Punggol Regional Library Opens With Children’s Features In Singapore

Animated poetry, interactive stories, and toys – reading and learning are accessible and fun, especially for young children, at the new Punggol Regional Library.

Located within One Punggol, the library opened its first two floors with dedicated offerings for children on both levels, the library will serve the needs of the community in Punggol, which has one of the highest proportions of children below five years old in its resident population. All five floors of the library are expected to open a few months later.

The library’s first two floors, which will open daily from 12pm to 9pm, have dedicated collections and spaces for children of all ages, where they will be able to broaden their learning about the world and develop 21st-century skills. For instance, the World and Us Zone features reading materials from around the world – including books donated by foreign embassies – on themes such as geography, culture, and migration.

Other features that kids can enjoy are:

• Spark!Lab™, a DIY tinkering space set up in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution for children (aged 7 to 12 years) to participate in hands-on activities and create innovative solutions to different challenges

• TinkerTots where children (aged 6 years and below) can play with educational toys and learn about the world through simple tinkering activities
• Toy Library offers regular toys, educational aids, puppets, and costumes for children (aged 6 years and below) to play with
• Storyteller Cove, a space with animations, illustrations, and activity stations including for prop-making, to inspire children (aged 7 to 12 years) to create their own stories
• Stories Come Alive Room which uses moving images and text, and light and sound effects to make storytelling an immersive and interactive experience

On top of the Accessible Collection and Calm Pods, other accessible features available in Punggol Regional Library include:

• Assistive technology devices such as colored keyboards with larger keys to aid persons with visual impairment
• Wheelchair-accessible book borrowing stations, and the new Borrow-n-Go, where wheelchair users can borrow books more easily by simply going through the dedicated passageway
• The Accessible icon will be marked on selected facilities and spaces to indicate that persons with disabilities will have priority to use them

NLB has also launched the Accessible Membership which provides an expanded scope of library services across all its libraries for persons with disabilities, on top of basic library membership privileges. These services include a longer borrowing period (from 21 days to 42 days) and free reservation of items (which costs SG$1.57 per item).

For more information, please visit the NLB website, and NLB’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channels.