The National Library brings awareness to Singapore’s published heritage and the importance of preservation.

 

In an effort to increase the public’s awareness and appreciation of Singapore’s published heritage, and to showcase the National Library’s legal deposit collection, the National Library organised a two-day Our Published Heritage event. There are more than 1.3 million items in the legal deposit collection and topics span diverse fields of literary and visual arts, business, social sciences and humanities.

Through the event, the National Library hopes that visitors will be able to gain a deeper insight into Singapore’s published heritage and understand the importance of depositing materials published in Singapore with the National Library for preservation.

At the event, the legal deposit collection was showcased in five zones, namely:

1. Born Digital (Web archiving and digital legal deposit) – This section documented the trend of publishing as it moved towards the digital form. It emphasised the significance of collecting and capturing these digital contents to document the history of this era for future generations.
2. The Singapore Foodie (food) – A display of recipe books, food magazines and guidebooks to favourite hunts from the legal deposit collection tells the story of Singapore’s multi-ethnic heritage and cosmopolitan cuisine. Visitors got a chance to take home recipes from local publications and took a photo on top of a giant Peranakan kueh, lapis sagu!
3. Fashion Parade (fashion) – Singapore was and still is an interesting melting pot for fashion. Characterised by a mix of traditional ethnic wear, local fashion also showed influences from the West through the ages. These are evidenced in NLB’s legal deposit collection of fashion and beauty periodicals deposited by publishers. During the event, children also took home paper dolls dressed in ethnic costumes.
4. Star-struck! (entertainment) – The development of Singapore’s entertainment scene can be seen through periodicals and film guides from NLB’s legal deposit collection. In this zone, visitors got a chance to appear on the cover of “Fanfare”, a popular magazine in the ’60s, dressed in costumes and posing with props of yesteryear.
5. Childhood Memories (childhood games and books) – Play is an important aspect of Singapore life. Childhood games such as snakes and ladders, and traditional games such as hopscotch hold a nostalgic appeal for Singaporeans. Visitors got to relive their childhood memories at the game stations – giant snakes and ladders, hopscotch, five stones and other familiar childhood games.

 

Roving exhibition

From November 2018 to January 2019, the Our Published Heritage showcase of legal deposit collection materials will travel to three regional libraries at the following dates and locations:

• Woodlands Regional Library: November 7 – December 9, 2018 (Level 4 Everest Room)
• Tampines Regional Library: December 10, 2018 – January 6, 2019 (Level 6 Programme Zone)
• Jurong Regional Library: January 7 – January 27, 2019 (Level 1)

 

(** PHOTO CREDITS: National Library Board)

 

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