The Library at VivoCity

by Rebecca

Every few weeks you will find us at the Library at VivoCity Mall taking out the 15 books we are are allowed with our Library Card.

As non citizens/ non permanent residents we had to pay $50 for a library card and have a small book limit. The library opens at 11 and Ms.C likes to be the literal first person through the door on the Children's side.

The library is run completely by volunteers and there are completely separate adult and children's sides. Both sides are completely silent. Well except for us; we are not silent ever. We are getting quieter in the Library though. There are signs of course instructing you in proper library etiquette.  

Everyone lines up for everything in Singapore. This is the orderly line for waiting for the library door to open.

This library is pretty amazing. For one thing on the adults side, the view is of Sentosa Island and you can see the castle across the water in Universal Studios. Yes, my library has a view of a castle.

It's got a futuristic style. I love it. It actually has a robot. I'm not exactly sure what the robot does. It has a sign saying it's in testing and there's always some guy hanging around supervising it.

The Library's Robot: I think they're testing out different functions. 

There's a crafting zone when you first walk in. Literacy activities are placed out here. It says the activities are for Preschoolers, but you have to remember that Preschoolers means before age 7 in Singapore. Last time it was a make your own paper Battleship Game; this time it was creating paper Finger Puppets. Sometimes, Ms.I will colour on the blank paper provided, but the actual activity is always too old for her. There are often some blocks piled here for her to play with. Ms.E and Ms.C like the activities. Frankly everyone is just thrilled to sit with their books. Everyone has their favorite spots.

Below is the main children's reading area. There's a sign that say no shoes allowed. Ms.I pops her shoes off and puts them up on the shelf before she even goes looking for her books. There are many lovely spots like this to linger with a book.

Ms.C loves to use the electronic card catalogue to find books by topic. The girls also like the computers hidden down at the far end of the kids side. I've tried to get to the Adult's side, but Ms.I always objects so loudly I leave without a book. I'll keep trying.

We had a hard time getting our library card originally. The staff were very helpful, but that didn't make it any easier. Getting the physical card was actually simple. Showed our Dependent Pass from the Singapore Government, filled out a short form and the staff said they would find us in about 10 minutes to hand us the card. We didn't even have to give our address. Actually taking out the books was more challenging.

First I needed to pay the $50. There is no desk and no way to pay be cash or credit card. There's a self-check out. The various staff kept telling me to use my NETS card. I don't have one. Everyone has one. Finally someone explained I could use my MRT pass to pay. I had an MRT pass, but not with $50 on it. I finally realized I could use the App to add money with a credit card. I didn't have the App. So I downloaded it, and tried to add my card, and finally got my card added. All ready to top up with my credit card, and it wouldn't let me! The App only accepted Singaporean credit cards. I only had a Canadian credit card at the time (We've got a Singaporean credit card now). I had 3 children who really really wanted their library books, and Ms.C and I don't know how to give up. Ms.C finally suggested that we go to the MRT station to top up our card there because we know how to do that. So we did, through the huge mall and down 4 stories, and back up again. We then had to figure out how to use the self-check out. This was all too so long that Ms.I gave up and fell asleep. I think from when we arrived at the library till we left with our books took almost 3 hours.

The self-check out has taken me a while to learn. I now know I can only stack a few board-books on the scanner at once. The scanner say it will scan 8 books at one time. Also the touch screen hates me. I try to tap, but you actually need to touch and hold your finger there. This took me way way too long to figure out. I kept trying different kiosks and saying they were broken and then watching someone check out the books on the same kiosk that wouldn't work for me - every single library trip.

Returning books is automated too. You can hear the beep of the books being scanned as you drop them in the drop box. I got late fees on 4 of our 14 books last time because we got the first 10 scanned through the drop box before 11 am and the last 4 scanned in seconds after 11 am.