ISEAS Library Annual Review FY 2017
I COLLECTION BUILDING
Acquisition of Books & Serials
In FY17/18, the Library purchased 1,738 new publications, about 9% less than the previous financial year. Our international exchange partners contributed a further 143 books and 68 serial titles to the collection, a decrease of 15% year-on-year. The Library currently subscribes to 16 international newspapers, 14 published in the Southeast Asian region. The number of hardcopy newspapers was further reduced to 12 as subscription costs continue to rise and more newspapers are now available for online access. Through subscription to six electronic databases, namely Bibliography of Asian Studies, JSTOR, Project Muse, ProQuest, Stratfor Global Intelligence Brief, and Economist Intelligence Unit, our users have access to 9,600 e-journal and e-newspaper titles.
Private Papers Collection
(Left) Mrs Margaret Wang, Prof Wang Gungwu, Mr Pitt Kuan Wah, Dr Leo Suryadinata and Mr Gao Jiankang looking at part of the collection on display at the event; (Right) Participants viewing selected materials from Wang Gungwu Collection on display at the event.
Photographs from the Made Wijaya Collection. (Top left): Ubud, Bali; (Top right): Candi Penataran, Blitar, Java; (Bottom left): Desa Bayunggede, Bangli, Bali; (Bottom right): Merajan Agung Puri Pejeng, Ubud Bali.
Audio-Visual Collection
The Library archived approximately 231 hours of audio and video recordings of 99 seminars, conferences, workshops, and symposiums organised by the Institute.
II COLLECTION MANAGEMENT
The Library has 250,277 titles in its print collection, of which those published in vernacular languages of the region made up 52% as shown in Figure 1.

III LIBRARY AUTOMATION
SEALion Online Catalogue
The SEALion registered an 86% increase in search sessions year-on-year. Four geographical regions contributed to almost 99% of our users: Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas and East Asia. Within the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand were the top three usage groups. Table 1 has the breakdown.
Table 1: Virtual User Sessions on SEALion Online Catalogue
Continents | FY14/15 | FY15/16 | FY16/17 | FY17/18 |
Africa | 14 | 17 | 8 | 0 |
Americas | 237 | 506 | 219 | 188 |
Europe | 149 | 364 | 809 | 125 |
Oceania | 70 | 94 | 63 | 165 |
Central Asia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
East Asia | 124 | 247 | 167 | 108 |
West Asia | 7 | 16 | 15 | 5 |
South Asia | 44 | 55 | 37 | 109 |
Southeast Asia | 12,634 | 13,643 | 13,526 | 27,177 |
Undetectable sources | 59 | 171 | 110 | 3 |
All | 13,340 | 15,113 | 14,954 | 27,880 |
SealionPLUS for Online Access to Digitised Contents
Whilst SEALion is a platform for searching published books and journals available in the Library for loans, SealionPLUS allows registered users to search and access digitised materials from the Library’s non-print collections: Private Papers, photographs, audio visual recordings of seminar proceedings, oral history interviews and the Library’s daily selection of news articles from online sources. Like SEALion, users of SealionPLUS mainly came from the Southeast Asian region (62%). The other users that showed a strong presence came from Europe and North America (20%) and East/South Asia (16%). Table 2 below shows the usage of digitised contents by media types:
Table 2: Usage of digitised contents on SealionPLUS
Collection | Unique page views1 in FY16/17 |
Unique page views1 in FY17/18 |
Photographs | 25(5%) | 496(29%) |
Private Papers | 139 (29%) | 308(18%) |
News Articles & Commentaries | 129 (27%) | 282(16%) |
Miscellaneous Print2 | 79(17%) | 195(11%) |
ISEAS Publications | 39 (8%) | 188(11%) |
Oral History Interviews | 14(3%) | 97(6%) |
AV Recordings | 29(6%) | 66(4%) |
Digitised Newspapers | 12 (3%) | 34(2%) |
Theses& Dissertations3 | – | 29(2%) |
Maps | 10 (2%) | 17(1%) |
Total | 476 (100%) | 1,712(100%) |
1The number of sessions during which the specified page was viewed at least once (this excludes the scenario where a user keeps refreshing the same page within the same period of time).
2This consists of the Ding Choo Ming Pantun Collection and the ISEAS Library Selection of Journal Articles.
3The Theses & Dissertations collection was created in FY17/18 and contains theses deposited by various universities in the Southeast Asian region.
