Jobs 101: Associate librarian

I assumed that anyone working for the library would not appreciate large groups of noisy children. Then I met Sing Ying, an associate librarian with the National Library Board (NLB), who enjoys organising interactive workshops for children.

I’m an associate librarian with Read! Singapore, a team trying to get Singaporeans to read more.

When we first started, we had an anthology with short stories inside that we cross-translated into different languages. Our main job was to promote the collection and also get people interested in reading. And it provided exposure for the local authors, if they were in town, to meet the readers.

We don’t come up with the anthology any more, but we try to programme as many local authors as possible, so we have this SG Authors Series. Every month, we will have a local author come to the libraries or go to the schools, and we will try to promote their works.

When I was in university, I was working on projects that had to do with kids, so I thought it would be fun to continue working with kids.

I knew for sure that if I got a deskbound job, I would get bored at the end of the day. So, it’s nice that I can meet people. That’s one thing that attracted me to the job – that I can interact with the public.

It depends. When we have programmes (especially during the June school holidays), I will be in the office, before going to the libraries or schools to do the logistics set-up and conduct the programmes.

When you’re trying to push reading to people and they are like: “Sorry, I have no time!” We realise that there are too many distractions, so people might not necessarily think of reading when it comes to looking for a leisure activity.

So, we try to plan interesting activities to attract people to first come to the library for an interesting programme. They could get to know the author (if it is a meet-the-author session), or participate in craft sessions related to the story (for the kids), and perhaps be interested to read the book eventually.

When I have people coming up to thank me, because they really enjoyed a session and want to come back for more, I feel very encouraged. Or when I have the kids showing off their craft activities, I am like: “Oh this is so nice, you’ve done a good job!”

I wasn’t involved in the proposal part, but I’m now involved in executing the event. There will be quite a number of activities happening in the libraries, so do keep a lookout for the details nearer the date!

They need to love reading and should be passionate about promoting stories or books that they think are good. You have to love working with the public because they are the main customers you face.