NLB: Singapore's National Library
The National Library Board of Singapore's official channel: a history podcast, a cooking show built on old recipe books, and plenty of reading ideas.
What it is
The official Telegram channel of Singapore's National Library Board (NLB), the agency that runs the country's public libraries, the National Library and the National Archives. Everything is in English, and it posts nearly every day; in September 2026 it put out one or two posts a day.
About half the feed is local library news: reading challenges, book giveaways, storytime sessions for kids. The other half is better than you'd expect from an official channel. The library produces the BiblioAsia podcast and a video series called "From Book to Cook", and every episode gets a short post that tells you what it's actually about.
Why we picked it
It tells Singapore's history through food and books rather than dates. Recent posts asked why fish head curry exists in Singapore when whole fish heads are rarely eaten in India, traced the curry puff back to the Indian samosa, and followed a pastry chef recreating fading Chinese candies from a 1940 book of chemical analyses of Singapore's food. Another podcast episode looks at newly released documents that complicate the familiar story of Singapore being "kicked out" of Malaysia in 1965.
The library also likes digging up odd corners of its collection, like a talk on how early 20th-century French novelists "invented" Malaya without ever setting foot there. You don't need to live in Singapore to enjoy that sort of thing.
Where to start
- Look for posts tagged BiblioAsia; they introduce the history and food podcast episodes.
- Watch a couple of "From Book to Cook" episodes through the YouTube links.
- Scroll for the old-recipe stories; they're the best part of the feed.
- If you're not in Singapore, skip the event announcements.
Who it's for
Anyone into food history, city history or Southeast Asia, and book people who like seeing how a national library talks about its collections.
Quick answers
Is this the library's official channel? Yes. Its description calls it the official channel of the National Library Board, and NLB's YouTube channel, linked from the library's website, links to it.
Is it only about Singapore? Mostly, but the food, books and archives it covers tell a wider regional story.
How often does it post? Nearly daily as of September 2026.