Collection Stocktake
Following two comprehensive stocktakes over the last five years, the Library performed a partial stocktake of 25% of RFID-tagged titles, amounting to 49,181 volumes. A total of 567 books were selected for minor repairs and close to 1,600 faded labels were replaced at the end of the exercise.
Info Alert Service
The Library released a total of 382 Info Alerts (totalling 24,404 selected articles). Since FY13/14, a total of 114,101 articles have been added to our newspapers/journals collection. This financial year also saw 67 new subscribers added to the Info Alerts mailing lists, 85% of whom were external users.
IV LIBRARY VISITORS
The Library recorded a total visitorship of 5,739 this year, about 30% from external. Among them were students and delegates from the Centre for ASEAN Studies (Cambodia), Raja Ali Haji Maritime University (Indonesia) National Library of China, and Singapore Management University. The Library also received ISEAS Distinguished Fellow Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Kingdom of Thailand.
The following are examples of feedback received from visitors about the Library and the Yusof Ishak Gallery.
- “I learned more about Singapore; it’s nice to know more about President Yusof Ishak.”
- “I belong to the fortunate generation who knew Encik Yusof Ishak, a beloved statesman, and Puan Noor Aishah. They made Singaporeans proud. Thank you for this exhibition, ISEAS.”
- “一个好的图书馆是进行求知研学的第一步。你们在如此优秀的图书馆,真的为你们骄傲,愿ISEAS越办越好。(A good library is the first step leading to knowledge and research. I am proud of you for having such an excellent library. I wish ISEAS every success in future endeavours.) ”
Highlights of Library visits. (Top left) Students from Centre for ASEAN Studies, Cambodia, 11 April 2017; (Top right) Students from Archaeology Field School, 14 August 2017; (Bottom left) Visit by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Kingdom of Thailand, 21 January 2018; (Bottom right) ISEAS research officer showing foreign visitors the Exhibition at ISEAS Library, 20 March 2018.
V LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION
Work Experience Program (WEP)
The Library conducted its 5th run of the Work Experience Programme with Raffles Girls’ School in November 2017. The students worked on various tasks including the processing of private papers and digitised microfilm images, collection stocktake, etc. Through the programme, students gained a better and deeper understanding of the professional role of librarians in supporting research and how the various departments of the Library interact internally to provide services to library users.
Highlights from RGS Programme 2017. (Top left) processing of private papers; (Top right) processing of digitised microfilm images; (Bottom left) collection stocktake using RFID device; (Bottom right) Group presentation sharing the work experience at ISEAS Library.
ISEAS Library Annual Review FY 2018
I COLLECTION BUILDING
Acquisition of Books & Serials
Private Papers Collection

Plan and context recording sheets associated with excavation in Ratchaburi Province, Thailand from Ian Glover Collection
Photographs Collection
Mary Jane Edleson Photograph Collection
This collection includes rare aerial photographs of Jakarta and its waterfront taken in the 1970s and 80s documenting the city’s changing skyline and landscape, as well as Ms Edleson’s collection of Indonesian topeng and aerial views of Bugis boats comprising the largest wind-powered fleet in the world at the time. Some of these images were captured by professional photographers and are of exhibition quality. Mary Jane Edleson has authored several works on Indonesia, including the well-researched Sekaring Jagad Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat and Jakarta – a 5-volume work on the capital city. During her 24-year stay in Jakarta she built up a large photograph collection comprising close to 3,600 images, mostly 35mm colour slides and 2×2” unframed positives on Indonesia covering nearly three decades, documenting the changing landscape of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
(Left)Ms Mary Jane Edleson explaining how she grouped her collection by subjects; (Right)One of the photographs from the Mary Jane Edleson collection: an aerial view of Jakarta in the 1980s.
Oral History Interviews
As part of the documentation for Myanmar’s modern political development and transition from military to civil government, the Library worked with ISEAS Visiting Fellow Mr Ye Htut to conduct oral history interview with ex-military officers and former political leaders in Myanmar over a period of two years. In this FY, a total of 88 hours of recorded interviews from 13 interviewees were archived, covering a wide range of subjects documenting both their personal life experiences and their involvement in various aspects of social and political development of post-war Myanmar. Ten of these interviews are available for immediate access by scholars and academics while the rest will be made available for access in 2022 and 2023.
