TED Talks Daily - How 180 strangers built a library together | Rebecca Toh

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Does the fix for a fragmented world begin with a shared bookshelf? Photographer Rebecca Toh traces how she joined with 180 other people to build a community-funded library where strangers rent shelves, fill them with their personal collections and forge something rare: real connection. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. In a city known for its sleek efficiency, what happens when 180 strangers come together to build something wildly impractical? A shared library nestled in the heartlands, fueled by love of books and community. Every shelf in our library is like a little pocket universe. An interesting, almost voyeuristic glimpse into someone's. hot and mine. That's photographer and volunteer librarian Rebecca Toe.

In this talk, she shares the gently radical story behind Singapore's community-funded library, where every one of the 180 shelves is rented and curated by a different person, from a five-year-old to a retiree, each one a small world reflecting its owner. It's entirely volunteer-run, open 12 hours a day, and started with a single Instagram post and hundreds of people who wrote back within a day, who were ready to build it together. We do have the power to come together to build what we think is missing in our lives, in our city, in our world.

Rebecca walks us through this special place where time slows down on purpose, where there are no late fees, but people rush to return their books anyway. And where the simple act of building something together turned out to be its own kind of power that's coming up right after a short break. And now our TED Talk of the Day. A few months ago, 180 of us came together to build something in Singapore, a library. In a city where we're lucky enough to already have a world-class, highly innovative, much-beloved public library system, of which I am a happy beneficiary.

How is our library different? We are nestled in the heartlands of Singapore, where we sit between a 50-year-old furniture store, and an antique shop, surrounded by birds and trees and quite a few chickens. So our library is what we call a shed library. There are 180 shelves in our library, each of them rented and maintained by a different person. For 45 Singapore dollars a month, you get to become a bookshelf owner. Being a bookshelf owner is actually really fun, because you get to share your favourite books on your own shelf,

you get to decorate your own space and change up your books every now and then. Every shelf in our library is like a little pocket universe, an interesting, almost voyeuristic glimpse into someone's heart and mind. And if you work around our library, quite often you end up standing in front of a shelf, thinking to yourself,

I think I know this person, even though strangely you have never met this person in your entire life. The other interesting thing about our library is that we are entirely volunteer run. So a roster of about 40 very kind volunteer librarians take turns to keep our library open six days a week, 12 hours a day. Some of them are bookshelf owners. They have a shelf in our library. Some of them are people from the community who really want to be part of the project.

They are doctors, ex-lawyers, students, mothers, freelancers, retirees. We even have a five-year-old librarian among us. But we all have something in common. We love books, we believe in the power of books, and we enjoy being surrounded by books. So anytime we're open, anyone is welcome to come in, to sit down, to read a book for free, to make a friend or a connection,

to drink a cup of coffee, randomly brood by someone in the library, and to just let the stress of life melt off their shoulders. So how did we come to build a library like this? So in April this year, I took a break from my work as a photographer and I went to Japan for a sabbatical where I stumbled upon a small shared community library with a similar concept.

I loved it. I loved it. And there was just something about the space that really entice me. standing in that little library in Japan, even though I couldn't read any of the Japanese books, I could sense a very powerful energy of love and care. And even though I couldn't read any of the Japanese books there, I thought it would be wonderful if you could have something like this in Singapore, right? So I decided to turn to social media.

So I came back to Singapore, decided to write a simple Instagram post, just outlining my vision of what I thought a small shed library in Singapore could look like. I thought if no one responded, then I would just forget about the whole thing. But if I could somehow get 50 people on board, I would be happy to give this very impractical,

dreamy and idealistic idea a try. So I quickly finished writing, press post, and then I went back to work. But the end of the first day, I had received about 300 direct message. from people who said they were seriously interested in putting money down, to rent a shelf, and to build a library together. I was quite emotional that night because I could really sense people's passion and fire in their messages.

Living in Singapore, where life is practical and pragmatic, this felt almost like a jailbreak kind of moment, and I think a lot of people were just waiting for the right time and the right chance to do something like this together. I guess I was also really moved by the realization that so many people cared about books. So I took a leap of faith. I found a space to rent on the third day of the Instagram post. I signed the lease on the fourth day.

