The National Collection forms the core collection of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library with over 300,000 items. Its strength lies in the areas of history, political & economic history, literature as well as social-cultural history of Singapore. Materials in various formats such as microfilms, maps, audio-visual materials, ephemera and posters besides print publications are available as well.
The National Collection aims to provide comprehensive coverage of Singapore's literary and publishing heritage through the legal deposit function of the National Library Board (NLB). Legal deposit (LD) refers to the mandatory requirement that every Singapore publisher deposits two copies of every publication published in the Republic of Singapore with the NLB. 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 digitized 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.