Opening in the National Library Building in 2027
Singapore, 11 November 2025 – The National Library Board (NLB) will partner Didasko, a United Kingdom-based financial education company, to bring the Library of Mistakes to Singapore in the first half of 2027. This will be the first such library in South-east Asia, after the library’s launch in Edinburgh in 2014, followed by branches in India and Switzerland.
The Library of Mistakes is a free-to-use library dedicated to the study of financial history. While financial education tends to focus on mathematical calculation, the Library of Mistakes uses financial history to provide key learning moments for professionals and the investing public to learn from past successes and mistakes. More background information can be found in Annex A.
In the upcoming Library of Mistakes in Singapore, patrons can expect collections that focus on local and regional financial history, as well as expert-led talks and programmes that draw actionable insights from real-world case studies like the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 and the Wirecard fraud case from 2020. Eager readers can get a taste of curated titles listed in Annex B, which are available now in NLB’s collections.
The Library of Mistakes will be located on Level 7 of the National Library Building, and will complement the services and resources offered on the same floor at Launch, NLB’s Business Resource Centre for entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals. This will provide a one-stop knowledge hub for anyone interested in financial education.
Between now and its opening in 2027, NLB and Didasko will be working closely with various partners to get more support for the development, collections and programming for the Library of Mistakes in Singapore.
NLB Chief Executive Officer Ms Melissa Tam said: “The Library of Mistakes is meaningful and relevant to NLB’s ongoing efforts to make reading, learning and discovery easily accessible to all. In working with partners like Didasko, we can bring more real-world lessons to our patrons, who can benefit from learning about financial mistakes of the past, so as to be better informed as they seize opportunities of the future.”
Professor Russell Napier, founder of the Library of Mistakes and director of Didasko, said: “We are pleased to have Singapore join Switzerland and India as home to one of the branches of the Library of Mistakes. The curated collections and programmes will help to spark interest in the rich financial history of Singapore and the region. Didasko will continue to work with NLB in bringing these lessons to life.”
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About NLB
NLB nurtures Readers for Life, Learning Communities and a Knowledgeable Nation by promoting reading, learning and history through its network of 28 libraries, the National Library and the National Archives of Singapore. NLB also forges strategic partnerships that encourage awareness, appreciation and greater discovery of Singapore's history through its rich collections in Singapore and the region.
NLB achieves excellence through innovation, focusing on citizen engagement and co-creation, resource and digital innovation. This creates learning opportunities, greater access to library resources, services, and archival collections, as well as a continual development of innovative library spaces. Established on 1 September 1995 as a statutory board, NLB is under the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI).
For more information, please visit the NLB website, and NLB’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channels.
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