I’ve not really done a SingLib post in a while because I’ve been borrowing most of my books from Libby (and also I only go to the same few libraries) but our Central Library has finally finished its renovation! In case you forgot, I talked about this library before in the third installment of this series.

There’s a lot that’s new in the central public library. While it still occupies the same basement area, the layout has completely changed. From what I can tell, the children’s library now occupies the area where the adult fiction section used to be, and it looks like they made the Singapore Collection more prominent and shifted the program zones (plus added an AI-themed area).

The NLB also revamped the whole look and feel of the library – the treehouse in the old children’s section is gone, replaced by a marine theme and renamed the “children’s biodiversity library”. This new section is a partnership between the NLB and Resort’s World Sentosa; I found this page on the RWS site that talks more about the layout and what the partnership entails. I didn’t actually stay in this section for long, there are a lot more kids than before (that I can remember) and I didn’t want to intrude.

I really like the new SG Alcove for SingLit books! While there were shelves for SingLit before, this is the first time I’ve seen it displayed like this. There are a few reading nooks here as well, perhaps to encourage people to sit down and discover a new local work.

The last new section in this area is Storygen, an AI-powered storytelling room. The floor map just has this labelled as “immersive room” so I’m not sure if Storygen is a permanent part of the library or just a temporary exhibition. This room basically allows you to create a story by choosing the base folklore, the illustration style, the genre, the type of ending, and a few other details.

The software will come up with a short comic and broadcast it on the wall (you can also download it to the phone). I played around with this and thought it was interesting, but also that more could be done. While it’s fun to choose the overall feel of the story, there’s not much creativity involved and I would have liked to see prompts for users to take this and continue writing or drawing the story. Right now, it seems to stop at the AI story, with the table outside the room advertising the technology-based courses the library is offering.

There is not much to say about the adult and young adult sections; they’ve certainly reorganised the shelves but I didn’t see anything very novel about how the books were presented or any new interactive zones.

Overall, I like the new central library. It was bustling when I went there on a Saturday afternoon and I hope that it continues to be used by many people.