DESCRIPTORS Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries;

This paper discusses the legal basis for the National Library Board's national role for library development in Singapore. It examines the new National Library Board (NLB) Act 1995 and the direct and expanded responsibility it has given the NLB for the national and public library functions in Singapore. The paper also examines the various mechanisms the act provides for NLB to more concretely influence library development in the country as a whole. Highlights include: publicly-funded libraries; national projects; the endowment fund; manpower and training; working in consultation; and school libraries and other major library systems. (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. The "national " role of the Nationa...nference Programme and Proceeding