Casual Poet Library stops lending books a day after it opens
One day after the opening of Singapore’s first pay-to-rent community library at Bukit Merah, the Casual Poet Library has stopped lending books.
Casual Poet Library posted on Instagram on August 6 that it would need “a little more time to optimise operations in the library, so lending will be suspended from tomorrow onwards until further notice”.
Founder Rebecca Toh told The Straits Times (ST) that the problem was a matter of miscommunication between her and the landlord, who has not received the required approval from the Housing & Development Board (HDB) for a change of sub-tenants.
She added: “We’re happy to comply and will patiently wait for approval.” Ms Toh says she was told that the approval might take another one to two weeks to process.
The library remains open for browsing. Bookshelf owners each paid between $43 to $49 a month for a minimum six-month lease of a small shelf in the space located at Block 123 Bukit Merah Lane 1.
Its online catalogue currently has more than 2,300 books listed and it was intended for members to borrow up to five books at a time for an annual fee of $25. About 60 people have signed up as library members and the library, which officially opened on Aug 5, greeted many walk-in visitors who borrowed books on opening day.
Bookshelf owner Laura Jane Lee says that owners are “surprised but everyone seems to be taking it in stride and confident that these are necessary hiccups to get things off the ground”.
On July 31, ST reported that Casual Poet Library was one of three new book space concepts that are experimenting with different ways to fight Singapore bookshops’ biggest killer – rental costs.
Over the past three years, major bookstores like Books Kinokuniya and Times as well as independent ones, such as BooksActually and Sea Breeze Books, have closed their physical stores.
Ms Toh told ST then that, unlike a traditional bookstore, her model relieves pressure on a single owner. She estimated a start-up cost of $40,000 and a monthly outlay of $5,000 to run the space.
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