The National Library Board (NLB) will be rolling out a children's book subscription service where customers get eight curated books delivered to their doorstep every month.
NLB Launches Children’s Book Subscription Service
According to NLB in a news release on Thursday (1 Oct), subscribers of The Little Book Box will get their hands on eight English children’s books monthly, selected from a variety of fiction and non-fiction books.
"The books span a broad range of children’s interests and are catered for two age groups – from 4 to 6 years old and 7 to 9 years old," it said.
The pilot subscription service will run for nine months from November to July next year and charges a monthly fee of S$10.70 (inclusive of GST).
Subscribing to this service will "make it more convenient and accessible for parents to get a variety of books for their children," said NLB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ng Cher Pong.
“Families have busy lifestyles and parents have to juggle work with childcare. Some might find it difficult to go to the libraries together with their children regularly."
Ng also noted that "many may also be staying at home more during this period".
While patrons will be able to subscribe for the service from Friday, it is capped at 1,000 subscribers and available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
A minimum subscription period of three months is required. The subscription will then be automatically renewed for another three months unless terminated.
NLB said that the books from the subscription service do not fall within the usual loan quota. That means subscribers would still be able to borrow up to 16 books from the library.
The loan duration for these books, excluding the delivery time, will be 21 days. Overdue fines for late returning of books will be incurred as usual, according to NLB.
Subscribers can return the books to any of the 25 public libraries in Singapore.
Before the rolling out of The Little Book Box, NLB conducted a survey earlier this year to find out from patrons if there was a demand for such a service.
"More than 2,000 responses were received and the majority were receptive to this idea," NLB said. Depending on the response to the pilot service, NLB said it will consider extending the service beyond July next year and expand its scale.
To ensure that this subscription service is accessible to children from low-income families, NLB said they are partnering with the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund to sponsor up to 200 children from such households with a free nine-month book subscription service.
Subscribe to The Little Book Box here: https://go.gov.sg/nlb-thelittlebookbox
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