Entry #10

• Luyt, Brendan.  (2009)  "Colonialism, ethnicity, and geopolitics in the development of the Singapore National Library."  Libraries & the Cultural Record, 44 (4), 418-433.
• A "Dig Deeper" article from Contemporary Libraries
• Accessible online at http://bit.ly/2m3yF0v

There are many interesting things happening at this time in libraries.  The 1950s and 60s in America were particularly tumultuous and there seems no lack of articles available discussing how libraries reacted to different events or to changing societal attitudes.  But this particular article caught my eye because it is about the Singapore National Library, in a country whose history I do not know much about.

The theme of this article is striking--the power of language.  The British colonists were not concerned with investing into Singapore's infrastructure, so it was not surprising that funds weren't spent on education and libraries.  The Raffles Library existed, in theory for everyone, but the subscription and the English-language materials made it in practice only for Europeans.  Later on, when Singapore began moving towards independence, Lee Kong Chian offered the new government $375,000 to build a national public library--but only if it stocked materials in Asian languages.  The issue was that there were four languages to supply for.  Malay as the national language needed to be developed.  Mandarin materials overwhelmed the collection, as the Chinese (who, like the British, used Singapore for its economic opportunities) did put money into Singapore's social structure.  English, despite being the language of their occupiers, was still seen as "the language of the future."  Politics creeped into the library's collection development again during the Cold War.  Singapore's government was anti-Communist and passed several acts to restrict 'offending' literature--which meant Chinese-language literature suddenly wasn't coming into Singapore.  (And as most Singapore citizens had received a Chinese education, because that's who funded their schools, the librarians worried about alienating that demographic.)

In today's contemporary public library, we worry about how to split our CD funds so that Spanish-speakers (and others, depending on the individual community) feel represented and welcome in the library.  Which feels challenging enough!  So it was fascinating to read Luyt's article about how the Singapore National Library had to deal with the issue of languages to the extreme.