Public Library Quarterly, 31:267–280, 2012

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0161-6846 print/1541-1540 online
DOI: 10.1080/01616846.2012.707111

The Transformation of Singapore’s Public

Libraries: A Case Study

DURDA RAJSIC
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

KRISTINA BUCHER
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, USA

WILLIAM OSEI-POKU
ICF International, Rockville, Maryland, USA

This article is an overview of the vast changes that were made in

Singapore’s public libraries, focusing especially on how leadership
made the reforms both relevant and healthy for the future of the
system.

KEYWORDS Singapore public libraries, National Library Board

of Singapore, technology as change tool, modernization of
Singapore libraries

The outstanding success achieved by Singapore’s public libraries in modern-

izing their systems and services can serve as an important example to many
libraries around the world. Singapore had a struggling library system that
had to change in order to meet the service needs of its community. Options
were limited, and many different players had to act in order to bring about
the system’s transformation.
What could a library system in such a situation do in order to meet
its constituent’s service needs? The transformation of Singapore’s libraries
appears to exemplify how change may be used to solve the problems of
libraries in similar circumstances.

Received: 02/12; Accepted: 02/12

This article originated as a public libraries class project produced by the three authors as
they were working on their degrees in Drexel University’s Library and Information Science
program.
Address correspondence to Durda Rajsic, Drexel University, 101 N. 34th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. E-mail: dr376@drexel.edu

267
268 D. Rajsic et al.

In this article we point out the major issues faced by Singapore’s pub-
lic libraries and discuss the leadership team’s processes, decisions, and
strategies to transform the system. We also discuss the major factors that con-
tributed to the success of the vast makeover and take a brief look at some of
the unintended consequences of the change. Finally, we outline the major
leadership qualities that contributed to the success of the huge changes and
argue that without quality leadership it would have been impossible for
the transformation to have succeeded regardless of other factors such as
funding, culture, and technology.
We are not suggesting that blind mimicry of Singapore’s examples will
bring automatic success. Instead, we believe that an understanding of the
underlying principles and qualities that enabled Singapore’s success may
help librarians facing similar problems if they borrow from those principles
and adapt and apply them to their own situations—hopefully with the same
results.

MAJOR ISSUES FACING THE ORGANIZATION

Collections
One major issue that faced Singapore’s public libraries, which made change
essential, was the fact that the library collections wore out too quickly. Books
had a shelf life of only eleven years, which meant that either limited bud-
get dollars had to be devoted to replacing them rather than purchasing
new titles or they were lost from the collection forever. On a larger scale,
branch libraries were duplicating each other’s collections rather than work-
ing together in a coordinated way to achieve maximum subject coverage on
a national level.
Because of such inefficient uses of limited resources, the size and cover-
age of the public library collections were not sufficient to meet patron needs.
Furthermore, inefficiencies in the way collections were managed meant that
patrons did not have the level of access to them that they needed. For
example, carts of unshelved books crowded the libraries’ aisles. These were
books that patrons would not be able to find on the shelves when they went
looking for them.
Singapore made it a priority to invest in information technology (IT),
education, and training, thereby building a “knowledge-based economy”
(Hallowell et al. 2001, 2–3). One long-term imperative of this policy involved
collections; specifically, how to give citizens access to the information
resources necessary to achieve this knowledge.
In “The Case for Quality Book Selection,” library scholar Murray C. Bob
states that an important responsibility for all libraries is related to the breadth
and depth of collections. He writes:
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 269

If there are good books and libraries don’t buy them, who will? Libraries
have a responsibility to ideas, to nurturing, sustaining, preserving, and
making readily available the intellectual capital of our society to anyone
who may want or need it, now or in the future. Collections are built to
serve over time. By doing that, we show responsibility to the citizens
who pay for the service. (Bob 1982, 1710)

Here was another collections responsibility that the Singapore’s public

libraries were not fulfilling prior to their transformation.

