With the donation of the 400 Sony eReaders by the Embassy of the United States in Singapore, the National Library Board (NLB) now has a larger collection of eDevices available for loan at a total of six public libraries.
Each of the four libraries – Geylang East Public Library, Toa Payoh Public Library, Jurong West Public Library and Ang Mo Kio Public Library – now have 100 eReaders for loan. Borrowers have to loan and return the device at the same library.
The eDevice loan service was first launched in 2012 at Bedok Public Library and Bukit Merah Public Library. 100 iPads, 100 TumbleBooks Playaways (with pre-loaded read-along videos suitable for children aged 4 to 8 years old), and 5 Kindles are available for loan at Bedok Public Library. 100 iPads are available for loan at Bukit Merah Public Library.
Mr Roy Won Kar Soon, Manager of Bedok Public Library noted, “Interestingly, 33% of those who borrowed our eDevices are aged 50 years and above, and it has been a great for community bonding as we have youths teaching them how to use the eDevices in the introductory classes. I believe that the eReaders will be popular amongst our library members too as they are not available in Singapore and there is a novelty factor associated with it. They are also easier on the eye for reading.”
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Two Secondary One students from Manjusri Secondary School, Shakirah Nur and Chiang Jia Qi, took part in the pilot run to explore the eReaders. They attested that they would choose the eReader over physical books any day because its “lighter weight, greater convenience and dictionary function.”
Besides reading on these eReaders, users can also make posts on Facebook and create notes on Evernote.
Loan of eReaders
All eDevices can now be borrowed for three weeks, similar to the loan period of eBooks. Renewal is not available to allow other library members a chance to borrow and late returns are subject to a fine of $0.50 per day per device.
Users can choose to download up to six books onto their eReaders at a time, from over 60,000 titles in NLB’s e-Resources collection.
eReader Loan Service Registration Details
The eReader loan service is open for free to all Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents who are registered library members with NLB.
To borrow the eReaders, eligible users need to first register at the Customer Service Counter of the four libraries or call NLB’s Helpdesk (Tel: 6332 3255 or email: helpdesk@library.nlb.gov.sg).
Eligible users will also need to attend an introductory workshop to learn to use the device and access NLB’s eBook collection. Workshops are held monthly as follows:
Toa Payoh Public Library: 1st Friday of the month
Geylang East Public Library: 2nd Friday of the month
Jurong West Public Library: 3rd Friday of the month
Ang Mo Kio Public Library: 4th Friday of the month.
