National Library Digital Fellowship Programme

National Library Digital Fellowship Programme

About the National Library Digital Fellowship

The National Library Digital Fellowship is a programme to support research in the emerging field of digital humanities using the collections of the National Library, Singapore (NLS) and the National Archives of Singapore (NAS).

We are keen to collaborate with scholars and researchers on projects that apply digital technologies and computational methods to yield fresh insights into the history, arts and culture of Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Our Collections

The NLS is the custodian of Singapore’s documentary and published heritage.

Its core collections offer a wealth of information for studying the contemporary and historical developments of Singapore and the region.

The Singapore & Southeast Asian Collection comprises over 500,000 items in a range of formats including microfilms, maps, audio-visual materials, ephemera, and posters.

Apart from on-site access, our collections and content are also available online:

National Library Online (Digitised and born-digital content comprising books, images, articles and more)
NewspaperSG (Singapore & Malaya newspapers)
Spatial Discovery (Geo-referenced maps)
Web Archives Singapore (Archived Singapore websites)
Exhibitions by the National Library
Selected datasets are available on Data.gov.sg and NLB Labs.

The National Archives of Singapore holds records of national or historical significance acquired from public agencies, private sources, and overseas institutions and archives. Explore the NAS collections at Archives Online.

Who can Apply?

The Digital Fellowship is open to both local and foreign applicants.

Applicants may be individuals or collectives (two persons making a joint application). Only one application is accepted per individual/collective.

The Library welcomes applications from librarians, curators, historians, academics or independent researchers with established records of achievement in their chosen fields of research.

Applicants should have the requisite digital skills to carry out and complete the project.

Research Area

We welcome applicants to propose projects that make effective and meaningful use of digital tools and methods to demonstrate the possibilities of learning and researching with our collections. This could involve text, visual and/or audio analysis, data visualisation, mapping, digital storytelling and so on.

Applicants are encouraged to propose ways of using both our digital collections and physical collections.

Projects could explore and map the connections between collection items and content to reveal new insights on a topic, for example, an event, time period, individual(s) and/or social group(s), in Singapore history.

Projects could also enrich information about collection items, e.g. crowdsourced annotation, image processing, and/or enable the community to discover and interact with collection items in new ways.

Areas of research include but are not limited to the following:

Place histories in Singapore

History and networks of early communities in Singapore

Analysis of Singapore newspapers

Comparative study of early Singapore/Malayan publications, e.g. patterns of language use and/or themes in literature

Social history through photographs, oral histories and other relevant collections

Terms of the Award

The award of the Fellowship is for a period of six months. Fellows may not hold a concurrent employment (sabbatical is allowed), fellowship or propose a research area which he has already completed for a masters or a doctoral thesis. Awarded Fellows must commence their Fellowship undertaking within 3 months of the award, unless otherwise agreed upon.

A stipend of S$3,500 per month will be provided to help Fellows meet their living expenses, local transportation and photocopying expenses.

In addition to the stipend, overseas Fellows will be provided with a one-time relocation package of $1,500, a one-time return airfare of up to $1500 (reimbursement basis), and monthly accommodation allowance of up to $3,500 (reimbursement basis).

Fellows will be provided with up to $1,500 (on reimbursement basis) for the purchase of software and content that are directly related to the project and/or used for the duration of the fellowship. The Fellowship does not support the purchase of equipment, for example, computer hardware and electronic devices.

Fellows shall be responsible for obtaining all required licenses, permits, permissions, and other authorisation to use any photographs, copyright materials or other property or other rights belonging to third parties that are used for the project.

All Fellows will also be provided with the following:

A research space at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library including a computer with internet access.

Access to digitised materials and collection metadata (subject to conditions governing reproduction and use).

Introductions to library staff who can provide recommendations on relevant collections and resources.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; National Library Digital Fellowship Programme

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