SINGAPORE – People typically visit the doctor when they have caught a bug, but some patrons of the F K Lim Family Clinic in Tampines have a bug of a different variant – the reading kind.

Since August 2019, people have been flocking to a corner outside the clinic at Block 267 Tampines Street 21 to drop off old books, catch up on reading, and even take a few books home.

Dr Colin Lim, an avid reader and book collector, was inspired to set up the community library after learning about the Little Free Library movement and chancing upon a few such libraries during his travels in Australia in 2015.

The Little Free Library movement was started in the United States by a non-profit organisation of the same name in 2009.

Now present in 115 countries, the movement is centred around neighbourhood book exchanges, typically through a public bookshelf.

“We call them libraries, but they’re usually contained in very small things like a birdhouse,” Dr Lim, 58, said.

Dr Lim’s library started out the same way – a beach house-inspired shelf with a single copy of Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage.

But his little library is not so little any more, thanks to the organic donations of books and furniture by residents of the area.

The library now has at least eight shelves all packed to the brim with classic novels, signed copies of local literature and even religious texts like the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita.

Popular reads include Reader’s Digest and National Geographic magazines, and children’s books such as the Geronimo Stilton and Captain Underpants series.

Stacks of books are also seen piled up around the shelves, and there are even chairs for visitors to sit while reading.

Dr Lim says the library’s patrons are “a mix of everyone”, although he rarely interacts with them as he is usually occupied inside the clinic and prefers to let them browse the library themselves.

He receives donations almost daily, and people typically leave behind more than a couple of books, he said.

He said he is sometimes surprised to find large bags of book donations when he steps out of the clinic and added that it has become impossible to estimate the number of books in the library.

He said: “I’m totally out of horizontal space to put them!”

With the end of the school year approaching, Dr Lim said he is expecting another wave of donations soon as people tend to drop off used textbooks and assessment books at this time of the year.

The bulk of the library’s care and upkeep – which includes keeping the area tidy, sorting through donations and throwing away books that are in poor condition – falls completely on Dr Lim.

However, he does not mind the additional duty as he sees it as a break from his responsibilities at the clinic, which he has been running for almost 30 years.

He said: “I’m fine with it because it helps people, these textbooks especially. They go quite fast.”

There are also some unusual donations such as used exercise books and personal diaries, which Dr Lim said he tends to throw away.

He did, however, keep a donated report book for his personal collection of several thousand books stored at the clinic and at home.

“How many people actually own report books that are not their own?” he said jokingly.

One particularly interesting donation Dr Lim said he had at the library was a child’s hand-drawn storybook.

“I put it right in front, put a big star on it and tagged it ‘Book of the Week’. It disappeared in two days,” he said.

The Straits Times reported in April that shelves had been stolen from a similar open library at a Housing Board void deck in Boon Lay. The library’s founder said in October that he would be closing the library because of complaints, messiness and a lack of community effort to upkeep the place.

Dr Lim said he has not faced any issues with theft since he started his library.

He added: “I’d rather people take (the books) and not return them. That will free up more space for me and others to put in more books.”

However, one disheartening encounter he had was with a couple in their mid-40s who loitered around the library and bad-mouthed books and reading.

Dr Lim said he bit his tongue and hurried away as he did not want to make things awkward.

He added that while he never had high expectations for his library to make a big impact, he continues to hope that it will encourage at least a few to read.

Tampines resident Alan Lim said he has not visited Dr Lim’s library but is curious about it and would like to take a look, as it is a good initiative.

Said the 60-year-old wholesale trader, who lives near the community library: “It is good to promote reading habits among the populace and it’s certainly better than glueing our eyes to mobile phones.”

He added that such projects are important to make reading more accessible for the needy.

When contacted, Tampines GRC MP Masagos Zulkifli said he encourages the ground-up initiative.

“Residents working with and for each other’s well-being is always welcome. Volunteers who wish to contribute can step forward and work with the local grassroots organisations on initiatives which can benefit the community,” said Mr Masagos, who is also Social and Family Development Minister and Second Minister for Health.

He said that funding is also available for some of such community initiatives.

Asked how long he plans to keep his library going, Dr Lim said: “As long as I’m around, as long as the clinic is around.”