Old National Library Building

Old National Library Building
Old National Library Building
	A commemorative postcard of the old National Library building at 91 Stamford Road, Singapore, c. 2004.
	1°17′44.3″N 103°50′56.4″E / 1.295639°N 103.849000°E
Location	91 Stamford Road, Singapore 178896, Singapore
Type	National library
Established	12 November 1960
Dissolved	31 March 2004
Branch of	National Library Board

The Old National Library Building was a library building at Stamford Road, located in the Museum Planning Area of Singapore. The library building was first suggested by Chinese philanthropist Lee Kong Chian in 1953, who wanted to establish a free multilingual public library; before this, most libraries were private. His suggestion was supported by the British government, and construction began the following year. The building was completed and officially opened in 1960 as the Raffles National Library, taking its name from the Raffles Library which it succeeded, and became a national icon for many Singaporeans.

Known for its red-brick exterior, the library would operate for over four decades, during which many advancements were made to improve its services such as creating mobile and branch libraries. The building additionally housed a reference library, a microfilm reading room, a lecture hall, and stacks for storage purposes. The library's first Singaporean director, Hedwig Anuar, helped with popularising the library among the youth and managing it from 1960 to 1988. Near its final years in 2001, the library's collection would peak at 6,861,100 books.

In the late 1980s, plans were announced in Parliament of the construction of a new National Library at Victoria Street. Despite a huge groundswell of public dissent, the library was closed on 31 March 2004 and was demolished later that year to make way for the construction of the Fort Canning Tunnel to ease road traffic to the city. The controversy surrounding the building's demise has been credited with sparking greater awareness of local cultural roots and an unprecedented wave in favour of heritage conservation among Singaporeans.