CASE STUDY NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD
Reimagining how a nation discovers its history
How the National Library Board transformed Singapore’s founding archives into an AI-powered experience
3-MINUTE READ
As the National Archives of Singapore (NAS), an institution of the National Library Board (NLB), prepared to release newly declassified records from “The Albatross File”, NLB faced a defining choice: how to broaden access without compromising the accuracy and authority those archives must uphold.
Rather than simply presenting the original historical records, NLB, through NAS, redefined how everyday citizens engage with them—allowing people to explore founding-era documents directly while preserving the context and accuracy that give those records meaning.
Partnering with Accenture and Amazon Web Services (AWS), NLB introduced “ChatBook @ The Albatross File” exhibit. Guests can learn more about Singapore’s journey to independence through the AI chat service, with responses grounded in verified sources. What was once primarily the domain of researchers became an interactive public experience, allowing every visitor to explore the records through their own questions.
NLB’S EXHIBIT ACHIEVED:
100K
visitors generating 90,000+ questions through the ChatBook in 5 months
4K
bookings before opening
From static display to living dialogue
At the center of the experience is The Albatross File, which brings together records that document pivotal moments in Singapore’s path to independence. Guests enter a dedicated space and type questions in plain language, with responses displayed instantly on large screens. Each answer links to the underlying archival sources and explains their relevance, with prompts that lead to the next question.
Preserving trust at scale
At the core of the system is a set of rules that govern how ChatBook responds. It answers only when a question can be resolved through the archival record. Where the evidence is ambiguous or attribution is contested, it does not interpret.
Accenture worked with NLB to build these governing rules from the ground up, defining how the system selects evidence and when available information supports a response.
Archivists go beyond helping individual researchers navigate the archives to shaping the trusted knowledge that every visitor can access through ChatBook.
Our goal was to make people feel history, bringing Singapore’s journey to independence to life through the authentic voices of its founding leaders and the archival records, preserving accuracy and integrity.
Gene Tan / Executive Creative Director of the Albatross File: Singapore's Independence Declassified Exhibition and Chief Librarian, National Library Board
Safeguarding the past, designed for the future
More enduring than the exhibition is the model NLB has established. Accenture designed a governed system that can extend across collections, allowing new archives to be structured, managed, and opened to the public using the same approach.
With this foundation in place, NLB can apply the same capability to future collections, expanding public access to trusted historical knowledge as new archives become available.
The real breakthrough was connecting generative AI to a governed knowledge foundation, transforming history from static records into dynamic experiences for the next generation.
Mark Tham / Country Managing Director, Accenture Singapore