multipurpose room are located

Enhanced  ( Kids friendly and wheelchair friendly) facilities spotted : -

1. wheelchair/ pram- friendly access ramp near the entrance of the library
2. a lift within the building.
3. toilets and self-help stations with lowered heights. (Since I mention about toilets, there is a squat toilet in the ladies located in the second storey. I bet younger generation , like my girl have never seen before.)

Special facility :-

Garden

Garden is closed to public unless there is a gardening workshop or activity.

Queenstown library seemed to be the only branch library to have a garden of its own. (I would not say it is the only one because I have yet to explore all the libraries in Singapore. Yes, I am still hopping around) Several workshops about gardening has been conducted here. The other library that conducts outdoor gardening programme is none other than the Central library which is situated at the National Library Building. This library is garden themed library with focus on garden related library programmes. If you are keen on volunteering yourself for garden work, you may want to register Customer Service Counter at Level 1. 

Bicycle park - Definitely a must

The boundary wall which I am so familiar with

Below are some sketches which I found while touring around the library.

Learning regardless whether you are young or old.

Love the quote and crown frame. It's so Queen's style!

Did you know? 
Being the first branch library, it is not surprising Queenstown library has acquired first for many things. But did you know that one of the reason Queenstown library became fully air-conditioned in 1978, it was due to teenagers used to throw books outside the library through the windows so that they could take home without borrowing them? Tsk tsk tsk...

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Books recommendation

This month we would be recommending 3 Chinese books instead. Ah girl loves all of them  and has difficulty choosing her favourite. Finally she choose 奶奶的八十大寿 = Grandma's eightieth birthday simply because she loves birthday party. LOL...

我怕黑 / 编绘, 铁皮人美术. (translated as I am afraid of dark)

Synopsis: - Little children are afraid of dark. So is the little character of the book. Read about why a child is afraid of darkness, especially when they were to sleep alone. Discover tips at the end of the book to help children cope with the fear of darkness.

Reason for choosing the book:
The illustration is cute and little one had started to be afraid of dark recently and had borrowed in the hope that I could overcome her fear. And yes, it is working! 

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我从哪里来 : 生理认识的学习 / 作者, 唐韵 ; 绘者, 铁皮人美术. (translated as where do I come from?)

Synopsis: - A little girl is very curious about where she come from and starts asking the living things around her where they come from and finally approaching her mommy when she realised she is not born the same way as the rest of the living things.

Reason for choosing the book:
It is an unavoidable question. Fascinated by the illustration and interested to know how exactly to touch on the birds and the bees without embarrassment. Yes, I think this is a good read.

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奶奶的八十大寿 = Grandma's eightieth birthday / story by Pauline Loh ; illustration by E'van LeAngelis S.

Synopsis: - Grandma's birthday is coming but everyone seemed so busy to attend. What can Meng Meng and An An do to get everyone to celebrate the birthday? It would good if everyone could come together isn't it?

Reason for choosing the book:

This is a delightful find! It focus on family tie, a value I have wanted to instil in my little one. It is also a bilingual book with focus on simple Chinese words such as  奶奶 (grandmother) , 爷爷 (grandfather) and 气球 (balloon). Children who are learning to write can trace the enlarge word as show below to learn to write. 

Being a bilingual book, the book contains both English and Chinese, it saves me the trouble of translating. Lol...

Another note to add on, the author of this book is Pauline Loh, writer of " No More Cocoa" A guide about 

Pneumococccal Disease. 

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Address

53 Margaret Drive
Singapore 149297

24-hour Bookdrop

How to get there

Nearest MRT: Queenstown
Buses: 32 via Margaret Drive,

51, 111, 145, 186, 195, 970 via Commonwealth Avenue

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