Services
Along with inadequate collections, the services of Singapore’s libraries were
inadequate. Because of inefficient circulation practices, a trip to the library
resulted in bored users standing in a long, slow-moving line waiting to return
or check out books. This was a far cry from the Singapore National Library
Board’s visionary goal of an “any time, any place e-library of the future that
would complement the physical network of libraries in promoting social
interaction and community bonding” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 1).
Because of inefficient service arrangements, library staff often spent
much of their time as caretakers of the collections, checking materials in
and out (i.e., collection security) along with repairing torn book spines and
ripped pages, rather than providing good customer service to patrons. This
made the library a static book repository rather than a dynamic “place for
people to learn, explore, and discover” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 1). Staff rec-
ognized that the reorganization of services and new technology would allow
them to improve services, including organization of innovative ways to reach
out electronically to users in their homes and offices. The sort of online com-
munities and electronic information services that increasingly Internet-savvy
users would rightfully expect from a library without walls were not being
offered by Singapore’s public libraries.

Facilities and Technology

A third issue that Singapore’s public libraries faced that made change essen-
tial was that library facilities and technologies had not kept pace with user
needs and expectations. “Libraries were cramped,” inadequate for the num-
ber of visitors and the tasks they wanted to undertake there (Hallowell et al.
2001, 2).
An important long-term goal of Singapore’s public libraries is to entice
people to come into their buildings and make use of their many learning
resources. But if the buildings are crowded and aesthetically uninviting,
users are likely to go elsewhere. Regarding technology, a ten-year-old system
supported the National Library’s transactions. Furthermore, “very few [library
270 D. Rajsic et al.

staff] had computer access, and even fewer had email access” (Hallowell
et al. 2001, 5).
It would be exceedingly difficult for the libraries to fulfill their long-
term goal of making Singaporeans “knowledge navigators” by teaching them
information literacy skills if the librarians themselves lacked sufficient com-
puter access. It would be nearly impossible for the libraries to offer “a
range of electronic information services resting on [their] back-end systems”
(Hallowell et al. 2001, 12) if those systems were technologically antiquated.

IMPLEMENTING THE PROCESS OF CHANGE

Pillars of Change
The implementation of the process of change began in 1990, when
“Singapore established the Ministry of Information and the Arts, vesting it
with the responsibility for managing the public library system” (Hallowell
et al. 2001, 3). Assigning the care of the public libraries to an office on the
national level was a huge step toward getting the libraries the attention they
deserved. In 1992 the Minister of Information and the Arts, George Yeo,
set up the Library 2000 Committee. The committee appointed Dr. Tan Chin
Nam as its chairman, and in 1995 “a new statutory board, the National Library
Board (NLB) was formed to transform the Library 2000 vision into reality and
to lead library development in Singapore” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 4).
The process of change would be implemented and sustained by “three
pillars: (1) organizational leadership, defined as a flexible structure and
an effective management system; (2) technology to speed, streamline and
improve service to patrons while increasing the efficiency of library oper-
ations; and (3) human resources, to attract, train, retain and motivate
high-quality staff” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 4).
Organizational leadership was a huge factor in achieving positive
changes. Christopher Chia was chosen to be the NLB’s chief executive. He
trusted the professional librarians to know what the patrons wanted and in
turn they trusted him to change the process by which it was delivered. He
brought with him energy, humor, communication, and an awesome work
ethic.
Technology also played a role as an important pillar of change.
Technology was used to improve the accessibility and services offered by
Singapore’s public libraries. It let patrons return books to any branch and
allowed them to directly access the Internet from homes and offices at a time
when this was unheard of. It also brought about a consistency of services
across all the branches.
Technology also helped to make things move faster; for example, free-
ing up space that would previously have been taken up by long lines.
“NLB became the world’s first library to fully deploy RFID technology for
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 271

self-checkout” (Oder 2004, 43). This enabled check out times to be reduced
to fifteen minutes from the former hour-long wait to check out books. Book
returns now take mere seconds and have a much quicker turn over time.
With the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, materials are now
categorized into twenty-seven simple groups, allowing books to be sorted
and put “back on the shelves within 15 minutes of return, which is a service
target, compared to the eight hours it used to take several years ago” (Chia
2001, 346).
To transform Singapore’s public libraries many changes were imple-
mented, but the team on the NLB knew that human resources would be the
key to their success. The NLB knew that for any changes to be implemented
successfully, they would have to get employees to feel safe and secure in
their jobs. Only then would it be possible to get staff to adopt many of the
changes for which they were needed to help implement.
But how in a time of so much restructuring was the management team
able to accomplish this? They did so by reassuring workers that layoffs
would not take place; by giving workers slight raises, new uniforms, and
business cards; and by asking workers to contribute suggestions. “Massive
communication sessions were held and participation in the change effort
was encouraged at all levels. In its first year, 65% of the 3,337 suggestions
generated by a staff suggestion scheme were implemented” (Hallowell et al.
2001, 6).
Through taking these steps the management of Singapore’s public
libraries was able to make the employees feel that they were a part of
the changes, thereby making them more invested in seeing the changes
come to fruition. For example, staff who previously stamped books might
worry that they would be replaced by the self-checkout machines and there-
fore initially might resist the change. However, once they understood that
they were not going to be laid off but, rather, retrained to assist users
on the floor and “add value to the services provided” (Hallowell et al.
2001, 11) they might then feel more invested in and supportive of the
transformation.

