Old Libraries Are Real Libraries
I was at Toa Payoh Library on a Sunday morning and decided to make use of the couple of hours before my TCM class started to do some studying. At 10am when the library opened, the crowds rushed in. By 11am, all the seats at the study tables were occupied. In spite of being the only uncle at the study tables, I was quick enough to claim a nice seat. All of a sudden, a sense of nostalgia and deja vu gripped me. Vivid memories of student days flooded my mind. All this was too familiar. In spite of being quite out of place, seated amongst all the youngsters, I settled down to the business of studying very quickly.
And I love old libraries like Toa Payoh. It’s big, with a children’s section downstairs and the adult’s section upstairs. The newer libraries like the one at Sengkang and Hougang, are a total waste of time. They are situated inside shopping malls, with the noisy children’s section blending into the adult’s section, the floor area is miserably small and worst of all, there’s an eatery attached, taking up valuable space that could have been used for more shelves and study tables. I’m not sure about the youngsters, but I certainly don’t like this sort of setup.
Toa Payoh is different. They have enough space for a senior citizen’s room and a newspaper room. Though demand is high, a seat at the study tables is definitely not difficult to find if you’re early and quick. Interestingly, the majority of my companions at the study table started their day by reading Chinese books and magazines. One young lady ate her Old Chang Kee snacks under the table. After some leisure reading, they got down to their English textbooks and highlighted lecture notes. No prizes for guessing where these youngsters are from, but if our local kids are going to continue waking up late on Sundays and “studying” in noisy places like Burger King, dressed in their best clothes in order to draw eyeballs from neighbouring tables, I can guess where our next generation of top students are going to come from.
Another insight I gained from this. I’m not going to believe my kid if he tells me he’s going to study with friends at Burger King or that library in the mall. Go to one of the old libraries if you really want to study.
