Conducting research on Singapore’s history and heritage?

The Singapore Heritage Society appreciates your interest in finding out more about our nation state’s heritage and history. Our position on various past issues can be found on our website or through past news articles.

Resources by Singapore Heritage Society

• Publications:
• Annual President’s Reports:
• Media interviews and Reports: A full list can be found in our Annual President’s Report for those after 2015
• Archive of ROOTs newsletters

If you are an academic researcher or a student, recent news and journal articles from the past three decades should be accessible via your school library databases.

Useful Public Resources:

• If you are doing it for a school assignment, check if your topic is available on the National Library’s Infopedia database at http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/ If available, the article will give you a summary of the topic plus a list of resources you can use to explore further.
• For school assignments that require photographs, look up the databases of the National Library (PictureSG: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/) and the National Archives (http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/).
• For news from the 80s and earlier, try NewspaperSG at http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers.
• For newspaper clippings from Singapore and major news around the world, try National Library Board’s Factiva service: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/Main/Browse?startsWith=F
• For books, magazines, newsletters, commemorative publications of organisations, try OneSearch which also has an index of articles in local magazines: http://search.nlb.gov.sg.
• If you have access to the academic libraries, try the Virtual Union Catalogue at http://www.vuc.sg/ to find out what the other universities and polytechnics have. Most of them also allow some form of temporary visiting membership.
• For a look at the old street directories, try the Singapore Land Authority’s One Historical Map at http://ohm.onemap.sg/.
• For a collection of historical records including news broadcasts, government speeches, building plans, pre-War maps and oral history recordings try Archives Online at http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/.
• For those looking for academic articles but don’t have access to the university subscribed ones, the National Library has a selection on their eResources website (JSTOR, Proquest & EBSCOhost among others) at http://ereources.nlb.gov.sg/Main/Browse (registration and login with NLB required).
• For resources on Land Use Plans and Built Heritage Conservation, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) website maps https://www.ura.gov.sg/maps; details of Conservation Guidelines https://www.ura.gov.sg/Corporate/Guidelines/Conservation; and further information about Built Heritage Conservation at https://www.ura.gov.sg/…/Get…/Conserve-Built-Heritage
• The National Heritage Board (NHB) also has many resources on heritage trails, national monuments, historic sites and more, which can be found at https://roots.sg

Researchers are also advised to check with the National Library Board’s Reference Point Service, which can provide more tailored assistance on your resource needs.

As the Singapore Heritage Society is run by members and volunteers, we do not have full-time staff to field research questions. Thank you for your understanding and patience, and all the best with your research!