Profile of Ngian Lek Choh |
Ms Ngian Lek Choh graduated from the University of Singapore with a B.Sc (Honours) in Physics in 1976, took a postgraduate diploma in Library Science from the University of Wales, UK, in 1981, and a diploma in System Science from the Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore in 1985. She also spent a month at INSEAD, France to study Advanced General Management in 2000.
Over the years, she accumulated a strong grounding of public library services and management.
Over the past 7 years, the National Library had evolved and transformed its system of 10 public libraries and 12 community children's libraries (CCLs) to a system of 22 public libraries and 46 CCLs.
Loans increased from 10 million in financial year (FY) 1994 to 28 million in FY2001 and visitors from 6 million to 27.8 million over the same period. Membership increased from 1 million to just under 2 million today.
Ngian played a leadership role in the transformation of the public libraries, by increasing the accessibility, reach and convenience of libraries in the following ways:
- setting up 10 new co-located public libraries. This includes one 11,000 sq m regional library at Woodlands in the Woodlands Regional Civic Centre, 10 community libraries between 1,500 to 2,000 sq m in high traffic shopping malls, and one other community library in a Town Council building,
- automating and removing routine repetitive tasks from librarians, to free them for more value-adding work such as reader advisory service, user education and information literacy training,
- offering DIY (do-it-yourself) services at all 20 public library outlets to remove almost all queues, and to return valuable time back to customers to read, learn and explore at the NLB libraries. It is estimated that by automating these functions, customers and library staff saved S$50 million a year in time-savings.
Ngian believes that library service will continue to evolve, to make library resources more accessible to customers, and to ensure that the use of library services remain as hassle-free, painless, relevant and compelling as possible.
Future plans that she has in mind for the next few years:
- introduce niche libraries to serve specialized needs of targeted communities such as the performing arts, heritage and culture,
- explore home/office delivery and portable library services, to make materials available to anyone who does not have time to visit NLB's libraries. This is in line with the NLB's vision to bring libraries to the people, instead of bringing people to libraries,
- introduce a larger component of experiential learning to customers to excite them to want to learn more, to link collections to learning experiences and to encourage customers to explore new frontiers.
In April 2002, Ngian was appointed the Assistant Chief Executive, Operations. In her new capacity, she oversees the entire operations of the National Library Board, including library outlets and all internal suppliers to the outlets, such as collection development, service development, programming development and professional development.
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©2003 Imagine it, Explore it, Create it! is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Last updated March 29, 2003.