I'm an aquarium. With the help of many people, most of them strangers, we built the library in three months. So who are some of these 180 crazy people who decided to do this? with me. Raman loves collecting CDs and books about Japan, so these are the two things that you can find on his shelf. Every Tuesday, Raymond sets up a little stall outside our library, where he sells his second-hand CDs and books, and he also brews coffee, pay as you wish, for anyone who happens to drop by. This is Wanchi and Liam, the mother and son. Elise here, Rebecca is referring to a sweet photo that just popped up on the screen behind her

of a mother and a young son, smiling. The photographer is on the other side of the library window, and they're both holding up pieces of paper with handwritten notes. Liam is also the five-year-old librarian I was talking about earlier. So far, we've been quite impressed by his work ethic. And their shelf is split half, half between Liam's favorite children books, and half between once he's books. So this particular bookshelf owner,

she has decided to share some of the books they use, to be on the shelves of Kin San, which is a Hong Kong bookshop that has unfortunately closed. Here, Rebecca is referring to a close-up photo of a bookshelf with a thin piece of fabric pinned to the top of the shelf that's embroidered with ideas are bulletproof. Underneath is a framed picture, a sentimental object,

and a neat set of books. She has also replicated a miniature version of the banner that used to hang in front of Kin San that says, ideas are bulletproof. In a way, Kinsan lives on right here inside our library. This particular bookshelf owner, her name is Mira. She is a preschool teacher. In this photo, there's a decorated cardboard box that looks a bit like a mailbox

with the letters post glued to the top and a slit for paper. Underneath are two thin blank notepads, clearly for people to take and write on. She believes in the power of letter writing, especially with children. which is why you can find a mailbox on her shelf. So apart from reading the amazing selection of books on her shelf, you can also write her a letter. She has promised that she will definitely write you back. So one of the most frequent questions we get asked is,

how does this library stay open? It doesn't really make economic sense. I think the simple answer is because 180 people have decided that it is possible to come together to build a ground-up book space for the local community. And as it turns out, this is actually quite a practical solution because this means that we're able to share the rent among 180 people. And no one person has to bear the financial burden of keeping this space open.

The other question we get asked a lot is, what do you get out of doing this? Well, we definitely don't get paid in the traditional sense. in dollars and cents. But then we have been open for about four months now, and a lot of us have found the library to be one of the rare places where we feel truly at home. On most days, our library also doubles as a community centre,

so apart from the usual book clubs, women sharing circles, people have also used it to host curry night, hot pot night for 40 people, and also two times a month we run a midnight library where we open till late or at least as late as the last person would like to stay.

I see community in every corner of our little library. I see community in the people who bring food and drinks and ideas and resources to our library that they freely share with each other. The people who rush to return their library books, even though we have no late fees.

I think because they can sense the love and the care that has gone into every shelf in our library, and also because I think they just really want to share the books with other people. They want other people to have access to the books. I see community in the little children who come into our library, little kids who actually remind each other to, you know, please take care of the books, don't bend the pages, put the book back in the right place. I see community in our volunteer librarians who spend a lot of time cleaning the library,

cataloging books and pouring their soul into making sure that the library is a welcoming space for everyone. And because of all these, Singapore feels a little different to me these days. This day, Singapore feels a little more generous, warm, open, kind, joyful and trusting. In a world where people feel increasingly lonely, society feels increasingly fragmented.

This little library has given us, or at least it has given me, a feeling of power. Not the kind of power that is heavy and destructive, but the kind of power that is light and regenerative. This little library has given me renewed hope that we do have the power to come together, to build what we think is missing in our lives, in our city, in our world.

And sometimes that missing thing is a small shed community-owned library. Thank you. That was Rebecca Toe at TEDx Singapore in 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation, visit TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. Ted Talks Daily is a podcast from TED. This episode was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Tobner, and Tonzica, Sungmar Nivon.

Additional support from Daniela Ballereseo, Christopher Faisi Bogan, Valentina Bohanini, Ban Ban-Ban-Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey-Lat. Learn more at podcasts.tad.com. I am Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feet. Thanks for listening.