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Special Collections

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NUS Libraries is a steward and repository of national and regional heritage, preserving a collection of treasures spanning centuries. From rare artifacts dating back to the 14th century and materials rescued during World War II, to the globally renowned Singapore/Malaysia collection and Colonial Office archives, our collections offer unparalleled insights across diverse disciplines, supporting teaching, learning, and scholarly discovery.

Supporting Teaching, Learning & Research 

Our Special Collections span a vast range of topics and time periods, offering a wealth of unique materials that enhance academic research, teaching, and learning. From rare books and manuscripts to archival materials and historical documents, these collections serve as invaluable resources across a broad spectrum of disciplines.

 

Our Special Collections offer rare opportunities for students, faculty, and researchers to engage with primary sources, allowing for deeper exploration of historical, cultural, and intellectual developments. By interacting with original materials, you can gain a more nuanced understanding of the subjects you are studying.

  • Closer Connections to History: Primary sources bring you closer to the people, events, and themes at the heart of your research.
  • Enhanced Research Skills: Using these collections sharpens your research and critical analysis abilities
  • Genuine Discoveries: You may uncover materials that have never been studied before, providing a unique opportunity to gain new insights.
  • Engaging with Original Documents: Experience the significance of handling original documents, such as personal letters, diaries, and first-hand accounts of historical events.

 

Our Special Collections librarians are on hand to provide guidance, helping you make the most of these resources and incorporate them into your academic work. By using primary sources, you will develop as an independent researcher, ready to engage critically with your field.

Special Collections serves as a unique and impactful resource for teaching. Whether you are teaching in the humanities, social sciences, or other disciplines, integrating these materials into your courses can enhance students' understanding and engagement.

  • Collaborative Teaching: Our librarians can help identify relevant collection items and design classes based on these unique materials to be integrated into your course curriculum.
  • Tailored Sessions: Sessions using our Special Collections can be held at our libraries, in your classroom, or conducted online, tailored to your needs.
  • Digitisation: To facilitate seamless access to your teaching materials, we can digitise items from our collections and make them available online.

 

We also play a critical role in supporting researchers, particularly those engaged in collaborative projects across disciplines and institutions.

  • Collaborative Research: Our Special Collections cover a wide range of subjects, making them ideal for collaborative research that spans multiple fields. 
  • Access to Rare and Unique Materials: Researchers involved in collaborative projects can access rare materials, manuscripts, and archives that provide essential resources and insights for interdisciplinary research .
  • Curatorial Expertise: Our Special Collections librarians offer guidance on identifying relevant materials, ensuring that your research is supported by the best available resources.
  • Teaching & Outreach Services: We support class sessions across various NUS departments and programmes, offering curation and research services for students at all levels. By incorporating rare and unique historical materials—including rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs, and original artifacts—our collections provide invaluable resources for learning and exploration across a wide range of topics.
  • Lending of Materials for Public Programmes & Exhibitions: Select materials from our Special Collections are available for loan to support activities/exhibitions hosted by NUS departments/museums, providing students/researchers with access to vital resources while preserving the integrity of these valuable items.
  • Library Space for Educational Programmes: We offer seminar rooms and exhibition spaces for educational programmes and outreach initiatives. Ideal for lectures, panel discussions, and interactive workshops, these spaces foster engagement and deeper exploration of presented topics.
  • Copyright Guidance: Our team can assist with general copyright issues, ensuring proper consent for the use of copyrighted materials. 
  • Digital Storage & Global Accessibility:  Collaborative projects can leverage the Digital Gems online portal for secure storage and sharing of digitized materials. This platform enables global access to rare and unique collections, fostering international collaboration and amplifying your research impact.

 

Collaborative research projects NUS Libraries has previously undertaken::

  • Singapore Biographical Databases (SBDB)
  • Biodiversity Library of Southeast Asia (BLSEA)
  • Bai Yan Private Papers
  • 8½ Hours in Singapore

If you are interested in using our Special Collections for teaching or research, please drop us a line at askalib@nus.edu.sg.

 

 

Collection Highlights

Biodiversity Library of Southeast Asia (BLSEA)

This collection contains rare and unique content on the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia. A labour of love between NUS Libraries and Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, it contains open access biodiversity materials from both entities.

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Singapore-Malaysia Collection

This is a valuable research collection with its broad and in-depth coverage of the economic, geographical, historical, political and social development of Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an entity. 

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Chinese in Southeast Asia Collection

Southeast Asia is the region of Chinese emigration with the longest diasporic history and the largest diaspora population.

For centuries, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia have founded various clan organisations, schools, newspapers and journals, leaving thousands of documents of historical interest. These valuable archives — comprising collections of important documents such as weekly magazines, internal newsletters of schools and social organisations, history books, familial genealogies and pictures — are crucial primary sources for research on the economic and social history of these immigrants, their political activities, and the transmission of their religious beliefs.

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Pre-war Japanese Publications in Southeast Asia

This collection showcases the studies done by Japanese scholars on Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent, reflects the knowledge and perspectives of the Japanese on Southeast Asia in the pre-war period.

It covers a wide range of subjects in agriculture, commerce, culture, economics, ethnology, sociology, tourism and zoology. Some publications focus on a particular country or colony while others look at Southeast Asia in general. Of particular interest are publications that discuss the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia such as Nanyō kakyō to sono jitsuseiryoku (Actual power of Southeast Asian Chinese) published in 1941.

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Historical Newspapers Collection

This online collection provides access to pre-war newspapers published in Singapore and Malaya and selected newspapers published in Southeast Asia. It is available in English, Chinese, Jawi, Malay and the Indonesian language.

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Rare Books Collection

This consists mainly of first, limited or special editions of books covering various disciplines and bearing imprint dates from around the 14th to the early 20th century. The closed collection is kept at the BookBridge. Selected titles are accessible at Digital Gems.

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NUS Theses Collection

The scholarly output of NUS is housed in this collection. It contains print and electronic copies of higher-degree theses and academic exercises submitted to the National University of Singapore and its predecessor institutions, namely, Raffles College, the University of Malaya, the University of Singapore and Nanyang University since 1947. The print copies are searchable on the library portal while the electronic theses are available in ScholarBank@NUS.

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Private Papers Collection

The collection comprises deposits of papers from prominent individuals. These private papers collections provide unique perspectives on the historical, literary, social, political and natural history of Southeast Asia.

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Digital Gems

Digital Gems is a gateway to NUS Libraries’ rare, historical, and primary source materials from NUS Libraries Special Collection in digital format. This virtual library provides access to a selection of rare books, manuscripts, private collections, journals, newspapers, drawings, pamphlets, photographs, maps, and audio-visual materials of cultural and historical value.

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