I love the playful design of the Bishan Public Library with its narrow glass cubicles jutting out of the facade like so many books pulled out of shelves.
The rows of books are visible from the outside, too, from the back of the library, through its wide-open glass walls.
I love this openness, this letting in the light, for that is what knowledge is, revealing what was unknown before.
This glass box of a library in Bishan is the culmination of thinking out of the box.
Instead of a staircase, there is a long, wide ramp to walk up to the second level. Only from there begins the flight of stairs to the upper two floors.
Vive la difference.
One can even draw a moral from such innovations in a library.
For what is knowledge but learning something new?
It's common to think of scholars, scientists and intellectuals as desiccated eggheads.
But no one pushes the envelope more than they do, upsetting old ways of thinking, offering something new.
Those glass cubicles jutting out of the facade, suspended in space, poised on thin air, defying the laws of gravity, are not just a decorative element in a library.
They make a statement about human knowhow, which is, of course, the primary attraction of a library --- a place to read or learn something new.
I love the public libraries of Singapore.
They reinforce the government's claims about Singapore being a learning hub.
With their wide collection of books, including some critical of Singapore, they match the cosmopolitan, mercantile profile of the city-state.
The books in their collection are such a refreshing contrast to Singapore's mainstream media, ranked 133rd in the 2009 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (here and here).
Sorry, that's comparing apples with oranges. Singapore's public libraries are like the internet, the media a local network.
