History of SILAS

SILAS grew out of proposals made by the Library Association of Singapore in 1982. After a feasibility study and much preparatory work, a licensing agreement for software to run such a service was signed with the Western Library Network in August 1985. It was officially launched on 10 April 1987. From the past to present…

…a message from the founder

I could not have predicted, when I arrived in Singapore exactly 14 years ago to take up the role of Director of SILAS, that the system I would be setting up would still be going strong into the new millennium.

Our shared vision then seemed a bit far-fetched to many—a national networked cataloguing and interlibrary lending support system that would allow the user to discover everything that had been published on a subject, whether it was held in Singapore, and whether it was available for loan. Yet just three years later, through a combination of hard work and cooperation, we had such a service running with some 35 libraries adding their holdings to a database of 4.5 million titles.

And now, with a database and a contributor community almost twice that size, SILAS is moving into a new generation of technology. I will follow its progress with great interest, and I wish all my SILAS friends, old and new, every good wish for future success.

Professor Bruce Royan