SINGAPORE: From the use of data analytics, to possibly even virtual reality in the future – public libraries in Singapore are undergoing a transformation in a bid to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.

Just over a week old – the new Sengkang Public Library is home to more than 125,000 books, digital content and customised spaces for different age groups.

It is the first of four new libraries opening this year in what some may call next generation libraries – no longer just a place to read and borrow books, but also increasingly where the community can come together and learn together as well.

Nirmala Kumar, a 53-year-old who has been a librarian for more than 15 years, notes that not only are library users different, her job has changed considerably as well. 

“When I joined in NLB, the day starts with manual returning of returned books. We need to take each and every book and we need to check, sort it in the sorter and then we have to stack it in the compartments. Then again we have to put it in the trolley and shelve back. It is quite a tiring and tedious job,” said Ms Nirmala.

But Nirmala’s load has been lightened recently all thanks to a new machine, which automatically scans and separates returned books into different bins before they are shelved.

About 3,000 books are sorted everyday and this frees Nirmala up to do other tasks – like curating books and planning programmes at the library.

“We were so excited to see the machine sort itself, so we don’t need to bend down and take each and every book to sort,” she noted. “We can spend more time engaging with the patrons.”

CHANGING LIBRARIES A CONSTANT: LITERATURE PROFESSOR

But rewind to the library’s early beginnings and one would realise that change has been a constant.

From the opening of the National Library at Stamford Road in 1960, to the rolling out of mobile libraries and other permanent branches – libraries have constantly adapted to meet society’s evolving needs.

There are now 26 public libraries around the island.

“For many years there was only one library in Singapore and then the need was felt that as more people became literate, the demand for going to the library (increased), because most people couldn’t afford to buy the books,” said Associate Professor of English Literature Kirpal Singh, who teaches at the Singapore Management University.

“So the idea of decentralising and having branches of libraries took place. Then very soon, I think, the political leaders decided that the library was a very good place to try and build a nation … Now I think we feel that our nation is in fact quite built, even though it’s still evolving, the thinking again is what is the library now going to be used for?”

According to the National Library Board – there were 2.3 million members in 2015, up from 1.95 million in 2005, and about half a million in 1995.

But a study on adult reading habits last year –  found that while 69 per cent of respondents said they read at least one book in the past year, only 19 per cent read more than once a week.

Most also did not find reading as stimulating as audio-visual content and just over half read books borrowed from libraries.

“For me personally I don’t visit libraries anymore, it’s just a preference for me to purchase books from book stores like Kinokuniya,” said 24-year-old undergraduate Joshua Huang.

Jason Chia, 24, also agreed: “I don’t really visit public libraries anymore. I used to do so when I was young, to borrow books and read, but now not really because most of the stuff that we can read is actually online. There are many e-books as well, so there’s not really a need for a physical library anymore.”

REVAMPING EXISTING LIBRARIES

That is why a revamp of existing libraries is underway – in the hope of getting more to use the space.

“We want the library to remain relevant to Singaporeans and even to stay ahead by anticipating their needs. So we do this by engaging feedback from them, from the community when we design the libraries,” said Ms Tan Chui Peng, Acting Deputy Director of the Libraries of the Future department at NLB.

“It has evolved as we look at how each library can provide targeted services to cater to the community’s needs. For instance at Pasir Ris, we notice there’s a higher proportion of teens and young working adults, so we have designed teen space for public libraries at Pasir Ris. Over at Sengkang, there’s a higher proportion of younger families, so we created this “tween” space for growing up children.”

Other young Singaporeans Channel NewsAsia spoke to also had different ideas on how to transform the space.

“I would imagine there’s fewer books actually, maybe there’s fewer book shelves. More space. Maybe more bean bags,” said 24-year-old Ian Chow.

“Maybe virtual reality could be something that we could move towards because when we were young, we were always reading story books and someone would be reading to us,” noted 21-year-old Ong Yu Lin.

“But if we can wear the virtual reality gear and really see whatever is going on inside the story book, it would be really interesting for the kids and for the older people as well.”

BRINGING TECHNOLOGY INTO THE LIBRARY

Technology is indeed one key aspect public libraries are looking into.