Unintended Consequences
But as successful as the three pillars of organizational leadership, technology,
and human resources management and training were, some comments made
by Chairman Yao in 2001 suggested that a few of the strategies undertaken
by the NLB team may have had some unintended consequences.
Yao remarked that “a major issue is the convergence of education and
entertainment. We are finding that to inform and educate, we have to enter-
tain. At what point will the library become an entertainment resource?”
(Hallowell et al. 2001, 13). As we recall, the NLB set out to transform the
public library system into one that would support a “learning nation” of
272 D. Rajsic et al.

“workaholics” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 2). To attract patrons, the NLB looked
not just to other libraries but also to the world of retail to see what strategies
they employ to improve the customer experience (Hallowell et al. 2001, 8).
But Singapore’s public libraries must be careful that using these marketing
measures to please their customers does not have the unintended outcome
of having their goal to entertain people overshadow their goal to inform
and educate people. This is especially true since, as Chairman Yao stated,
“the curious thing about entertainment is that it is always local” (Hallowell
et al. 2001, 13). It does not make sense for libraries to invest more in enter-
tainment that will appeal to a limited number of people than they do in
knowledge resources that will enable the country of Singapore as a whole
to become a first-league developed nation.
Yao also wondered “how the library system will respond to the fact that
we generate more knowledge every few years now than we ever have before
in history. This will require us to think about how we see public libraries—
as physical locations or knowledge repositories?” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 13).
It is due to the rise of digital technologies and digital storage capabilities
that we now have the ability to generate so much knowledge. Yet under the
direction of the NLB, a great deal of technology, business-process reengi-
neering, and staff training was geared toward improving the circulation of
the physical collection in Singapore’s public libraries (Hallowell et al. 2001,
10–11). Perhaps a portion of this time and these resources could have been
better directed toward facilitating the libraries’ shift toward having more
electronic holdings than physical ones, toward being a virtual warehouse of
knowledge rather than just a brick and mortar building.
The managers’ acknowledgment that more needed to be done to move
away from the NLB-owned collection and toward the “library without walls”
rubric lends some credence to this suggestion (Hallowell et al. 2001, 11–12).
But as the next section will demonstrate, because of the predominantly skill-
ful leadership shown by the NLB in leading the transformation of Singapore’s
public libraries, plenty of budget money remains in the coffers to make the
“library without walls” even more of a reality.

TRANSFORMING THE ORGANIZATION

It is tempting to look at the amount of money (a $1 billion capital

investment) that was budgeted by the Singaporean government for the trans-
formation of the public libraries and conclude that it was the major factor in
ensuring the success of the transformation of the libraries. However, a care-
ful consideration of all the factors reveals otherwise: it was the leadership,
or the quality of leadership, that made the difference.
The successful transformation of the project depended on more than the
provision of money by the government. It even went beyond the political
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 273

willingness of the government to make the transformation a high priority.

