Book lovers can immerse themselves in the world of knowledge at the largest public library in a mall which is going to be opened at VivoCity in Singapore on January 12.
Aptly christened library@harbourfront, visitors can also enjoy the magnificent beauty of Sentosa while sitting in the library. It is located on the third floor of Vivocity and boasts of being the largest in Singapore spread over an area of 3,000 sq metres.
The library houses a whopping collection of about 200,000 books, magazines and audio-visual materials with seating capacity for 460 people.
The library has two separate areas catering to children and adults. The children’s area is designed to enable create learning among them while the adult section has a strong digital focus.
The children section is the most attractive one as it has been designed to keep the young ones engrossed and promote learning through technology.
A special area called Tinker Truck has been created where there are augmented reality books on a variety of topics to make the children’s reading experience more interactive.
There is also a “maker space” in the library which is aimed at developing creativity and children’s problem-solving skills through DIY learning materials, crafts and puzzles.
In addition to this, space has been carved out for projecting videos on all the three walls of the room using light and sound effects and narrate stories to the children.
There is a separate section for adults and teenagers where physical newspapers have been replaced by 16 e-newspaper reading stations.
This section has a strong digital focus where regular exhibitions on emerging technologies will be held every quarter. The library will also offer weekly virtual reality sessions for visitors and provide interactive tools like Google Voyager.
This section will be run by volunteers who will help to find, recommend or shelve books.
Library@harbourfront replaces the Bukit Merah public library which was closed on December 1 last year. It is expected to draw about 1.5 million visitors annually.
This library is conveniently linked to the HarbourFront MRT station, which is connected to the North-East and Circle lines, and the HarbourFront Bus Interchange.
“We want our libraries to be as accessible as possible so that more patrons of all ages can make use of the library to read and learn,” said Mrs Elaine Ng, National Library Board’s Chief Executive Officer.