For instance – NLB hopes to improve its mobile app, which already allows users to borrow books. It also intends to promote its e-books more aggressively and has started displaying real time data in some libraries of popular titles that are being borrowed.

The new Bukit Panjang Public Library will also feature an immersive storytelling area with lights, sound effects and interactive visual projections for children.

“Data analytics will continue to be used very heavily to analyse behaviour of our library users. The other one is virtual reality … especially in enhancing their experience when they visit exhibitions,” said Mr Lee Kee Siang, NLB’s Chief Information Officer.

“It must be seamless for them to be able to access the information, to retrieve them, as well as on the online platform and on the mobile. So it is the whole integrated experience that we’re looking at.”

SINGAPORE — Photography and music may be serious endeavours for some, but they are also tools for integrating people with disabilities into the community.

The past weekend saw the finale of two projects that had used these activities as lenses to the hearts and minds of those living with autism, as well as children with cerebral palsy and other developmental delays.

For 24-year-old Joshua Yeo, a photography workshop for autistic participants, which concluded yesterday, not only helped to hone his photo-taking skills but also taught him how to communicate with others.

“Josh learnt to approach someone and ask for permission to take their picture and to understand why some may not be comfortable with him doing so,” said his mother Karen Yeo.

Mr Yeo, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 10, started experimenting with photography two years ago and enjoys taking portraits as well as candid shots of people.

“He’d take seemingly random shots of people’s feet on the carpet or even his own facial features, like his tongue,” Mrs Yeo added. “Because we found it very hard to communicate with him, these photos gave us some idea of how he looked at things.”

So she jumped at the chance to sign him up for a workshop by veteran shutterbug Bob Lee, who customised classes for the autistic students, for example by doing away with technical jargon, conducting demonstrations using soldier figurines and roping in carers as “photography assistants”.

Mrs Yeo said photography has also encouraged her son to befriend others in the community: “He’d go around the neighbourhood to take photographs of people, so now he knows our neighbours better than (I do).”

Mr Lee, 40, formerly a photojournalist with Singapore Press Holdings, started working with people with special needs after his son, Jun Le, 10, was diagnosed with autism in 2009.

“It was only then that I got interested in learning about this community of people and exploring different ways of reaching out to them,” he said.

Unlike instructing able-bodied individuals, the goal of teaching photography to persons with disabilities, such as through the recent workshop held over six Sundays at the Enabling Village, is not to groom future shutterbugs, Mr Lee added.

“Perhaps one or two of them may have an eye for photography, but what’s more important is to give them an opportunity to get out of the house, interact with different people and spend time with their family members,” he said.

Incidentally, Mr Lee dropped his instructor hat and put on another as a participant, together with his wife and son, in a musical showcase on Saturday put up by 20 children aged five to 13, including four children with special needs.

The project, a collaboration between social initiative Superhero Me, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and local conductor Wong Kahchun, gave children with disabilities and children from low-income families opportunities to experiment with instruments and singing.

Participants were inducted into a three-day music camp in November and trained in their respective instruments, such as the violin, cello and recorder, from January to March, culminating in Saturday’s musical.

Jun Le’s mother Lim Hwee Hwee said it was valuable for children to be exposed to other children with special needs while they were young.

“The children at camp would initially observe and ask why Jun Le behaves differently, but they gradually learnt how to look out for him,” she said. “Kids are less judgmental and less likely to pigeonhole (persons with disabilities).”

As a conductor, Mr Wong, 31, said he hoped the initiative can help to quash the oft-held notion that “music is a luxury”.

“Music is a universal language with no barriers, and we want to give everyone an opportunity to connect with this art form,” said Mr Wong, who set up Project Infinitude last year to spread the love of music to less privileged children. The ensemble will perform again at 3pm this Saturday at Alexandra Hospital.

Both the photography and music workshops were held at the Enabling Village and supported by the TODAY Enable Fund, set up last December to foster greater empathy and inclusion of persons with disabilities in the wider community.

Support the TODAY Enable Fund for the special needs community. Find out more via www.todayonline.com/enable.

