SINGAPORE – The National Library Board (NLB) is encouraging people to develop a consistent reading habit with virtual coins that can eventually be exchanged for cash.
As part of a new five-year national reading movement called ReadSG, NLB is calling on people to sign up to government crowdsourcing site CrowdTaskSG, where people can log their daily reading sessions to collect virtual coins.
A thousand coins can be exchanged for $1 on the portal run by the Government Technology Agency. NLB is still working out the commensurate reward for tasks, which are likely to be linked to at least 15 minutes of reading each day.
NLB chief executive officer Melissa Tam revealed the new gamification initiative at a briefing for ReadSG on July 28, with the library hoping to battle the trend towards “short-form, skimmable content” antithetical to critical thinking.
There will also be a parallel Read for Good charity drive, where 15 minutes of reading each day will help raise funds for selected charities. NLB has set a target of 150,000 sign-ups for both initiatives as a “first step”.
Tam, who took on her post in November 2025, said: “The digital age is changing how we consume and process information. The key idea we want to share with Singapore is that reading is good exercise for the mind. It is enjoyable. It’s easy to start and sustain, and we hope that we can make it a habit together.”
The campaign, ReadSG, replaces the decade-old National Reading Movement and starts in September. The 15 minutes of reading each day takes partial inspiration from the popular target of 10,000 steps of walking each day first marketed in Japan and which has become common knowledge.
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