Annotations: Notes, Abstract, Contents, Location, Holdings,  Call No. and Location Codes.  A unique and it is hoped, a  useful feature of the Annotated Bibliography  is that each entry, besides the standard bibliographical information about author, title, imprint, year of publication, pagination, and so on, is annotated to provide other significant information as follows:

Notes: Provides significant information about the item either found in the publication or known to the compiler such as the cover illustration (including identification of significant painting on it and artist, cover or book designer as mentioned in the publication); existence of a Foreword, Preface or Introduction and provided by whom;  existence of a glossary;  literary award(s) won; whether this is the first published edition, a revised edition or a re-issue by a different publisher,  etc.  In the Periodicals section, the Notes provide information about library holdings, indicating where the gaps are, the journal’s publishing history, its predecessor and successor journals, if any, and so on, mostly drawn from the compiler’s personal knowledge. In the Drama section, the Notes additionally provide information (if known) about the  first staging or performance of the play.

Abstract: This summarizes the content of the item. Usually found in the Novels andPeriodicals section, providing a brief description or summary of the story or content to give the reader an idea of what the novel or publication  may be about and sometimes what kind of novel to expect (eg. a thriller, detective novel, romance, young people’s fiction, etc.) In the Periodicals section, the Abstract describes or quotes the aims and scope, manifesto and other declaration of objectives which indicate what the focus and content of the journal might be.

Contents:  In the Short Stories section, this itemizes all the titles to be found in individual collections and in the Drama section, titles of plays. In the Anthologies and Periodicals sections both the authors and titles of short stories whose works appear in the publication are itemized, but only the names of the poets are listed because the sheer number of their poems would have made the original print bibliography large and unwieldy and the entry concerned far too lengthy. The same principle governed the non-listing of titles contained in the individual poetry collections.

Location, Holdings, Call No. and Location Codes.   Another unique feature of the Annotated Bibliography is information about the location and thus availability or accessibility of each title.  Since it is a legal requirement that at least 2 copies of  every title published in Singapore have to be submitted to the National Library (NL) and it therefore has holdings of most works, I decided to link the Annotated Bibliography to the NL holdings thereby informing users about where they can find and read these titles.  NL collection codes also indicate whether the titles are for reference only or may be borrowed home.  In those few instances when NL has no holdings of a title, readers are directed to another local library which has the title, usually the National University of Singapore (NUS) Central Library or the libraries of other institutions such as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and even, but very rarely, to the University of Malaya (UM) library, UM being the predecessor university of NUS.  For the convenience of users and ease of access as it is a public library, the  National Library’s Call No. for each title is provided. However, some titles are not held in any local library, but are listed here if their existence is known to and inspected by the compiler.  It is hoped that such items eventually will be acquired by or donated to NL or that photocopies of them could be made to fill in the gaps.

Additionally, as the digitized bibliography is an initiative of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library not only as a service to the Singaporean public and global community but also to serve the NTU community, information is also provided with regard to the availability, location and call no. of each title within NTU’s own library system.