📚 Our Community Deserves a Voice: Save Geylang East Library

Since 1988, Geylang East Public Library has stood as a quiet sanctuary for learning, reflection, and connection. For nearly 37 years, it has faithfully served generations of families, children, students, and seniors.

Now, it’s under threat.

The government plans to relocate the library into the soon-to-be redeveloped Tanjong Katong Complex, which will become a commercial hub filled with office spaces, retail shops, and restaurants — already surrounded by at least four other malls.

This major decision was never properly announced to the residents. It was quietly buried mid-way through a Straits Times article on 18 October 2024 — no public notice, no community consultation. (Read the article here --> https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/sla-launches-tanjong-katong-complex-for-sale-on-30-year-lease

❗ This is not how decisions about vital public spaces should be made.

We are angry because no one asked us first. This decision ignores what the library means to us. 

The library today is quiet and peaceful. Kids can read and learn without distractions. But a shopping mall is full of loud noises, food stalls, toy shops, and claw machines. Just ask any child -  'Library or toy shop?' Parents will struggle to bring their kids to the library when they know the same path leads to so many other, more 'fun' distractions are. Just look at the Jurong West library housed within Jurong Point Mall. Would kids choose to go to Kidztopia, the indoor playground or to the library?

Many families near the library are from lower- to middle-income backgrounds. They easily walk to the library from nearby childcare centres and schools. In contrast, the new site is surrounded by shopping malls, a large industrial estate, and more shophouses than a typical HDB estate. Why would the government uproot a quiet and conducive community library and place it inside a noisy and distracting commercial complex?

The library is part of our community’s heart. Moving it is like erasing our history.

🚫 A Flaw in Decision-Making Based on Easy Measurables — Foot Traffic and Cost?

Authorities say the library’s being moved due to low foot traffic. But is that how we measure the value of a library? If foot traffic were the only thing that mattered, wouldn’t governments have integrated libraries in Disneyland? Foot traffic there is sky-high — yet even they know that’s not the right environment for reading and reflection.

And even if foot traffic increases in libraries integrated within shopping malls, how do we know people are there to read, learn, or study — and not just sitting and enjoying the air-conditioning while waiting for a family member to finish shopping? These casual passersby may drive up numbers, but they risk taking up space and seats meant for genuine library users — students, seniors, children — who come specifically for a quiet, focused environment.

Libraries exist for depth, not just crowds. They serve those who seek knowledge, not consumer traffic. Moving our library to a noisy mall defeats its purpose and reduces it to a side attraction.

Similarly, regarding cost, the purpose of a library is not to be the cheapest to operate, but to be accessible, equitable, and community-driven. If we applied this logic everywhere, many historic institutions would be erased just because they’re older. Should heritage and service be discarded just because it costs a bit more to preserve them? The Toa Payoh Dragon Playground was retained for heritage purpose, isn't a library of more value than a playground? - It serves not just children, but people of all ages.

More broadly, the government’s plan to relocate all libraries into shopping malls is of a serious concern. This strategy must be urgently re-evaluated, as the metrics currently used — foot traffic and cost — fail to capture the full value libraries provide to their communities.

💡 There’s a better way.

We support expanding library access — but not at the cost of an existing, well-loved facility. Here are practical alternatives:

1. Retain Geylang East Library at its current location.
2. Relocate the now-closed library at the Paya Lebar Learning Hub (closed permanently on 1 March 2025) to Tanjong Katong instead.
3. Build a new library branch at Tanjong Katong or Wisma Geylang Serai, which already has a reading room and a preschool, My First Skool. Keep our current library too.

This way, more communities benefit, and we don’t lose a resource that has faithfully served our neighborhood for nearly four decades.

🏛️ Don’t Forget Why Libraries Were Built as Standalone Buildings
In the 1980s, public libraries in Singapore were deliberately built as standalone institutions within heartland neighborhoods. This was part of a national effort to decentralize essential services, making knowledge and learning easily accessible to residents where they lived — not in the city center, not in shopping malls, but right in the community.

Now, with the planned move of the library into a commercial complex, we are seeing a reversal of that original purpose — a re-centralization that runs counter to why libraries were built this way in the first place.

Let’s not forget:
Libraries were never meant to chase crowds.
They were meant to serve communities — quietly, accessibly, and locally.

📢 Sign and share this petition now. Let’s stand together to save Geylang East Library — a quiet cornerstone of our everyday lives.

If you believe the government should listen to our community and not make their own decisions that affect us, sign and share this petition now. We deserve a say in what happens to our library—a place that belongs to all of us. As a concerned resident, I believe decisions about essential public spaces like our local library should at least involve dialogue with those affected. Or, to be even more democratic — why not let residents vote on the matter?

Together, we protect not just a building, but the soul of our community. Please help to sign and share.