Release Date : 20 Apr 2012
Dr Yaacob Ibrahin
Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. We are very honoured to have Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts launch this thematic collection. He loves reading and he loves books. I am delighted to introduce him to this collection. I hope that all the children here will really run into the Asian Children's Literature Collection room, and have fun looking at all the wonderful tales in the collection that we house here.
2. The Asian Children's Literature Collection is accumulated over 50 years. The collection is comprehensive and serves a broad spectrum of readers like researchers with scholarly needs, teachers assembling lesson materials, parents looking for bedtime stories for their children, and the young who love fascinating tales. Visitors can borrow from about 7,200 books including Chinese, Malay, and Tamil books.
3. In addition, our staff has put together a beautiful exhibition on “Asian Cinderellas” which presents intriguing versions of this classic fairy tale. In today's papers, we also have an article written about the collection and exhibition which children can enjoy.
4. On this note, I would like to thank my colleagues who have put this collection together. It is a magnificent collection with well-conceived programmes for our library users. Once again, I would like to thank Minister for taking the time to join us this morning. Thank you, kids who have taken time from their activities to come for this event.