Celebrating our librarians in Singapore

Library Assistant - Choa Chu Kang Primary School

Tell us more about your role as a School Librarian.
It has been a great journey working as a librarian at the school. As the library assistant, my role is to provide library services to customers, students, and teachers. I also promote library collection and help maintain resources that support teaching and learning needs. Additionally, my job is to also provide a conducive environment for everyone to enjoy reading and learning. Reading has always been a part of my life, and as a librarian, I have the opportunity to share my interest with my students too.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
Storytelling is the most exciting part of my job. As per the interest of students, I organize quizzes for fun and encourage them to read and review their favourite books. I also sometimes show presentations and informative videos to students to better understand a particular subject.

Recently, MRL held a Fractured Fairy Tale competition.The competition had more than 80 entries! NLB invited us to submit the work of our students, and today, some of the best pieces are exhibited in the new public library of Choa Chu Kang.

Describe your journey with Civica.
It's fulfilling when people appreciate me for my hard work. Even though the learning curve has been steep with new systems and requirements, I have overcome the challenges and have coped up well. I am grateful to Civica for helping me improve my skills through training and support as and when needed. With Civica, the learning journey continues, and I am keen to pick up the necessary skills for the job.

One thing I’d like to say to my fellow Librarians is that always be proactive, adapt to changes and give your best to whatever is assigned to you!

Library Assistant - West View Primary School

Tell us more about your role as a School Librarian?
As a School Librarian, I am in charge of issuing books to students and teachers, cataloguing new books, weeding out old books, maintaining library databases, promoting library collections by handpicking recommended book titles and putting up on thematic displays.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
I love the quiet ambiance that the library offers. It feels great to work in a space that is surrounded with books as it brings so much peace. I also enjoy helping students to locate books that they are unable to find and also teach them how to locate books on their own.

What has been the most rewarding part of your job?
I have learned many new skills in this new role such as understanding and applying the Dewey Decimal System (a skillset for organizing library contents), and learning the different techniques in maintaining and repairing books in order to preserve the library collections.

Library Assistant - Si Ling Primary School

Tell us more about your role as a School Librarian.
My role as a school librarian is to provide customer service to students and teachers in school and at the same time promote library collection, organise and maintain resources that support teaching and learning needs.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
I always enjoy seeing students engrossed in books at the library. I believe reading is important for children as it helps to build resilience, happiness, communication, and empathy in students.

Describe your journey with Civica.
I have been with Civica since December 2006. I am so grateful that Civica invests significant time and resources to upskill and train their staff. I have benefited a lot from the trainings given, and it has helped me grow and develop in my role.

How would you promote reading/books/library?
I often promote books by displaying them in sections as per theme and new arrivals. Sometimes, to create a fun-filled environment at the library, I even wear costumes related to the theme to attract the students at the book section.

Library Assistant - Qihua Primary School

Tell us more about your role as a School Librarian
As a Library Assistant at Qihua Primary School, I take care of the day-to-day operations at the library. In addition to that, I assist students, teachers, and non-teaching staff with any library related matters to the best of my knowledge and ability.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
I enjoy the quiet ambience that the library offers! But whenever students come on their class visits, the library would be filled with their excitement of just being in the library, especially during the pandemic where visits to the library are restricted. I love seeing how excited the students are at the library when browsing for their favourite book titles, and the challenge they pose with their back-to-back questions about books.

Was there any event whereby the school has a special request and you have helped them?
It was the ‘Qihua Read Fest’ – the school’s library week which ran for an entire week in July. This was also my very first “project” for the school. I was tasked to recommend new book arrivals as well as a couple of popular book series that were somehow dormant or non-moving, that were suitable for each level. With help from some local teachers for each regional book titles - 3 message boards were created and displayed in the school canteen, each side promoting interesting reads. During the week and the next, several teachers booked class visits and brought their students to the library. The books that were recommended flew off the shelves!

Describe your journey with Civica.
I’ve always held admin and secretarial jobs in the hospitality industry prior to joining Civica as a Library Assistant. Approaching 50 years of age, I wanted a job that will provide more work-life balance, and I was offered the Library Assistant opportunity that I had blindly jumped into, but gladly so. Although I had doubts and was apprehensive about the role during my week-long induction, I found this new experience not so daunting, due to the wonderful support from my family, PL and LC, colleagues and the group of ladies in my cohort.

