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Ministry of Digital Development and Information
Speeches

Opening Remarks by Minister Josephine Teo at Donors Appreciation Night 2026

23 October 2026

NLB’s esteemed donors
Mr Lee Seow Hiang, Chairman, National Library and Archives Board
Ms Melissa Tam, Chief Executive Officer, National Library and Archives Board
Colleagues and friends,


Introduction

  1. Good evening and thank you for being here on this occasion, and we are most thankful to all our donors for these treasured gifts. I am always happy to be at NLB’s annual Donors’ Appreciation Night. The exhibits are a joy to go through, and we are most thankful to our donors for these treasured gifts to Singaporeans.

The materials contributed by our donors tell the stories behind our shared heritage.

  1. Every donation has a story behind it. To individuals and families, a letter, photograph or manuscript can hold precious memories that might otherwise fade with time. When these personal histories are preserved and shared, they help us understand the experiences and values that have shaped our community. Together, these stories become part of our collective memory.

  2. In the past year, we received close to 11,000 new items from our donors. These include manuscripts, music scores, photographs, maps and books, adding to our National Collection. Let me highlight three amongst the 11,000.

  3. First, we have an advertising portfolio from Ms Linda Georgina Locke, former managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi in Singapore and a celebrated figure in advertising. It includes advertisements produced by Ms Locke and her teams between the 1970s and 2000s, including “Glasses”, a 1993 advertisement for the Singapore Traffic Police that won for Singapore a Gold Lion prize at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, which is widely considered the highest honour in global advertising. Now, these ads are a window to Singapore’s growing affluence and exposure to global trends.

  4. Second, Ms Tham Yew Chin, better known as the writer and Cultural Medallion recipient You Jin, has donated to the National Archives of Singapore. The donations include a war journal belonging to her father, Mr Tham Sien Yen. He served in Force 136, a British-led resistance group that fought Japanese occupation forces in Malaya during World War II. His journals describe the harrowing circumstances and how things weren’t actually going well for them.

  5. Third, in the field of performing arts, we have received music notations, programme booklets and other items capturing the evolution of Indian classical music in Singapore. These are from Dr Ghanavenothan Retnam, a Cultural Medallion recipient who has had a long career as a musician. Later, Dr Ghana will lead a group of musicians from Bhaskar’s Arts Academy in an instrumental performance based on material from his collections donated to the National Library.

  6. Now, beyond individual donations, NLB also grows its collections through institutional partnerships. In March this year, we expanded an existing partnership with SPH Media Limited to preserve selected negatives and photographs documenting Singapore’s history. These will add to the over 45,000 SPH images already available for viewing on our Archives Online portal.

  7. For my passionate colleagues in the NLS and NAS, collecting these materials is only the beginning. Every time I see them, there is a glint in their eyes. There’s a joyfulness in how they handle all the precious artefacts in their hands, because equally important to collecting them is preserving them and making them accessible, so their stories can continue to be discovered and appreciated by future generations.

The preservation work that the National Library of Singapore and National Archives of Singapore did in the past has borne fruit; this encourages us to continue doing so for the future via meaningful collaborations.

  1. After all, our donors have placed their trust in these two institutions to care for their materials and make them accessible to the public. Our librarians and archivists, through their preservation, conservation, curation and outreach efforts, transform the materials we receive into living parts of our national memory.

  2. For example, NAS has preserved documents like the Proclamation of Singapore, the official declaration that marked Singapore’s emergence as an independent and sovereign nation in circumstances very different from those of today. When I visited NAS last month, I saw first-hand the meticulous work undertaken at its Archives Conservation Lab and Sound and Moving Image Lab. Having seen for myself the diligent work and dedication of our Archives colleagues, I can confidently assure our donors that their collections are in the safest hands. The Proclamation of Singapore document is on display at the exhibition “The Albatross File: Singapore's Independence Declassified”, which is currently being held at Level 10 of the building we are in.

  3. Even older items, such as 130-year-old books from our collection, will be on display at a new exhibition by the National Library of Singapore exploring the Four Great Classic Novels of Chinese literature. Opening in December, it will see top-graded cultural relics from the National Library of China displayed outside China for the first time. We hope it will help give us a glimpse of how deeply Singapore’s literary heritage is connected to the wider world.

  4. Looking ahead, I am happy to share the fruits of more collaborations that support NLB’s mission of promoting discovery. Next year, NLS will publish a book by Professor Peter Borschberg about the rise and collapse of a little-known Spanish armada that anchored off Singapore in 1616, as well as the role of the Portuguese in their failed attack on the Dutch. Now, this publication will shed new light on Singapore’s maritime history and geostrategic importance.

  5. In addition, we recently received a donation from historian and researcher Dr Anthony Disney. It consists of over 1,000 works on the Portuguese empire, dating from 1669 to 2015[1]. The book by Prof Borschberg will add to, and complement, our existing collections on Singapore's early history and the European presence in this region.

  6. For example, the Portuguese never ruled Singapore, unlike Malacca which they conquered in 1511. Even before the Spanish armada, Portuguese influence reached Singapore largely through their Eurasian community that subsequently settled here, when Singapore developed as a British trading port after 1819. Their legacy includes sugee cake, devil’s curry and the Malay word for church “gereja” which is likely derived from the Portuguese word “igreja.” At the St Joseph’s Church just opposite our Central Library, you will even find azulejos. What is azulejo? These are the blue and white tiles commonly used in Portugal’s buildings. So, if you visit Lisbon, Porto or any other Portuguese city, you will see many of such tiles.

  7. NLS is therefore also collaborating with the University of Lisbon to identify historical materials on Singapore and Southeast Asia held in Portuguese libraries and archives for digitisation and scholarly interpretation. Together, these initiatives and partnerships will reveal more about the early Portuguese presence in Asia and contribute to our knowledge of Singapore and the region.

  8. I am also pleased to share that a generous sponsorship has made possible the Library of Mistakes Singapore [2]. It will be launched in the first quarter of 2027, and this free-to-use library will be brought to Singapore by Didasko, a UK-based charity founded in 2008 to promote finance knowledge. It will be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, allowing visitors to learn more about financial history through a Singapore lens with material from NLB’s collections on local and regional economic developments. Hopefully, we can avoid these mistakes by understanding how they come about.

  9. NLB will work closely with Didasko and other partners on the development, collections and programming.

NLB encourages the public to discover the compelling stories behind these donations, as well as to donate to the National Library of Singapore and National Archives of Singapore.

  1. I encourage you to explore the materials on display tonight, covering topics from life in colonial Singapore and our built environment, to the journeys of notable artists.  

  2. You can also discover more through curated collections on the National Library Online and Archives Online portals.

  3. I hope these stories will also inspire more Singaporeans to contribute materials of their own and enrich our understanding of our shared past.

  4. Thank you all once again for your support for NLB’s roles as a Collector, Keeper, Connector and Storyteller of Singapore’s national memory. I wish you a very enjoyable evening. Thank you.

[1] Dr Disney is a retired academic and scholar specialising in the Portuguese Empire. Recognised widely as one of the leading researchers in his field, his published works included: A History of Portuguese and the Portuguese Empire: From the Beginnings to 1807 published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, and Historiography of Europeans in Africa and Asia, 1450-1800, published by Routledge in 2019. Dr Anthony Disney’s collection covers the Portuguese empire and its early presence in Asia. The works in this collection date from 1669 to 2015, with the majority in Portuguese. 

[2] The library will be located at the Level 7 Promenade of the National Library building.