#Onthisday on 21 May 1965, Hedwig Anuar began her second stint as director of the National Library. Her first stint from 1960–1961 was for a very specific purpose: move the library from its location at Raffles Library and Museum to a new building nearby on Stamford Road. How did she handle the task? She initiated Operation Indah, where she got the entire library staff (over 40 of them) to form a human chain between the two buildings. (Yes. A. Human. Chain.). And they carried and passed every single library book down the chain into the new building. How many books did they move? 150,000. How long did they take? 2 weeks. Phew! Besides being the first Singaporean director of the National Library Singapore, Anuar also went on to become a founding member and president of AWARE Singapore, and received Her World’s Woman of the Year Award in 1993. That’s her at her National Library retirement party in 1988! Find out more her life at esplanade.com/tributesg #esplanade #singapore #tributesg ...