If you know of more stories of people with disabilities, email us at today@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE: The provocative power of digital advances lies in the novel ways we can use them to improve lives. The newly announced Smart Nation and Digital Government Office under the Prime Minister’s Office, is recognition of this transformative power. 

Digital advances push us to think more expansively about what is smart. Building on recent major government initiatives, the following possibilities outlined here present opportunities to think beyond physical places and infrastructure constraints and build a more inclusive society. They aim to tackle job disruption precisely, nurture each student’s strength by drawing on global resources, and scale-up solutions more readily.

IDEA 1: THINK TASKS ON TOP OF SKILLS

“The top priority for the Smart Nation (initiative) has to be jobs, jobs, jobs,” Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative Vivian Balakrishnan stressed during the Budget 2017 debates.  

Global debates about digital disruption and jobs are divided. Techno-pessimists warn us that all jobs are at risk. Techno-optimists assure us jobs will evolve. There is a divergence in thinking on how we should approach these disruptive forces.

Automation has transformed the productivity of manufacturing since industrial robots first started painting, cutting, welding and assembling in the 1960s. (Photo: AFP)

Can we tackle disruption better? We have so far focused primarily on skills. However, emerging evidence suggests we should focus on tasks too, because tasks add precision to skills.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Economics Professor David Autor points out tasks “have played a key role in reshaping the structure of labour demand in industrialised countries in recent decades”. Stanford University’s report Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030 states “AI systems are specialised to accomplish particular tasks”. The consultancy McKinsey concluded last year that analyzing “work activities rather than occupations is the most accurate way to examine the technical feasibility of automation”.

Digital advances break down jobs into tasks, which are automated or performed by humans. When all tasks are automated, humans lose jobs. But humans also create new tasks, turning them into new jobs.

By examining tasks, we can see which tasks, and subsequently which jobs, workers, and companies are more likely to be disrupted. We can thus better prepare them for the future and take corresponding steps to do so.

For example, the chart below details the tasks an information security analyst carries out, and shows which of these are shared with other IT professions. Professionals in the latter who wish to become an information security analyst can see which tasks they have experience in, and which they need training in. Workers and companies can thus target their training better.

Chart showing tasks performed by professionals in the IT sector. (Source: SUTD)

There are potential wider economic benefits to adopting such an approach. The Netherlands Bureau of Economic Analysis conducted a study of cities, tasks and skills. They concluded that tasks explained a “significant part of the changes in employment”, and cities with more tasks connected to each other had higher employment growth. Examining how connected tasks are could target economy-wide job growth better.

IDEA 2: FROM MORE TO ALL – GLOBAL MENTORS FOR EVERY STUDENT

Budget 2017 saw greater emphasis on nurturing students’ strengths. More students can now stretch and develop their talent.

The story of an eight-year-old Singaporean I met during our projects suggests we could nurture all students according to their unique diverse strengths.

Adi lives in a HDB flat and attends a neighborhood school. He also represented Singapore at the Asian Youth Chess Championships last year. Interestingly, he picked up chess by chance only three years ago.

How did Adi become championship-ready so quickly? Indeed, he has sparred online against algorithms and top chess players worldwide (who did not know his age).  

But Adi made the most progress with his online coach, Prab. Other coaches – in person and online – had not worked out.

Coach Prab is based in India. He also suffers from double kidney failure. To reduce infection risks, he started coaching online. He watches, reviews and discusses Adi’s online chess games with him. He even uses AI analysis to augment his feedback.

File photo of chess board. (Photo: AFP)

Consider for a moment what has happened.

Now imagine assembling, for each student, their own individual global team of mentors, augmented by technology, to pursue their unique talent.  Imagine what each student could achieve. Each could pursue excellence and become as good as they can be. Some might even be among the best in the world.

Trends in the global gig economy and talent marketplace suggest such global teams of mentors could be affordable: they can come from any part of the world, are hired for only part of their time, and are mentoring digitally. 

Large countries will find it challenging to do this. But a small Smart Nation with annual Primary One cohort sizes of forty thousand can. If we do, imagine the impact we could have on the world.

IDEA 3: GOING GLOBAL – SCALE-OUT BEFORE SCALE-UP

The Committee on Future Economy highlights that Smart Nation digital solutions “can be exported to rapidly urbanising cities in Asia”. The current model: test-bed in Singapore, scale-up here and then scale-out to the region. 