Library Assistant - Sports Hub Library

Describe your job

The Sports Hub Library is a collaborative space that promotes the learning of sport and encourages the community to embrace sport as part of a healthy lifestyle. My role is to manage the day-to-day operations of the library and organise engaging programmes and events.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy working with an interesting and thoughtful team of colleagues who are committed to serving the general community and sporting professionals – whether it be helping source the right information or navigating around the library and its services.

What has been the most rewarding part of your job?

I enjoy developing and motivating my team to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.

Describe your journey with us

I have a great working relationship with my colleagues – it’s a positive and collaborative environment where we are constantly sharing and learning from each other.

Library Officer, Attorney-General’s Chambers

Tell us about your role as a Librarian.
I’m a library officer attached to Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) Library. Generally, my duty here is to assist in day-to-day library operations which includes issuing of books, returning and shelving them and, answering user’s queries either by email, phone call or walk-in. As an officer in AGC library, my most important duty is to update Statute amendments, which are completed weekly. My team and I ensure that the physical copies in the library are updated as well.

What do you enjoy most about being a Librarian?
I love assisting queries from the users! Especially the ones that require me to do research and understanding the context of what they are looking for. Here, at the AGC library, we handle queries such as searching for a specific court case, be it locally or internationally. We also track the history of certain Statutes - how did they come about (the term used for these is ‘legislative history’), finding reasons and explanations of certain Bills and when it was passed and, looking for Parliamentary debates that can stretch as far back as the 1940s. Through these, my knowledge slowly expands. The more research queries I do, the more I notice how all these legal matters have roots in history. It amazes me to find all these connections and I have since taken a liking in history, especially in our region.

How do you promote reading/books/library?
At ACG Library, we publicise new arrival books / e-books on a monthly basis via the intranet platform. The library officers in my team (including me) take turns to do this. We do book displays near the library entrance too. As WFH is still in place, we’ve been including e-books in our new arrivals whenever we acquire it.

Library Assistant, Townsville Primary School

Tell us about your role as a School Librarian.
As Library Assistant, I am in charge of issuing library resources to users (loan/return), cataloguing books, promoting the library programmes and activities and selecting books and resources to promote the love of reading to our students. I also promote reading and library use through activities such as storytelling, book talk, displays, reading programs, special events and collaboration with academic department and NLB.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
I mostly enjoy putting up thematic display and conducting exciting library activities that keep the library vibrant and thriving with the aim of bringing the joy of reading books. I love to turn the library into a fun, connective, interactive library, where I learn to listen to what the users want to read, think and create.

I also enjoy engaging with students to help them learn the best ways to access and use quality information and resources in the library and explain how to use the latest technologies to enhance their learning and research skills.

Describe your journey with Civica.
I joined Civica in December 2005, and by end of this year, it be 16 years with Civica and the school as Library Assistant. Civica provides so many intensive training and workshop sessions throughout my career span which includes relevant theories essential to understanding my job. It had also encouraged me to be creative and constantly keep improving myself.

Library Assistant, Loyang View Secondary School

Tell us more about your role as a School Librarian.
As a School Librarian, I work actively with teachers and students to build a reading culture within our school through the provision of interesting and engaging reading programmes and activities. I also ensure that the library is a safe and conducive environment, not just for reading but also for students and staff to think of innovative ideas and to share them with others.

What do you enjoy most as a School Librarian?
Becoming a School Librarian in my opinion, is the best job for me. It suits me well not only because I have a passion for books and reading but also because I love to interact and talk to students to share my thoughts, ideas and experiences with them. I also believe that reading is an essential skill for every growing child. Hence, I wish to nurture and reach out to them in any possible ways so that they develop a love for reading and learning.

Describe your journey with Civica.
In my journey with Civica, I have learnt how significant and priceless the impact that a vibrant, safe and comfortable reading and learning space can have. I will continue to connect with the young to inculcate a good reading habit in them.

Library Assistant, Read@Academy

Tell us more about your role as a Librarian.
My role mainly involves counter duties - such as answering phone calls, walk in user inquires, shelving and going to schools with our mobile library to display books.

What do you enjoy most as a Librarian?
Helping users to locate the books which they are unable to find, replying to their question and teamwork.

Describe your journey with Civica.
I enjoy working with Civica with my full heart and I really learn a lot of new skills.

What are your tips/advice to the other librarians?
Be friendly and attentively with users. Always be positive when talking to users.