Audio-Visual Collection
The Library archived approximately 138 hours of audio and video recordings of 48 seminars, conferences and workshops organised by the Institute.
Overseas Archives
To support researchers who need to work on primary resource, the Library acquired 76 digitised file records (approx. 8,607 pages) from the UK National Archives and National Library of Australia. Some of the records relate to the late Prof John Legge, ISEAS’ second Director from 1969-1970, and shows the early corporate history of the Institute.
II COLLECTION MANAGEMENT
The Library catalogued a total of 2,543 titles of newly arrived books and journals, bringing the total print collection to 251,916 titles, of which those published in languages of the region made up about half as shown in Figure 1. The Library’s non-print collection includes a further 4,254 titles on microfilm and 59,427 titles on microfiche.
Library Catalogue
In this FY, the Library produced three descriptive catalogues to its private collection. Wong Ah Fook Collection: A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Research Materials on an Immigration, Builder and Entrepreneur was published in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Wong Ah Fook. The catalogue documents Wong’s business activities in Johor Bahru and Singapore, such as his construction of palaces and other significant government buildings that form the bulk of the heritage buildings in Johor Bahru today, with the most important of them was the construction of a palace, the Istana Besar, for Sultan Abu Bakar, as well as his visionary undertaking in the establishment of Kwong Yik Bank in 1913- the first Chinese bank in the turn of 20th Century.




Collection Stocktake
The Library performed its second full stocktake of its RFID tagged collection, amounting to 221,838 volumes. From the process of stocktake, books that are not in good physical condition or have wear and tear, were discovered by staff. They are then taken out where faded labels are replaced or given to the Library conservator for minor repairs. 631 hours were spent performing minor repairs and replacement of faded labels for close to 850 items. A further 17 rare/antiquarian books were outsourced for major repairs and conservation treatment.

(Left) The Library conservator repairing the spine of a damaged book; (Right) Library staff conducting a stocktake of the general collection.
III COLLECTION ACCESS & OUTREACH
SEALion Online Catalogue
The SEALion registered a 30% increase in search sessions year-on-year. Four geographical regions contributed to almost 99% of our users: Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas and East Asia. Within the Southeast Asia region (excluding Singapore), Indonsia, Philippines and Malaysia were the top three usage groups. Table 1 has the breakdown.
Table 1: Virtual User Sessions on SEALion Online Catalogue
Continents | FY15/16 | FY16/17 | FY17/18 | FY18/19 |
Africa | 17 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
Americas | 506 | 219 | 188 | 303 |
Europe | 364 | 809 | 125 | 160 |
Oceania | 94 | 63 | 165 | 111 |
Central Asia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
East Asia | 247 | 167 | 108 | 464 |
West Asia | 16 | 15 | 5 | 30 |
South Asia | 55 | 37 | 109 | 63 |
Southeast Asia | 13,643 | 13,526 | 27,177 | 36,686 |
Undetectable sources | 171 | 110 | 3 | 27 |
All | 15,113 | 14,954 | 27,880 | 36,213 |
SealionPLUS for Online Access to Digitised Contents
Whilst SEALion is a platform for searching published books and journals available in the Library for loans, SealionPLUS allows registered users to search and access digitised materials from the Library’s non-print collections: Private Papers, photographs, audio visual recordings of seminar proceedings, oral history interviews and the Library’s daily selection of news articles from online sources. Like SEALion, users of SealionPLUS mainly came from the Southeast Asian region (62%). The other users that showed a strong presence came from Europe and North America (20%) and East/South Asia (16%). The top five usage of the collection in the database are as follows: Private Papers, Oral History Interviews, Photographs, News Articles & Commentaries which are the archived Daily News Alerts, followed by ISEAS publications and miscellaneous prints which includes research articles produced by ISEAS and extracted from other journal database.
Table 2: Usage of digitised contents on SealionPLUS
Collection | Unique page views1 in FY17/18 |
Unique page views1 in FY18/19 |
Private Papers | 308 (18%) | 737(28%) |
Oral History Interviews | 97 (6%) | 589(22%) |
Photographs | 496(29%) | 410(16%) |
News Articles & Commentaries | 282(16%) | 347(13%) |
Miscellaneous Print2 | 195(11%) | 238(9%) |
ISEAS Publications | 188(11%) | 194(7%) |
AV Recordings | 66(4%) | 49(2%) |
Digitized Newspapers | 34(2%) | 15(1%) |
Theses & Dissertations3 | 29(2%) | 23(1%) |
Maps | 17 (1%) | 22(1%) |
Total | 1,712(100%) | 2,624 (100%) |
1The number of sessions during which the specified page was viewed at least once (this excludes the scenario where a user keeps refreshing the same page within the same period of time).