Singapore’s size and single-layer governance offers speed and simplicity for test-bedding and scaling up. But the market is small, and scaling out to cities with more complicated governance is challenging.  

Moreover, our infrastructure and environment have been so carefully honed, that solutions which work well here, might work less well elsewhere. “The environment exacts a price for the survival of the fittest: it captures them,” says Jacob Bronowski in The Ascent of Man. He draws an analogy: the Grant gazelle was “gracefully adapted” to the savannah to escape predators, but “its lovely leap never took it out of the savannah”.

What if for digital solutions, we flipped the current model to first scale-out test-beds concurrently to Singapore and two regional cities, then scale-up in all three? We can still exploit Singapore’s strengths, and concurrent regional test-beds could yield versatile solutions more easily deployed to different cities.

The Marina Bay central business district is home to many businesses in Singapore. (Photo: REUTERS)

Adopting this model means changing how we invest, recruit, and educate. Funding and financing will have to account for additional risks. Companies will need multi-city expertise. And tertiary institutions will have to immerse students in multi-city projects. 

Current business models suggest we cannot afford to do this. But for long-term economic prospects, can we afford not to? 

GET SMART BY DISAGREEING TO AGREE

We often need novel and provocative possibilities to think expansively.

One way to find them might be to disagree to agree. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman and pioneering psychologist Gary Klein, who respect each other’s work, arrived at differing conclusions about how people make snap decisions. They did not choose to agree to disagree, and move on with their own work. Instead, they examined together why they disagreed. They found that they “agree(d) on most of the issues that matter”, and collaborated to elaborate on this. They chose to disagree, and used that to subsequently find agreement, and a superior outcome.

Disagreements between citizens, companies, cities and countries are inevitable. We could choose to agree to disagree, and leave it at that. Or if we respect each other, we could do the smart thing: choose to first disagree to agree, so as to search for subsequent agreement and a superior outcome.

Like what Kahneman and Klein did.

That will make our nation really smart. 

Poon King Wang is Director of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. 

SINGAPORE: For many tourists, Christmas Island is famous for a spectacle that celebrates the abundance of life – the annual mass migration of red land crabs as they head out to sea in their millions during the monsoon season.

But a new exhibition by Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui puts the spotlight on darker ecological issues that plague this remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  

“The crabs are a good starting point (to know more about Christmas Island), but there’s a lot of drama that has been happening since humans came to the island,” he said. “In a very short span of time, two animals have recently become extinct right under everyone’s noses. They’ve also been culling cats on a mass scale.”

The culling of feral cats, using poisoned kangaroo meat sausages, have made such sightings rare on Christmas Island. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

The complicated human-animal relationship on the Australian territory is the subject of Zhao’s ongoing solo show Christmas Island, Naturally, which is on display at ShanghART Singapore at Gillman Barracks until May 8.

First exhibited at last year’s Sydney Biennale, the exhibition was the result of three exploratory trips to the island, which was previously part of the Crown Colony of Singapore.

Zhao initially planned to explore the island’s Singapore-Australia connections, but was drawn instead to its native animals and the effects the presence of humans (and the animals they’ve brought in) have had on these.

GOODBYE, FOREST’S GUMP

Among the works on display are photographs that touch on the extinctions of two endemic species: The Christmas Island pipistrelle, a tiny bat, and the Christmas Island forest skink, a type of lizard.

The last recorded echolocation call of the former was in 2009, while the last remaining skink – nicknamed Gump – died in 2014.

This was the spot where the last call from the Christmas Island pipistrelle, a species of bat, was recorded in 2009. It is now considered extinct. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

For Zhao, visiting the places where the last of both species had died made the concept of extinction that much more palpable. “I was in the spot in the forest where the last recorded call of the bat was found, and it was kind of sad to know that something can die in front of our eyes and we could have stopped it somehow, but didn’t. It was very real.”

The demise of the two species has been partly attributed to the presence of so-called yellow crazy ants and feral cats, both of which were brought onto the island by human inhabitants.

