Transcript
I'm Ronald Milne, Dean of Educational Resources and Technology. My professional background is in libraries, and it's been part of my job to oversee the development of the College Library. University libraries have in the past been described as the heart of the University, and I certainly like to think that the College Library has played an important part in the life of Yale-NUS.
Libraries are about collections, services, and spaces. What about our collections? Well, we've been part of the NUS Library's ecosystem and have benefited from that in as far as members of the College have had access to the very wide range of resources, including journals and other materials, subscribed to or bought by NUS. At the same time, I like to think that we built up our own rounded College collection, both print and electronic, that supported research, teaching, and learning in our Yale-NUS community.
Perhaps not so well known is that we have a small but diverse collection of rare books. The purpose in building up this small collection was that the items could be used in teaching. They were, for example, used extensively in the context of a Week 7 course called Collecting Cultures as exemplars of books printed during the hand press period, so roughly from the mid-15th century to about 1840. It was good that students were able to handle these books along with some other printed and manuscript material that we had borrowed from NTU [Nanyang Technological University]. Our students mounted a very attractive exhibition in the library using these collection items.
What about library services? Well, we've always been concerned to offer a very high level of customer service, and I'd like to think we've been responsive and flexible. Thanks to an agreement with the Yale University Library, we've been able to offer an expedited interlibrary loan and document delivery service that I think has been widely appreciated. We've also been deeply involved in information literacy and other training, such as in GIS [Geographic Information System]. And over the years, the library has organised a wide range of exhibitions and talks. One such a very attractive exhibition, The Sari, a colourful ode to India's 5000-year-old textile industry, drew on the personal collection of one of our library staff, Priyanka Sharma. Priyanka also gave a lunchtime talk on the topic.
What about the Library space? I think we can safely say that our library is a favourite spot for study. The environment is very pleasant, quiet, and comfortable. The architects did a very good job when they designed it.
I've enjoyed working with our dedicated library staff very much. It's been great to see initiatives such as the College Digital Archives and the College Oral History Project gathering momentum, and very encouraging to see the enthusiasm with which our specialised talks, exhibitions and displays have been received.
