National Library Board - a boon to Singapore/Oru Varaprasadham!

NLB is a boon to Singapore, 'Varaprasadham' in Tamil. It provides excellent opportunities to create 'Voracious Readers' and 'Readers for Life'.

The first time I visited NLB, years ago - I was speechless. You get the same 'wow' factor time and again, each time you browse through the extensive collection. We get to read numerous books, which are otherwise almost impossible to buy and read. You name it, they have it.

If you become an ordinary Member, you are eligible to borrow 8 books at a time, including CDs. But I always prefer books. You will get 21 days for books and 14 days for Magazines. Now we have renewable facilities, which enable you to retain the books for another 21/14 days respectively. For renewals, just go to the NLB website, go to Check your Account, from Quick links category, log in with your Membership ID or Your IC. You can see your loan status and renew accordingly. During holidays NLB will double up the loan quota, we can borrow 12 instead of 8 books.

To avoid unnecessary fines for overdue books, we can opt for reminder service provided by NLB. Just log in to NLB account and provide your email-id, to get reminders via e-mail or provide your Mobile phone number to get reminders via SMS, or both.

If you would like to borrow a particular book and you are not able to get it, you can book reservation, through your NLB account via Internet or at any of the library. NLB will reserve it for you and inform when it is ready. (If you are not sure about the procedure, you can approach the library staff, they will guide you.)

My son is so obsessed with Geronimo Stilton series, we bought few books for him, then I said get from NLB, we are not buying anymore. Now we visit number of libraries, to find the much wanted collection. He can't even wait to reserve and read. He's almost through the entire series now, thanks to NLB.

Try to visit Library with your kids as often as possible. Make it as an enjoyable trip. Spend at least an hour or two, so that you and your kids have enough time to browse through and choose the books leisurely.

If possible allow some quiet reading time in the library before or after borrowing books. I've seen some parents spend time with their kids for half-a-day, during holidays. Holiday is a wonderful time to inculcate reading habit. Trip to Library can be like any other outing; if possible 2 or 3 friends can join together. But avoid too many friends, because we may lose focus. Children also tend to play rather than read/choose the books.

Initially, you can choose books for them and read to them. Gradually you can allow them to choose 1 or 2. They may not know, but still allow their quota, say you can choose 3 out of 8 Soon it will be time for them to choose more. Still you keep guiding them to pick variety of books. Otherwise they will end up borrowing stereotyped books.
There will be a time, when they are obsessed with one particular Author or one particular series. It's perfectly alright; slowly they will graduate to other types of books.

Soon, they will cover so many series and authors. Once they are independent, they don't want us to interfere. This happens esp. with teenagers. However, we can keep track of their books and their content. We can continue to guide them and introduce new authors. Though they may appear to be picky, they will still be open to new ideas.

We can observe a beautiful transition from their language usage, articulation and style of writing. As a mother I enjoy these phases in their lives. I hope you guys will join me!

For more details about NLB, visit their website:

http://www.nlb.gov.sg/

Enjoy Reading!