Before it died in 2014, the last remaining Christmas Island forest skink, nicknamed Gump, was kept in this facility. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

But complicating matters is the fact that these predators, too, are now at the receiving end of drastic measures, Zhao pointed out.

Wasps imported from Malaysia have been brought in to tackle the ant problem, which has also devastated the red land crab population.

Meanwhile, the island’s war against feral cats continues, with poisoned kangaroo meat sausages being used as bait. Recently, plans to use drones to drop the toxic meat in remote places were also revealed.

“It’s very hard to see them anymore,” said Zhao, who reckons that between the strict registration of domestic cats and active culling of feral ones, the entire island would be cat-free by the 2020s.

Even Christmas Island’s popular red land crabs are not safe from non-native animals. The so-called yellow crazy ants, which are not endemic to the island, are also wreaking havoc on its population. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

Among the works in the show are a series of photographs of a rare feral cat sighting, as well as an installation featuring a cat skeleton and a poison lure. Both are Zhao’s homage of sorts to the island’s imagined “last cat”. 

“Humans killing the cats on the island is a kind of extinction itself, but in a way it’s a celebrated extinction,” he said, pointing out the situation’s complex ethical issues.

“Is the killing of thousands of cats on the island justified to save a bat that we’ll never see again? Who do you feel sad for – the cats or the animals that the cats will kill? I don’t know the answer, but we did screw things up. Human brought cats to the island – what do we do now?”

Christmas Island, which is now under Australia, used to be part of the Crown Colony of Singapore and retains buildings that would look familiar to Singaporeans. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

A MORE DEVELOPED PULAU UBIN

Despite all these, Christmas Island – which has been described as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean – has also proven to be fascinating in less macabre ways for Zhao.

“The crabs moving in and out to the sea is quite a spectacle. The whole island will be covered with them – although it can be a bit of an inconvenience because all the roads are closed,” he quipped.

Among the more fascinating animal encounters Zhao had was with the less popular swell moths, which would often cover entire trees. He was also able to see a local goshawk, a type of hawk, prey on a thrush before his very eyes.

“The island is like Jurassic Park,” he joked. “It’s very strange. The birds are not afraid of you. You can go near them and they won’t fly away because it’s as if they still don’t know how to react to humans.”

A detail from a photograph of a cluster of swell moths. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

And if you’re Singaporean or Malaysian, Christmas Island itself feels a bit like deja vu moment, added Zhao.

With Chinese and Malays forming majority of the population, and Malay and Mandarin also considered mother languages, it’s almost like Singapore in the 1980s and 1990s.

“There used to be direct flights from Singapore. Tourist posters are in three languages, you’ve got HDB-looking flats, people eat nasi lemak for breakfast, there are Chinese and Malay quarters … It’s like a more developed Pulau Ubin,” he said.

Could Christmas Island’s similarities with Singapore extend to ecological issues? After all, wild boars, otters, and wild chickens – and Singaporeans’ often uneasy reactions to their presence – have figured prominently in the news.

A detail from a photo of a goshawk capturing a thrush, both of which are endemic to the island. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)

“The priorities are different. On Christmas Island, they’re trying to return to a kind of pre-humans state, to make it as wild as possible. So the killing of the cats, from that perspective, is very justified. In Singapore, wildlife is intruding on us and we’re trying to keep them back. And unlike in Christmas Island, we don’t have a baseline of what state it should be in because it’s always changing,” said Zhao.

“But at the same time, I’ve learned that humans really have a large part to play (in the environment). Our impact is very big and can have serious consequences on animals. We have a hand in everything.”

SINGAPORE: Irked at not being able to find a nice-fitting men’s shirt, Lai Chang Wen ditched his five-figure-salary job as a derivatives trader for the risky retail scene – to build his own menswear brand.

It was a decision his parents thought quite mad at the time. Said Mr Lai’s mother Madam Tan Poh Siang: “It was a real shock. I said: ‘You’re a guy (working) in banking. Why would you want to go into something that is about fashion and tailoring?’”

The answer boiled down to simply this: Mr Lai’s fixation with solving problems.  Even if it was in a field he knew next to nothing about.

