39 participants visited the National Library Board’s (NLB) Library Supply Centre (LSC) on Friday, 24 April 2015. This was one of the visits organized by the Programmes and Social Committee which attracted overwhelming responses such that the registration closed 10 minutes right after the announcement.
The Committee is really grateful for the strong support from LAS members. The previous visit to LSC was organized about 5 years ago. Thanks to the extension of SMRT coverage (EXPO station), we are now able to reach the LSC without much issues. But still it required us to take a 10 minutes’ walk from the EXPO station to LSC. Thankfully, the weather on that day was not too hot.
A short presentation on LSC was given by Ms Judy Ng, Director of LSC at the Timah Room located at Level 2. This was to introduce the background of LSC. Basically, LSC is located at Changi South. It houses the Library Support Services (LSS) Division of the NLB. LSS performs the library functions of collection development, supply-chain management and bibliographic services. Before the founding of LSS, the Technical Services Division (TSD) was located at the basement of the National Library building at Stamford Road. The acquisition, cataloguing, processing and the national bibliographic functions were all performed under one roof. When the collection expanded over the years, a bigger space was needed for processing and storage. As part of the strategic thrust of the Library 2000 Report, it was recommended that a common library warehouse be set up away from the prime office areas to act as a storage and clearing house. In March 1997, the Library Supply Services division was formed.
The newly formed LSS moved to its new rental premises on the third and fourth levels of the Industrial CG Aerospace Warehouse Building at Changi South, on 19 April 1997. This new office was called the Library Supply Centre. LSS was divided into the Inter-Library Repository and Supply Services (IRSS), Collection Services (CS) and the Singapore Collection Management Centre (SCMC).
Almost 2 hours of presentation on key projects and new developments of LSC were given by various key personnel from LSC. The presentation covered:
- Resource Management Enhancements to Content Value Chain presented by Benjamin, Assistant Director of LSC. This includes how the LSC is using collection and demand analysis to improve operational efficiency as well as enhancement on its supply chain management system.
- Resource Discovery Value Added initiatives presented by few librarians. A basic introduction was given on RDA implementation and the challenges faced by LSC and NLB. It was covered Link Data, Data Harmonization for One Search and Knowledge Organization (KOS).
Participants were impressed by all the new developments and projects that are currently in implementation at LSC. Hence, we spent quite a lot of time on the Q&A session and participants’ shared their experience and difficulties when they had to implement such practices in their libraries.
A 30 minutes tour was given for the back-end office as well as the technical processing area. Some participants were impressed with the multi-cell arrangement to ensure efficiency of technical processing output in LSC. Each cell (a team of 5-6 staff) is independent but they have the same knowledge on technical processing skills. As a result, the performance output is not affected if the staff strength is low in any circumstances.
The entire visit ended at around 5.30pm. Most of the participants were satisfied that it was a fruitful session. It is hope that for those who could not join this visit, another visit will be organized so that more could learn about the LSC.
Submitted by Steven Chow (Programmes and Social Committee) on 30 Apr 2015.