{"id":4582,"date":"2026-09-23T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=4582"},"modified":"2026-09-22T21:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:53:12","slug":"why-i-love-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=4582","title":{"rendered":"Why I Love Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have been absolutely privileged to live in areas with libraries over the years. Growing up, there was a library not far from the house that I would go to so often my mother used to call it my second home. Never stopped her from dropping me off whenever I asked, for all that she said I spent so much time there. Never stopped her from letting me use her IC to borrow more books than my library card could get me either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been even more incredibly privileged to never have to pay<\/em> to access a library. The Singapore government issues library cards almost immediately for all citizens. I remember receiving one in the mail when my oldest was born, barely a week later, that I simply had to turn in to get the actual card for her. The library near the university where I did my Masters was also free once I showed some documentation. I used to study there, used to take walks when my husband was at class to go there and browse – I couldn’t say how many books I wound up borrowing from that library because I’d not seen them before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And recently, my father-in-law found a library not so far from home here in Malaysia. I’d worried that us being long term visa holders and not citizens might have meant paying for library usage, but no! All we needed to do was show documentation and our visas, and now my mother-in-law, my kids and I are all members of the library! And what a library it is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the number of English language books is less than what was available to me in Singapore and Auckland, it is still substantial enough that there are<\/em> books my kids and I are more than happy to borrow. There’re also rooms for watching movies, a space to sit and chill, study areas – and a dedicated children’s library space. An entire separate room for the children where they can make a little more noise and not bother anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An entire separate room where we recently found out two women volunteer their time every month to host workshops for the children. They read a book to them and then prepare activities for the children to do. My youngest has been a few times and she absolutely loves it. Not only does she get to listen to stories being told in entertaining ways, she also gets to do crafts with other kids. (My oldest has outgrown the age given for these activities, but she likes to sit around with whichever book’s taken her fancy and read. Sometimes she helps her sister out with the activity, sometimes the ladies running the activities share extra material with her so she can take part as well.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, these workshops do cost a little money because the volunteers do need to pay for the materials used in the activities. But I don’t mind that, not when it’s given the kids a sense of community and fun. Not when it’s helped foster even more of a love for reading in them both, my youngest especially. She’s still learning to read, and each time we go to the library she branches out a little more to try new books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yeah, so was this an excuse to just gush about libraries and how much I love them? And how much I love that they are now something I can share with my kids, something that allows me to share my love for reading with them? (My oldest, my mom says whenever we visit, is a mini-me when it comes to books. It’s a mixed bag, but also I adore that I can share books with her now.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t borrowed as many books from the local library as my kids because I do wind up reading more e-books, but I am incredibly lucky that the Singapore<\/em> library has an e-catalogue I can access from anywhere in the world. It is sad to say the building that housed the library I used to visit has been torn down, but I’ve heard the rebuild is going on and it will still house a library. I hope it’ll be as vibrant and warm as it used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I hope I’ll be able to take my kids to the library often, every few weeks, even now that the workshops have ended for the year. (One of the volunteers is having a baby soon and well, can’t blame her for taking time to take care of herself!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do you have a library you can visit? What has been your experience with libraries? I’d love to know about libraries in different parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you like my content, consider leaving me a tip on\u00a0Ko-fi<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been absolutely privileged to live in areas with libraries over the years. Growing up, there was a library not far from the house that I would go to so often my mother used to call it my second home. Never stopped her from dropping me off whenever I asked, for all that she said I spent so much time there. Never stopped her from letting me use her IC to borrow more books than my library card could get me either. I have been even more incredibly privileged to never have to pay to access a library. The Singapore government issues library cards almost immediately for all citizens. I remember receiving one in the mail when my oldest was born, barely a week later, that I simply had to turn in to get the actual card for her. The library near the university where I did my Masters was also free once I showed some documentation. I used to study there, used to take walks when my husband was at class to go there and browse – I couldn’t say how many books I wound up borrowing from that library because I’d not seen them before. And recently, my father-in-law found a library not so far from home here in Malaysia. I’d worried that us being long term visa holders and not citizens might have meant paying for library usage, but no! All we needed to do was show documentation and our visas, and now my mother-in-law, my kids and I are all members of the library! And what a library it is! While the number of English language books is less than what was available to me in Singapore and Auckland, it is still substantial enough that there are books my kids and I are more than happy to borrow. There’re also rooms for watching movies, a space to sit and chill, study areas – and a dedicated children’s library space. An entire separate room for the children where they can make a little more noise and not bother anyone. An entire separate room where we recently found out two women volunteer their time every month to host workshops for the children. They read a book to them and then prepare activities for the children to do. My youngest has been a few times and she absolutely loves it. Not only does she get to listen to stories being told in entertaining ways, she also gets to do crafts with other kids. (My oldest has outgrown the age given for these activities, but she likes to sit around with whichever book’s taken her fancy and read. Sometimes she helps her sister out with the activity, sometimes the ladies running the activities share extra material with her so she can take part as well.) Yes, these workshops do cost a little money because the volunteers do need to pay for the materials used in the activities. But I don’t mind that, not when it’s given the kids a sense of community and fun. Not when it’s helped foster even more of a love for reading in them both, my youngest especially. She’s still learning to read, and each time we go to the library she branches out a little more to try new books. Yeah, so was this an excuse to just gush about libraries and how much I love them? And how much I love that they are now something I can share with my kids, something that allows me to share my love for reading with them? (My oldest, my mom says whenever we visit, is a mini-me when it comes to books. It’s a mixed bag, but also I adore that I can share books with her now.) I haven’t borrowed as many books from the local library as my kids because I do wind up reading more e-books, but I am incredibly lucky that the Singapore library has an e-catalogue I can access from anywhere in the world. It is sad to say the building that housed the library I used to visit has been torn down, but I’ve heard the rebuild is going on and it will still house a library. I hope it’ll be as vibrant and warm as it used to be. And I hope I’ll be able to take my kids to the library often, every few weeks, even now that the workshops have ended for the year. (One of the volunteers is having a baby soon and well, can’t blame her for taking time to take care of herself!) Do you have a library you can visit? What has been your experience with libraries? I’d love to know about libraries in different parts of the world. If you like my content, consider leaving me a tip on\u00a0Ko-fi!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[893,59],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-post","tag-why-i-love-libraries","tag-writings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4585,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions\/4585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}