I’m finally back with Part 2 of my SingLib series – a series of posts where I highlight some of the libraries in Singapore that I patronise and love. This time, I thought I’d show you guys the library closest to my home: Clementi Public Library.

Clementi Public Library is one of the 26 libraries (including the three regional ones and excluding the central library) in Singapore. Given that Singapore has an area of 722.5 square kilometers, that means each library only has to cover an average of 27.8 square kilometers. If you take the square root of that, you could say that there’s a library every 5.27 kilometers in Singapore, making them easily accessible to the public (I know that the math has some problems because I assume it’s the same distance apart, but it really does feel like there’s a library in every major housing estate).

For me, Clementi Library is located a 10 minute (15 minutes if I’m slow) walk away from home, in the Clementi Mall next to Clementi station. This means that I can drop by the library to and fro work – I can’t borrow any books in the morning because I leave before the library opens, but the book drop is open so returning books is a cinch.

This library is on the smaller side, especially compared to Jurong Regional Library, but it packs quite a bit. There’s almost always a mini-exhibition on – This one is on a skills upgrading initiative by the government, but I’ve seen history-related and fake-news exhibitions as well.

Books-wise, there’s an adult fiction section, children’s fiction section, comic section (one shelf), local fiction (one shelf), as well as non-fiction section. The selection won’t be as big as in the central or regional libraries, but it’s pretty decent and I’ve always been able to find books that I want to read there. In fact, there are some books that are only available here and not in the regional libraries.

There’s also space for a program zone and enough chairs that you can sit down and read (the picture doesn’t show it, but there are sections with sofa-like chairs as well). The only change I’m not liking is this:

This is currently the borrowing stations but it was formerly the information station. I’ve noticed that most of the libraries have gotten rid of the information stations where you could approach the librarians. Instead, you now have to look for a librarian as they go about their daily work. It’s a lot more inconvenient and I wish they didn’t change it. But it’s still not too bad – I can normally find a librarian within five minutes or so.

Near the borrowing station is a series of lockers where you can pick up books that you’ve reserved. Reserving books will cost money, so this is something that I haven’t done. The library app lets you see which branches have copies of the books, and I realised that most of the books I want can be found in the few libraries that I frequent.

Clementi Library isn’t the biggest, but it’s the most conveniently located (for me) and represents the best part of the libary: making books readily available to anyone who wants to read them.