In the article “Transforming Singapore’s Public Libraries,” the minister of
information alluded to the important role leadership played in the transfor-
mation process when he was quoted as saying: “We are a pragmatic country,
when we see a problem, we analyze it objectively and put the right people
together to find a solution” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 2). Putting the right peo-
ple together to find a solution is all about leadership and less about money.
It is even less about culture because it was within the same culture that the
problem was created in the first place.
It is important to note that even when receiving funding for a library
project, leadership skills such as good communication must be demon-
strated. This is exactly what happened during the process of obtaining an
IT budget of $100 million as Dr. Tan Chin Nam, the then chairman of the
National Computer Board (NCB) explains: “We got the budget by arguing
that we have to empower our people to learn to compete in the knowledge
economy” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 4).
In a study titled “Money and Leadership: A Study of Theses on Public
School Libraries Submitted to the University of the Philippines’ Institute of
Library and Information Science,” Vernon R. Totanes acknowledged the
overwhelming agreement among students about the lack of funding for
libraries in the Philippines. However, he also asked a very important ques-
tion: “But why is it that despite government neglect, some public school
libraries have flourished, while most have remained the same?” (Totanes
2006, 1). He affirmed that leadership is likely the determining factor.
“Leadership is also very important. After all, two individuals given similar
amounts of money will not necessarily achieve similar goals,” he accurately
concluded (Totanes 2006, 1, 6).
There is absolutely no doubt that public libraries need more money
to operate effectively. After all, libraries usually do not charge for most of
their services, so their operations and acquisitions need to be funded by
the government. If the example of Singapore’s public libraries teaches us
anything, it is that cutting funding to public libraries whenever there is an
economic problem is not the best leadership approach. Rather, the study tells
us how we can strategically use investments and improvements in libraries
to generate the necessary skills and interests in citizens to become “knowl-
edge navigators” and help position the country to “become a first league
developed country in terms of economic dynamism, quality of life, national
identity, and global reach” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 3).
Such an example is very important for many states in the United States,
whose first reaction to economic difficulty is to cut the budget for public
libraries. While it is not our intention to introduce politics into this article, it
is important to note that these budget cuts are usually contrary to the wishes
and best interests of the citizens of these states.
For example, according to the American Library Association (2009), “in
Maryland, 90 percent of the state’s citizens say public libraries are ‘a good
274 D. Rajsic et al.

investment.’ More than 40 percent of the citizens think of public libraries as

an economic anchor, potentially attracting ‘good businesses’ to their area.”
Furthermore, “In Florida, for every dollar of public support spent on
public libraries, income or wages increases by $12.66, and returned $6.54 for
every dollar invested.”
And “in South Carolina, the total direct and indirect return on investment
for every $1 spent on the state’s public libraries by South Carolina State and
local governments is $4.48—nearly 350 percent.”
While it is true that funding public libraries brings about a natural return
on investment, it is also important for libraries to demonstrate that they are
using leadership techniques to bring about the best possible return on invest-
ment. This is exactly what the Singapore Public Library System did in its
transformation. Throughout the process of transforming the libraries, major
leadership decisions were made and actions and reactions were undertaken
because these decisions were made objectively by leaders who were willing
to accept some failure. In such a decision-making setting, it is not surprising
that they were hugely successful.

LEADERSHIP
Leadership in Teamwork
In this section we look at some of the major leadership qualities demon-
strated by the Singapore team while transforming the libraries, and we will
attempt to buttress the point that leadership and not money was the major
factor that guaranteed the success of the transformation.
First, Dr. Christopher Chia and his management team demonstrated
a clear sense of leadership in guiding the transformation of the project.
It amazes us how they approached this project with such boldness. They
put a great deal at stake and the risks they took paid off very well for
them. In Hallowell et al. (2001, 1) Chia is quoted as saying: “We felt that if
we could meld a highly motivated staff with modern marketing information
technology, the results would come.”
This is a leadership quality that goes beyond having a large budget.
In his book Fortune Favors the Bold, Lester Thurow, the Lemelson Professor
of Management and Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), correctly argues that those nations that are bold enough to venture
into new areas are the ones that will succeed. “Everything there is to be
found geographically has been found. But who knows what exciting new
continents there are to find in the technologies of the third industrial revo-
lution. Like the geographic explorers who had the compasses and the ships,
we today have all the tools necessary to start exploring some brand-new,
never-known areas. Those who leap sometimes lose, but those who do not
leap always lose. Fortune favors the bold” (Thurow 2003, 308–9).
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 275

This assertion is applicable to libraries as well because boldness is a

leadership quality that can transform libraries all around us. Not only did
the team approach the transformation with boldness but they also recog-
nized the fact that they are a team and would need each other during this
arduous process. To support the preceding point, Dr. Chia is quoted as say-
ing: “We had ownership and it was a team effort” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 10).
Teamwork is an important leadership technique that is needed to make any
project the size of the Singaporean example a successful endeavor.

