Unlocking knowledge: How Civica enhances Singapore’s school libraries

For many young children, the library is their first snapshot of the larger world beyond family and classroom.

“The library is an incredibly important place for a child, not just for educational purposes but as an oasis as well,” said Civica’s Senior Product Manager, Kelly Gibbs.

School libraries support not just educational outcomes, but also broader developmental outcomes, according to Civica representatives.

In Singapore, these broader outcomes now include what the government has identified as “21st century competencies”, such as critical thinking, communication skills, and cross-cultural literacy, explained Civica Asia Pacific’s Head of Delivery, Rohaya Mohammed.

Civica, a global provider of integrated library management software, has played a key role in supporting Singapore’s school libraries for nearly 20 years now.

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Services beyond software

Over the years, Civica has gone beyond providing software capabilities to additional services that deliver a holistic experience for students.

“Civica’s main product is software, but for the Singapore and Australia landscape, there are certain projects where we offer services and support to supplement the software,” the company’s Senior Manager of Library Services and Operations, Suhanya Sundararajan explained. In Singapore, this includes providing a library assistant or Library Officer in every school specialised in the use of Spydus, Civica’s Library System.

From 2010 to 2020, Civica worked with school libraries in Singapore to run “Tales of S”, an annual creative writing competition open to all schools in Singapore, across primary, secondary, and junior college levels. The winning entries were published as an e-book and made available to all schools.

“That received so much good traction and feedback, not just from teachers but also from parents,” shared Suhanya. She fondly recalled one parent who shared that her child would submit entries every year and look forward to each competition.

Likewise, the team has provided rotating special collections tied with Civica Enhanced Reading Programmes initiative for Singapore’s school libraries in the past, to help them expose students to a variety of genres and titles to help promote reading culture.

Gibbs shared that this approach of offering complementary services was particularly important in markets beyond Singapore where libraries lack in-house skillsets and expertise.

Evolving with the time

Given how Civica has worked with school libraries for over 19 years, their support services have evolved over time in unique ways to match the changing needs of schools and students and to provide end-to-end support.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Civica had to pivot to support schools that were going hybrid in less than three weeks, shared Suhanya. To support home based learning during the Covid period, Civica took the initiative to design a School E-Resources Repository, curating age-appropriate e-resources which continues to be updated and maintained.

Beyond online academic and leisure resources for students, this also included curating and metatagging materials complementing curriculum that teachers could tap on.

In today’s age of information abundance, this process of metatagging, vetting, and curating, is critical for libraries, added Gibbs.

“Things have evolved from 2005. While the (procurement) tender requirements may stay the same, we know that things have changed on the ground. Students change and the needs of the schools have also evolved,” said Rohaya.

Throughout their years working with school libraries, the company has also introduced progressive updates to OPAC, the front end of the Library System for ease of discovery of resources for the patrons, self-service kiosks for students, web-based modules tailored to each school’s needs, age appropriate programmes and activities, and published a reading habits longitudinal study.

What’s next

As the company looks forward to the future, their emphasis is on the importance of continuing to provide services that acknowledge the changing realities of students and schools today.

For one, this means ensuring their products are interoperable with other digital libraries, such as ebook and streaming providers, so that they can seamlessly provide new services for students, shares Gibb.

Rohaya shared that Civica was increasingly looking towards “virtual library” capabilities, where patrons can search across different resources and access library collections online.

The company has also introduced a mobile app sitting on a modern tech stack, putting the library on their phone and offering students the chance to access resources on their phones.

As disinformation becomes more prevalent, libraries will also need to empower students so that they can approach online information with a critical eye, added Gibbs. While Civica is “dabbling” with more AI tools, they use closed and vetted datasets to ensure the integrity of their data, she shared.

As school libraries become increasingly virtual and student-centric, Civica is well-placed to continue providing critical support.

“We are in a position to support those outcomes that school libraries many want to achieve in the future because we are not just offering products but also wrap-around services, backed by all the experience we’ve garnered around the globe, in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and beyond,” said Rohaya.