The social role of the Raffles Library, Singapore, in the inter‐war years
| Published date | 13 January 2012 |
| Pages | 134-143 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220411211200365 |
| Date | 13 January 2012 |
| Author | Brendan Luyt |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The social role of the Raffles
Library, Singapore, in the
inter-war years
Brendan Luyt
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine the inter-war history of the Raffles Library in
Singapore with the aim of understanding what the management of the library believed its role should
be as well as the role others in that society considered that it should fulfill.
Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on historical research using archival
sources.
Findings – To a great extent the management of the library narrowly construed the institution’s
mission in terms of appealing to that class of persons likely to become paying members – thatis, the
European elite and its high-level local collaborators. Financial constraints, relations between the
library and museum as well as prevalent negative attitudes regarding class and race in colonial society
are likely reasons for the lack of sustained attention to non-European populations.
Originality/value – The library history of much of Asia remains relatively unexplored, especially
from a viewpoint that stresses the importance of social context to library structure and operation.
Keywords Singapore, RafflesLibrary, British Malaya, Coloniallibraries, Library history,Libraries
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Writing of the origins of the public library in the USA, Jesse Shera concluded that
“Judged by every standard and measured by every criterion, the public library is
revealed as a social agency, dependent upon the objectives of society. It followed – it
did not create – social change” (Shera, 1949, p. 248). The same can be said of libraries
in the rest of the world, certainly of those in Singapore, among which the largest was
the Raffles Library. Prior to the First World War Raffles Library played roles as a
reference library for scholars working in the region and as an institution where
European officials, businessmen and their families could engage in recreational
reading (Luyt, 2008, 2009). A changed economic and social environment after the war
made new demands. This article will, using the newspaper record of the time and
available documentary material from the library itself, examine these demands, which,
as Sterling (2008) has also argued in the case of other colonial libraries, amounted to
making the library a mechanism to socialize the non-European clerks and junior
administrators upon which the smooth functioning of the colonies increasingly
depended. This article will also outline the role that library management saw itself
playing. To a great extent this role was narrowly construed in terms of appealing to
that class of persons likely to become paying members – that is, the European elite and
its high-level local collaborators. It was concerned to maintain the “attractiveness” of
the library as a place and to provide recreation to those same individuals. Educating
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
JDOC
68,1
134
Received 24 January 2011
Revised 15 May 2011
Accepted 16 May 2011
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 68 No. 1, 2012
pp. 134-143
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220411211200365
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