The National Collection forms the core collection of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library with over 1.7 million items. The National Collection aims to have a comprehensive collection of publications about Singapore, in the four official languages. Its strength lies in the areas of history, politics, economics, socio-cultural development and the arts. In addition to print publications, the National Collection also includes original and unpublished materials, both in physical and digital formats. These include manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, maps, microfilms, audio-visual materials, ephemera, registers and records.
The National Collection is supported by the Legal Deposit function of the National Library Board Act, which requires two copies of every physical publication and one copy of every digital publication distributed in Singapore to be deposited.
The collection is a repository of the creative and intellectual output of
Singapore with print works that span the diverse fields of literary and visual
arts, business, social sciences and humanities. Of note are research materials
on the social and economic policies of Singapore, in particular government
publications such as the official gazettes, parliamentary reports, select
committee reports, transcripts of selected ministerial speeches, reports of
government departments and ministries as well as master and concept plans.
These resources address various aspects of national development such as urban
planning, healthcare, education, economic strategy, population, tourism, public
housing and so on.
Accessing the National Collection
On-site Access
The collection is distributed across Level 8 to 11 of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library according to subject categories.
The public can approach the Level 11 counter to retrieve closed access (RCLOS) materials.
Digital Access
Selected materials have been digitised and made accessible on:
Featured Collection
South East Asian Collection
Find out more about the history, literature, politics and government, and
people and culture of countries in South East Asia. The South East Asian
Collection documents works on ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and
Brunei Darussalam, with a particular emphasis on social sciences and
humanities.