Welcome Remarks by Mrs Elaine Ng, Chief Executive Officer of the National Library Board, at the Official Book Launch of the National Library Singapore Research Publication on the Koh Seow Chuan Collection on 21 November 2017
Professor Tommy Koh
Mr Koh Seow Chuan
Distinguished guest
Ladies and gentlemen
1 Thank you all for coming. Tonight is a very special night for all of us because we are finally launching a book - National Library Singapore’s research publication on the Koh Seow Chuan collection. This book features research based on paper ephemera, such as business receipts, legal documents, as well as remittance letters, from Mr Koh Seow Chuan’s collection to the National Library.
2 Mr Koh has been a steadfast supporter of NLB. All of us are very grateful for the fact that he generously donated more than 9,000 items to the National Library, and these include legal documents, as well as artworks, maps and books. We have also benefitted greatly from Mr Koh Seow Chuan’s talks to staff and sharing with members of the public as well, and we thank you very much for this, Mr Koh, thank you.
3 The research conducted by Prof Koh Keng We and his students, Mr Kannan Kesavan and Ms Dong Huiying from the Nanyang Technological University, on the collection gives us a better understanding of the early commercial operations of the Eu Yan Sang enterprise, the business practices of the Chettiars, as well as the role of remittance letters in maintaining family ties of overseas Chinese. It also highlights how small ordinary documents can be used to piece together aspects of early Singapore history. This collection is especially significant for researchers interested in studying the social and business history of Singapore. I also want to share that the National Library Board will be making this book available for loan at our public libraries, so this will be out after this launch and library members would be able to borrow this. We also hope to be able to make this into an e-book that will be available for loans as well.
4 Our librarians have put up a display, specially for today’s launch, highlighting some materials from the collection. We welcome you to view the display. Parts of the collection have also been digitised, and are available for viewing onsite at the National Library.
Conclusion
6 Thank you and have an enjoyable evening.