The Treasure Trove - Our Holdings

As of December 2009, NAS holds 86,653 file records of public agencies, 2,960 volumes of Straits Settlements records, 41,590 files of political speeches and press releases, 669,028 photographs, slides and negatives, 86,653 maps and building plans, 5,618 posters and 49,086 audio-visual recordings including 9,504 audiovisual clips and 16,729 hours of oral history recordings making up 3,354 interviews.

Access to Unclassified Public Archives

Unclassified public archives may be open for consultation after twenty-five years of their creation with the agreement of the creating/transferring agency. This is in accordance with Section 22(2a) of the National Heritage Board Act (1993) which states that access to public archives is subjected to “any conditions or restrictions imposed by the office, officer or person from whom the public archives or recordings were acquired”. As the official custodian of public records, NAS plays the dual role of protecting the integrity of archival records in its custody through preservation and providing access to public archives subject to the relevant legislation.

Access to classified public archives may take longer than twenty-five years after creation of the records as the classified records will need to be downgraded before public release under existing legislation.

Access to the open portion of the treasure trove may be made at the Archives Reading Room of the NAS or through Access to Archives Online(a2o), our one-stop portal site on heritage information, http://www.a2o.com.sg. The site allows users worldwide to search for information across the various independent databases of NAS and view selected photographs, maps and plans, listen to oral history interview samplers and watch snippets of audio-visual recordings.