Archival training and requirements: Singapore

Abstract

The National Archives and Records Centre of Singapore is a young institution, having been established as a department of the Ministry of Culture in late 1968, following a Unesco mission from April to August 1967 and the passing of the National Archives and Records Centre Act in September 1967.However, archival materials of the Straits Settlements Government had previously keen deposited in the Raffles Museum and Library, the predecessor of the National Library of Singapore. Earlier reports of the Raffles Museum and Li trary record that a new post of archivist was created in 1938 and filled by Mr. Tan Soo Chye, a graduate of Raffles College. The duties of the post vere "to trace, record and preserve historical and colonial records and to perform research and routine work of an allied nature." Tribute must be paid to Mr. Tan for his pioneer work in supervising the transfer to the Archives of important groups of archival records in 1939 and between 1 948-1952 and the work of cleaning and preservation of archives; and his compilation of an Index, which although incomplete, is still a major guide to the main holdings prior to 1867. The Archives Section was also responsible for the administration of the Printers and Publishers' Ordinance (for the legal deposit of Singapore publications) from 1948.