{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:53:38Z","timestamp":1754157218343,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2008,4,25]],"date-time":"2008-04-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1209081600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2008,4,25]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to show how the library management of the Raffles Library and Museum (the former name of the National Library of Singapore) positioned the library in relation to the wider colonial society of which it was a part. More widely, the aim is to explore the role of libraries within a colonial setting.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper takes the form of historical research using archival materials.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper finds that the Raffles Library and Museum responded to the needs of two kinds of users: the potentially wayward colonist in need of \u201cwholesome\u201d recreation and the scientist\/scholar involved in making Singapore a regional centre for the production of colonial knowledge.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>While knowledge\u2010producing institutions such as botanical gardens, zoological parks, museums of natural and human history, as well as anthropological and geographical societies now feature prominently in discussions of British colonialism, the colonial library has been overlooked. This paper represents a start at bringing the colonial library into focus as an institutional node designed to sustain colonial endeavors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/00220410810867597","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,5,4]],"date-time":"2008-05-04T19:45:23Z","timestamp":1209930323000},"page":"386-396","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Centres of calculation and unruly colonists: the colonial library in Singapore and its users, 1874\u20101900"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"64","author":[{"given":"Brendan","family":"Luyt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022012820441450400_b1","unstructured":"Amadi, A. (1981), African Libraries: Western Tradition and Colonial Brainwashing, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ."},{"key":"key2022012820441450400_b2","unstructured":"Black, A. 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