Leadership in Motivation
The leadership team knew how to motivate the staff to do more without
increasing the number of staff. They did this by communicating to them that
their jobs were safe and also followed up with more than words by giving
the staff raises (no matter how small), appropriate uniforms, business cards,
improved workspaces, appropriate tools (PCs), and education and training
(Hallowell et al. 2001, 6). The ability of the team to motivate the existing
staff to achieve their full potential was an important factor in ensuring the
success of the transformation.

Leadership in Organization
One important leadership quality is the ability to identify what does not
work and change it. It was this leadership quality that the team demon-
strated throughout the transformation process. The area where this was most
needed was in the organizational structure of the library system, where, the
team realized, a hierarchical structure would not work during a time of
such great change. What they decided to do instead was reorganize staff
to approach problems in a more cooperative, team-like environment. “A
cool organization needs a cool purpose that staff can relate to and which
customers find cool so they want to come back” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 13).

Leadership in Training
“In 1998 alone NLB invested S$1.4 million in training” (Hallowell et al. 2001,
6). Due to the nature of the transformation, it was important that the staff be
trained to accommodate the new paradigm, and the team accomplished this
by investing heavily in education and training. As the saying goes, “if you
think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Leadership in Performance Evaluation

The leadership team also provided guidance in performance evaluation by
introducing objectivity factors—“the voice of the customer” and “complaints
276 D. Rajsic et al.

versus compliment” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 6) in the transformation pro-

cess. Rather than allowing a staff member’s performance evaluation to rely
solely on the discretion of his or her supervisor, peer and customer input
on that staff member’s performance was taken into account as well. This
is yet another way that the library customer’s voice was allowed to be
heard.

Leadership in Strategy and Direction

Strategy and direction are important qualities that are needed for any suc-
cessful venture. The ability to strategize is what will give one company
an advantage over the other even if both companies are meeting their
targets. The leadership team strategized and brought the needed direc-
tion to the transformation of Singapore’s public libraries in a variety of
ways.
To begin with, leadership strategy was demonstrated in the reorganiza-
tion of library organizations and the services they provided (Hallowell et al.
2001, 7). Regional libraries were organized to provide reference, basic learn-
ing, and outreach services; community libraries were focused on lending;
and neighborhood or children’s libraries were designed to serve youngsters
and their parents.
Leadership strategy was also shown in the team’s clear sense of
direction in meeting patrons’ needs. This is why libraries were placed
within walking distance of most Singaporean homes, and their hours were
extended so that they would be open when patrons needed them.
The team also made it a part of their strategy to use financial resources
wisely and not waste the taxpayer’s money: this is why each library was
responsible for a certain range of the national collection to avoid unnec-
essary duplication. Yet another way that the team demonstrated leadership
strategy was in its determination to focus on what the libraries did best.
The decision to outsource interlibrary loans allowed libraries to concen-
trate their energies on serving patron needs rather than on transporting
books.

Leadership in Technology
Two factors that played particularly important roles in the NLB team’s lead-
ership strategy were technology and innovation. By building a cutting-edge
online community, they proved that they had what it took to meet the cur-
rent and future technological needs of their diverse patrons, paving the way
for the anywhere, anytime modern library. But at the same time, they made
sure to emphasize information literacy, proving that they had a strategy to
confront head on the learning curve that many patrons would experience
when faced with these new technologies.
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 277

Leadership in Marketing to Different Constituencies

The team was also quite innovative in the leadership strategies they
employed to bring about change. To begin with, they successfully applied
marketing strategies to enhance the look and feel of libraries. Using mar-
keting strategies to really understand the needs of their customers, they
organized various cultural, educational, and recreational programs that tar-
geted various age groups. They set up three advisory boards to propose
services for the Chinese, Indian, and Malay communities because they under-
stood that attention had to be given to each community’s unique cultural
needs. Every step of the way, the team experimented and strategized to find
the direction necessary for the project to be successful. The leadership they
showed contributed heavily to the NLB’s ability to bring about a positive
transformation.

