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AsiaOne
3 days ago
- General
- AsiaOne
'I just wanted a piece of nostalgia': Hundreds turn up at adoption drive to collect remaining Yale-NUS books, Singapore News
PUBLISHED ON June 19, 2025 5:22 AM By Liv Hana Roberts Hundreds of book lovers turned up at NUS Library's book adoption and exchange drive on Saturday (June 14) to pick up some of the discarded books from Yale-NUS College. Held outside the NUS Central Library, members of the public were given access to about 2,000 books. After the controversy over the disposal of hundreds of books in May, Yale-NUS College decided to host a donation drive for students, staff and their guests that month which saw "overwhelming response". 'A piece of nostalgia' Over at NUS Central Library on June 14, AsiaOne noted hundreds of people, ranging from children to graduates to elderly, queuing up and collecting books. "I just wanted to grab a piece of nostalgia," Yip, who declined to give his full name, said as he waited in the middle of a snaking queue. The 60-year-old, who studied economics in NUS about 20 years ago, added he was interested in collecting books on social sciences, humanities and history, as well as books on communication. "Yale-NUS College is closed, so they are giving away books for free, so I think that's good." The infotech worker said he felt "sad" hearing the books were dumped. "I mean I love books so if you see books being dumped they could be put to better use, somebody could use it. There's still value." Another book lover, who wanted to be known only as Chow, said he was curious to see "who are the people who would come to pick up the books". The school principal said that even though he understands the reason behind the outcry, the 52 year-old hopes the public can understand that "there is a proper way for libraries to dispose of books". He added that when books are "outdated", libraries often have their own "processes" to dispose of them and that information is often not known or accessible to the public. Many fresh graduates were also spotted at the book donation drive. One graduate, who only wanted to be known as Ping, said she wanted to check out the books as they are otherwise expensive. Ping, who had picked up books on anthropology, women in Afghanistan and slavery in America said: "There's so many people who want (the books), then you dump for what?" Jaron Lua and Sharyl Chin, both 25, and NTU English Literature graduates, said they just wanted to make sure the books didn't go to waste. Like Ping, Sharyl also noted that academic books are expensive. "We thought we should try our luck to see if we can get anything useful or relevant for our postgraduate studies." Sharyl, who picked up 18th and 19th century literature like Gertrude Stein, Jane Austin-adjacent titles and books on women's activism, added: "I think it's great that they decided to do this because you can see the whole Singaporean community come together for books. "So for me it disproves the idea that people don't read anymore." Both of them felt that the book dumping incident could have been handled better. Jaron said: "I feel like they should have considered adoption as their first option as opposed to (dumping the books)." The graduate, who collected books on Shakespeare, Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio and English poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer, said: "They still shredded like 500 plus books… It may not seem like a lot but it actually is." Good haul Yip thought the fair was a good way for NUS Libraries to show the public that they "made an error and were trying to make amends". Yip revealed he wasn't just collecting books for himself but also for his friends and wife, who also had an interest in humanities, specifically history. Sharyl added that the event was "a really good haul" and had a "really good spread" of books. AsiaOne has reached out to NUS Libraries for more information. [[nid:718972]] NUSYale-NUSBooksStudentsUniversitydonations This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.
CNA
21-05-2025
- General
- CNA
Yale-NUS library books: Staff unaware of students' interest; 500 titles recycled
SINGAPORE: Library staff at the National University of Singapore (NUS) "did not realise" that students would be interested in excess books from Yale-NUS College - an oversight, said the university librarian, that led to hundreds of titles being sent to a recycling plant. The college, which is scheduled to close this year, had been preparing for renovations ahead of the relocation of the NUS law faculty and its library to its premises, Associate Professor Natalie Pang told reporters on Wednesday (May 21). As a result, the collection of 45,000 books at the Yale-NUS College library had to be moved. About 80 per cent - 36,000 books - were rehomed to various NUS libraries, other universities or given to faculty members. The remaining 20 per cent - around 9,000 books - were slated for recycling as a "last resort" in line with common library practices, said Assoc Prof Pang. These excess books were duplicates or had "low utilisation rates". Of these, 500 books have been recycled, Assoc Prof Pang said. The process involving the remaining 8,500 was halted after photos and videos of books being packed into trash bags and loaded onto a recycling truck sparked outcry from alumni and students. In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, NUS apologised for an "operational lapse" in how the books were handled. Separately, NUS provost and deputy president for academic affairs Professor Aaron Thean also apologised, saying he was sorry that the rehoming process had caused "so much concern". The university houses four million volumes of books across seven libraries. "This is a big collection, and so any loss of books to us is always heartbreaking. I want to make it clear that all these books mean a lot to us," said Prof Thean. Assoc Prof Pang added that library staff did their best to retrieve the 500 books that had already been sent for recycling once they realised there was student interest. "I was really aghast to realise that the books were being picked up by the recycling company despite students expressing interest." The library staff tried calling the company, asking it to turn back. "Unfortunately … it just wasn't possible," she said. OUTREACH NOT "EXTENSIVE ENOUGH" Assoc Prof Pang said library staff were not aware that students were interested in the books and "did not actually make enough arrangements" to facilitate access to the titles. "In our experience organising these book giveaways … whether it's students or members of the NUS community - be it staff or faculty - there's been quite a low demand for many of these titles that we put out," she said. "But this incident has also shown us that there are lessons to learn from this. There is indeed interest." Under existing library practices, excess books are usually offered to faculty first. However, Assoc Prof Pang acknowledged that the outreach in this case was "not extensive enough" and apologised for it. With the college closing, "what … we didn't also really have full knowledge of is where Yale-NUS faculty might be moving to", the university librarian said, adding that they were able to reach some "but not all". "There's no two ways about it," she said. "We have to own it, and we will do better." Assoc Prof Pang noted that while the library regularly rehomes books, the scale of the operation this time was "much larger" than in past relocation exercises, which typically involved only a few hundred titles. Looking ahead, she said NUS will introduce a new standard operating procedure (SOP) - to be applied across all university libraries - that will involve more extensive outreach to faculty and incorporate outreach to students as well. The university librarian also dispelled claims from some students that books could not be donated due to RFID tags, calling them "absolutely untrue". "If, let's say, a book has an RFID tag and somebody wants a book, there are processes in place to desensitise the tag and also put a certain chop on it so that people know it's a book that's been adopted." Two book adoption fairs will be held on May 28 and Jun 14, with the first open to Yale-NUS alumni and families. The second will be open to the wider NUS community. For any remaining titles that are still not rehomed after these events, NUS will partner with secondhand platforms such as Thryft to find new homes for the books.