2This consists of the Ding Choo Ming Pantun Collection and the ISEAS Library Selection of Journal Articles.
3The Theses & Dissertations collection was created in FY17/18 and contains theses deposited by various universities in the Southeast Asian region.
Library Membership
305 new members were registered in this fiscal year, majority came from ISEAS and other academic institutions as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 New Library Members by Affiliation

Research Enquiries
In this FY, Library processed 386 enquiries, which represents a slight increase of six per cent year-on-year. The majority of the enquiries came from ISEAS researchers, followed by foreign academic students and staff.
Collection Usage
For the year under review, there were 4,630 items consulted by users within the Library, representing a noticeable increase by 22 percent year on year, while the loan transactions of Library materials showed a slight reduction.
Info-Alert Service
The Library released a total of 357 Info Alerts (totalling 26,446 selected articles). Majority of the articles related to Malaysian (33.5%) and Indonesian affairs (11.2%) followed by ASEAN (8.0%) and Myanmar (7.9%). In this FY, there were 93 new subscribers added to the mailing list. Since 2013, a total of 139,445 articles have been added to our newspapers/journals collection, 36% (49,974 articles) of which have been uploaded to the library online database SealionPLUS.
IV LIBRARY VISITORS
The Library visitorship stood at 5,126 this year. About 47 per cent came from outside the Institute, among them are delegates from Singapore Management University Libraries, UiTM Kedah (Malaysia), Raja Ali Haji University (Indonesia), University of Helsinki (Finland), and Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (South Africa).
Highlights of Library visits. (Top left) Sharing session on collection management with SMU librarians by Head of ISEAS Library, 6 July 2018; (Top right) Head of ISEAS Library guided a Tour to Library repository for antiquarian books, 6 July 2018; (Bottom left) Head of ISEAS Library showing Toshio Egawa Collection to visitors from University of Helsinki, 1 November 2018; (Bottom right) Staff demonstrating Library online catalogue to visitors from Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis, 29 March 2019.
V LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION
Work Experience Program (WEP)
Highlights from RGS Programme 2018. (Top left) Students doing technical processing of books from Toshio Egawa Collection; (Top right) Accessioning DVDs of digitised microfilms; (Bottom left) Students accessioning and describing Professor Ian Glover’s papers; (Bottom right) Group presentation sharing the work experience at ISEAS Library.
Donations to Regional Libraries
The Library donated 56 duplicate titles to the University of Surabaya in Indonesia, through Dr Hélène Njoto, Visiting Fellow, who was there to conduct the NSC Archaeology and Art History Field School in July 2018.
ISEAS Library Annual Review FY 2016
I. COLLECTION BUILDING AND MANAGEMENT
The Library also subscribed to 17 international newspapers, with 14 from the region. The volume of physical newspapers continues to decrease (from last year’s 20) as more titles are available online, some of them freely accessible. Through subscribed databases, the Library has access to another 124 e-newspapers, in total, it represents a 55% increase in news sources.
As of 31 Mar 2017, the Library has 247,847 titles in its print collection, 69 per cent are Southeast Asian countries focused. Non-English (vernacular languages of the region) made up 51 per cent of this collection. Figure 1 shows the language profile of our publication collection. The breakdown of collection by language profile of library print collection (as at 31 March 2017) is shown in the pie chart below:
Databases
Besides the print materials, the Library also subscribed to seven databases, namely Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS), Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), JSTOR, Project Muse, Proquest, Stratfor Premium Global Intelligence Brief and UN Comtrade. Altogether, our users have access to 9,909 e-journal titles. Renewal of these databases also took into account users’ feedback and usage.
Overseas Public Records
During the year, the Library copied 96 file records (approx. 10,150 pages) from the UK National Archives to meet researchers’ information needs.
Private Papers Collection
To date, 29 prominent individuals from the region, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia have deposited their private papers to the Library. The collection highlights for the year under review include the following four newly added personalities: Wong Ah Fook (19th century Chinese entrepreneur, and philanthropist in British Malaya), K. G. Tregonning (prominent scholar and history professor in University of Malaya) Mary Somers Heidhues (veteran anthropologist on Chinese in Indonesia, now resides in Germany) and Toshio Egawa (Japan industrialist who helped established the pioneer industry in Jurong in the 1960s, the Minebea Corporation).