Leadership in Imagination and Creativity

The team examined not only other libraries but also other sectors such as
retail and marketing, as stated previously, for inspiration. The focus was
on services that went beyond the provision of books to the provision of
a high-quality user experience. As one manager put it: “This required us
to think in ways that we never had.” In a Harvard Management Update
article by Lauren Keller Johnson titled “Are You Prepared for Change?” the
author quotes from Bill Welter and Jean Egmon’s book The Prepared Mind
of a Leader: Eight Skills Leaders Use to Innovate, Make Decisions, and Solve
Problems (Jossey-Bass, 2005). According to this book, imagination is one of
the eight essential skills that leaders need, and it is defined as the ability
to “visualize new possibilities for your company’s policies, practices, and
products” (Johnson 2008, 4). The transformation team certainly showed an
abundance of imagination in visualizing new possibilities for Singapore’s
public libraries.

Leadership in Customer Service

The team also demonstrated that they appreciated the importance of cus-
tomer service in the performance of a librarian’s duties. As a result, they
implemented many measures that went a long way toward improving cus-
tomer service. To begin with, they established borrower inquiry terminals to
let users look up what books they have checked out, thereby giving patrons
the tools they need to control their own accounts. At the same time, staff
members were deployed at the self-checkout machines to provide patrons
with firsthand assistance and to show them that their needs are important
to the library staff. Likewise, remote book drops were introduced, which
made the returning of library materials more convenient for patrons and
employees alike.
278 D. Rajsic et al.

It is important to note that prior to any of these new IT prod-

ucts or technological gadgets being developed or implemented, business
process re-engineering was exercised to ensure that the process was as
streamlined as possible before it was automated. Technology was never
introduced for its own sake but, rather, to improve the customer experi-
ence. Finally, the NLB team was able to achieve their objective of improving
customer service by utilizing goal-setting techniques. They set a variety of
achievable targets (Hallowell et al. 2001, 10) including time-to-market indi-
cators, time-to-shelf/time-to-checkout indicators, and time-to-information
indicators.

Leadership in Collaboration
The NLB team showed leadership in their willingness to collaborate, both
on an international level and with their patrons. In signing agreements to
share information and other resources with the National Library of China,
the Shanghai Library, and the Russian State Library, the team clearly under-
stood that collaborating with other countries’ library systems was essential
to the success of Singapore’s public libraries. At the same time, the fact that
the team’s plan included using global positioning system (GPS) and emer-
gent wireless technology to deliver service to hand-held devices, as well as
allowing patrons to use those devices to search the catalog, showed that
they understood that librarianship is not a static profession but a dynamic
one that must constantly make adjustments, enhancements, and improve-
ments. Librarians cannot stay hidden from the world in the ivory tower of
the stacks; they must collaborate with their patrons in order to understand
and fulfill their constantly evolving needs and expectations.

CONCLUSION

It is important to know that all the changes implemented and the thoughtful
leadership exercised have really paid off. In an article written by the leader
of this transformation, Chia (2001, 345) states: “We have 25 million loans
today and a visitorship of over 21 million. This is twofold and fivefold what
we had respectively in 1995. That is equivalent to five times the population
visiting the library every year.” Even after the success of this project, in
2001 a core NLB team was already at work on a new vision and strategic
plan. Referred to as Library 21, it aimed at supporting the community better,
encouraging innovation and creativity, and bridging the digital divide. For
this next step “the NLB has pledged itself around customer communities,
serving the needs of diverse customer service groups” (Siew 2007, 18). The
NLS also plans to achieve this through the use of volunteers. Not only will
 The Transformation of Singapore’s Public Libraries 279

volunteers help bring community to the libraries but they will also keep
down costs. This tells a story not of huge budgets but of quality leadership
with foresight and direction.
Perhaps what is most convincing about the claim that leadership and
not money was the most important factor in transforming Singapore’s public
libraries is the fact that nearly all the successes discussed in this article was
achieved with only about 20 percent of the money voted for the project. “As
of 2001 only about 20% of the total $1 billion original capital commitment to
the NLB had been deployed” (Hallowell et al. 2001, 13). Given how much
they were able to accomplish with only one-fifth of their budget, it seems
clear that the NLB will be able to accomplish even more for Singapore’s
public libraries, and the Singaporean people, in the future.

CONTRIBUTORS

Durda Rajsic completed her MS in library and information science with

a focus on youth service at Drexel University, which is also where she
currently works in Student Life.
Kristina Bucher is acquisitions and reserves manager at Esther
Raushenbush Library at Sarah Lawrence College.
William Osei-Poku completed his MS in library and information sci-
ence with a focus on digital libraries. He currently is employed by ICF
International as a technical specialist.

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