What was it like when you were a child? What were your favourite games and food? Where were your favourite haunts? What do you remember most of your childhood?

The History Workroom is working on a book on the history of children and childhood in Singapore. If you like to share your stories with us, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you!

The Eiffel Tower. The Taj Mahal. The Great Wall of China. We all know these famous Monuments, but how well do we know the National Monuments in our own backyard, Singapore?

Whether you are a history buff or someone who just walks past them everyday, National Monuments are an important part of the Singapore landscape. Recently, The History Workroom has been involved in researching and writing an education kit on Singapore’s 63 National Monuments. Commissioned and produced by the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB), the kit can be downloaded for free at the PMB website.

3 great reasons to download and read this kit:
-    Be Kiasu – This kit is the only publication to have basic information on all 63 National Monuments currently gazetted.

-    Increase your knowledge. Find out interesting stories and information nuggets about the monuments. For example: Did you know Low Kim Pong  built the Siong Lim Temple because of a dream? Learn how to recognise different architectural styles such as the Neo-classical, Neo-gothic and Art Deco, commonly used in colonial buildings

-    Get ideas for holiday activities for children or young adults. With the easy and educational ideas and activities (with ready-to-use sheets) in this kit, you will have hours of fun visiting the monuments and learning more about them.

The Singapore Memory Project (SMP) is a whole-of-nation collaborative initiative facilitated by the National Library Board to build a national digital collection of knowledge assets about Singapore so as to ensure that the Singapore story is continuously discovered, collected, preserved & promoted.

NLB will be conducting repeat workshops will happen on 26 June & 3 July for those who have not joined.

Do you remember the games that you used to play during your childhood days? Did you grow up playing chapteh or five stones with your friends or did you belong to the generation that played portable electronic games like tetris/brick game? Are you starting to notice the sights that are beginning to disappear in Singapore and reminisce the days when your family used to enjoy a family outing at Elizabeth Walk to dine at the famous Satay Club? Does your granny often tell you stories of the adversities that they faced during the war time and the days when tapioca was a staple food?

Do you already know or have heard of such stories and would like to do your part in preserving such memories for our future generation? As part of the Singapore Memory Project, we invite you to join us as we nurture you as memory agents – story writers of history, based on real life stories and adventures! For a start, you don’t need to be a writer. You won’t be writing essay long stories. Let us teach you the proper writing techniques and ways to source for your own incredible stories. All you need is a genuine interest in people and Singapore’s future in the making!

Suitable for 16 years old and above.

Please email your interest to Nurulhuda_SUBAHAN@nlb.gov.sg with the subject header: “Memory Agents” before 23 June. Do include your personal details including:

• full name
• contact details (email address and mobile number)
• indicate if you’re a student or a working adult interested to contribute to the preservation of Singapore memories

I have a large framed picture of one of my ancestors in my room. She was my great-great-great grandmother and rumored to have been a brothel owner. Every time I look at the picture, I think about her and imagine what she was like. She is my connection to my past and I want to learn as much as I can about her. But somehow I’ve not yet gotten round to yet.

Although the heritage scene all around the world is blossoming with new centres and organisations, often institutions don’t spend enough time learning and reading about best practices. This website developed by the Connecticut Humanities Council’s Heritage Resource Center (HRC) is designed to connect directors, staff, and board members with current thinking and discussion on the most important issues affecting museums, historical societies, arts agencies, and other non-profit cultural organisations today.

It has book reviews, links to useful Web sites and blogs, and a variety of reports, surveys, and tools all organized around eight core subject areas:

Audience Assessment & Evaluation

Technology & New Media

Marketing & Communications

Leadership & Governance

Finance & Business Planning

Collections & Archives

Museum Education

Public Programming

Community Center

A really helpful and useful resource.