“Do you think Chang Wen was interested in fashion?” laughed current business partner Shaun Chong, referring to the blue rubber slippers Mr Lai wore for the interview. “Look at what he’s wearing to the office. At least I wear shoes.”

Marcella, a made-to-measure menswear brand, was started in Mr Lai’s own words “when I couldn’t fit into a shirt well. And I couldn’t afford a nicely tailored shirt”.

Unfortunately, the business – which automated the process of translating clients’ body measurements into paper patterns – quickly ran into problems with unreliable courier services. Deliveries were either delayed or lost.

“When anything went wrong, the customers had no way of reaching out to the couriers. They were stuck at home waiting the whole day just for our parcels. That’s not what e-commerce was meant to be,” he said.

And so, once again, he set his mind to fixing the nub of his frustration – by setting up logistics company Ninja Van in 2014 at the age of 27 with co-founders Mr Chong and Boxian Tan, despite “zero experience” in logistics (“all I knew how to do was to receive parcels,” said Mr Lai).

Ninja Van went on to redefine the industry by enabling next-day door-to-door deliveries for e-commerce firms and their customers, at a time when such services were not yet ubiquitous in Singapore and most had to depend on the postal service.

WATCH: How they did it (2:58)

It has been so successful that it has raised S$45 million from investors so far, including B Capital Group, a venture capital firm whose founding partner is Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Mr Lai’s journey, and that of Ninja Van, is profiled in Monday’s (March 27) episode of Game Changers, a series about entrepreneurs who reinvent themselves and their industry.

A DO-IT-YOURSELF REVOLUTION

The learning curve was steep and it meant 22-hour work days, sleeping in the office, and even sorting parcels and doing deliveries himself.

“The first few months was hell. Everything was inefficient. We didn’t know what we were supposed to do,” said Mr Lai, now 30. 

Still, they didn’t look to hire logistics industry veterans, who would just bring with them “old tricks”.

Instead, the trio was confident they could leverage on their mathematical and technology skills to improve the delivery process. They examined the entire life cycle of a parcel, from the point when it is picked up to when it’s delivered.

Technology and algorithms were used to improve every process – for example, to calculate the best route a driver should take, or which van should be used to deliver a parcel. This means drivers are able to deliver more parcels in an hour while saving on fuel costs.

Existing logistics providers were then still relying on outdated mail-sorting technology, where delivery documents were usually handwritten and tracking of parcels was difficult. But at Ninja Van, staff used their handphones to scan parcels and find out in an instant where the parcel is heading and what should be done with it.

“The only reason we got to where we were is because our technology was much better than the incumbents at that point in time,” said Mr Lai, acknowledging: “But a lot of them have caught up or are close (now).”

Ninja Van also harnesses crowdsourcing during crunch times, where they activate part-time drivers to help them deliver more parcels and in a shorter period of time, easing the load on their existing drivers.

Mr Lai said: “We make our engineers drive to understand how difficult it is operationally. And we make our operations people think of product specifications, and we try to educate them more about technology.

“We tell them that this is a technology company and here, you get your hands dirty.”

FACEBOOK CO-FOUNDER GIVES THUMBS UP

It is this ethos of Mr Lai that helped sway Mr Saverin’s firm to invest in the start-up. Ninja Van received US$30 million in a second round of funding in 2016 from investors including B Capital Group, which will help them expand regionally.

Mr Saverin said: “As soon as I met him, he struck me as a smart and ruthlessly aggressive entrepreneur who would do whatever it takes to get it done.

“The example was just clearly laid in front of me. A mattress on the floor of his office where he would sleep most of the nights, because that’s how hard he worked.”

The billionaire said that Mr Lai was focused on developing the right culture where everyone in the company understood what each other was doing, and weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty while doing so.  

He credits Mr Lai for creating real-time tracking in logistics where control is handed back to the consumer, just like what Uber and Grab did for the taxi industry.

Mr Saverin said: “Innovations like Facebook, even in the early days, were not these out-of-the-box brilliant thinking. It was replicating something that existed in the real world.

“So these are the types of businesses that create new markets and drive through real positive change. They’re not destructing, they’re enabling.”

More about Lai Chang Wen’s story on Game Changers on Monday, March 27, at 8pm SG/HK.