For easy access and handling, ISEAS Library progressively and selectively digitises the collection. Todate, almost 76% of the collection are available for online or nearline access.
(Top left) Delivery of Toshio Egawa Private Archive Collection; (Top right) Fumigation treatment for Toshio Egawa Private Archive Collection; (Bottom left) Dr Koji Nakajima, Visiting Professor, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan, viewing one of letters from the Collection; (Bottom right) Dr Koji Nakajima viewing an oil painting of Inoue Takeko, wife of Inoue Kaoru, statesman in Japan, from the Collection.
II. COLLECTION ACCESS & USAGE
The Library registered 384 new members this year, the ratio between internal and external users remains 1 to 4 as shown in Figure 2 below. The percentage of foreign academics shows an increase of 8%, reflecting a positive level of awareness of the Library and its collection. Majority of the new members also visited Yusof Ishak Gallery and NSC Archaeology Gallery, which allow users to learn the association between President Yusof Ishak and the Institute as well as Singapore history.
The following are feedback received from visitors who visited the Yusof Ishak Gallery:
“May we renew this legacy of President Yusof Ishak.”
“Very inspiring. An awesome display of a man what he stood for.”
“This is a great opportunity for us to understand about Singapore history from the beginning.”
Figure 2: New Library Members by Affiliation
Library Visitors
The Library recorded a total visitorship of 5,714 this year. About 30% visitors are external users, among them are scholars from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (China), King Prajadhipok’s Institute (Thailand), Nagoya University (Japan), Airlangga University (Indonesia), etc. The Library also received U Ko Ko Gyi, General Secretary of the 88 Generation (Peace and Open Society), Myanmar, and U Zaw Thein, Chairman of the Lower House International Relations Committee and Member of Parliament (National League for Democracy), Pyithu Hluttaw, Myanmar.
Highlights of Library visits. (Top left) U Zaw Thein, Chairman of the Lower House International Relations Committee and Member of Parliament (National League for Democracy), Pyithu Hluttaw, Myanmar, receving ISEAS Library membership card from Mr Pitt Kuan Wah, Head Library; (Top right) Delegation from 2016 Asian Graduate Students Fellowship Programme, Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore; (Bottom left) Delegation from 2016 Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre Archeological Field School; (Bottom right) Delegation from King Prajadhipok’s Institute, Thailand being briefed by Head Library on the Library collection and services.
Collection Usage
The Loan transactions and in-house usages represent a moderate but steady increase over the past three years. The loan transactions increased 16% year-on-year, while in-house consultation saw an increase of 15% as shown in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3 Collection Usage
In addition to the collection usage through borrowing and in-house consultation, Library users also made copies of 13,686 page materials through photocopy, printing and scanning services provided by the Library.
III. LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION
Highlights of WEP with RGS students. (Top left) Student performing RFID tagging; (Top right) Students scanning microfilm; (Bottom left) Students processing private paper of Dr K. G. Tregonning; (Bottom right) Students sharing the learning journey at ISEAS Library.
The Library also offered a slightly longer internship to seven NTU Master of Science students during the Dec school break. More complex tasks were assigned to them in the information management and collection cataloguing areas.
Highlights of WEP with NTU students. (Left) Students being briefed on the microfilm scanning; (Right) Students cataloguing and describing Toshio Egawa collection photographs and uploading to online database- SealionPLUS.
Library Space and Facilities
The Library received 78 location filming requests (44 in FY 2015/2016) from local and foreign media. Majority are interviews with ISEAS researchers.
Highlights of Media Filmings. (Top left) Interview with Dr Ooi Kee Beng at Library Level 2; (Top right) Interview with Dr Le Hong Hiep at Yusof Ishak Gallery; (Middle left) Filming for Channel News Asia current affairs programme, Between The Lines, with ISEAS researchers Dr Charlotte Setijiadi, Dr Johanes Herlijanto, and Dr Leo Suryadinata at Library Level 2; (Middle right) Interview with Dr Francis Hutchinson at Wang Gungwu Corner; (Bottom left & right) Media filming with Ms Chun Guek Lay, the anchor for current affairs program “Focus”.