She and her friends were at the inaugural Book Exchange held at The Plaza at the National Library building. The event was organised by Public Libraries Singapore.

More than 50,000 second-hand books were deposited with the National Library Board (NLB) from April 11 to 24 through this project, which offers one-for-one exchange coupons. Each person could exchange up to 30 books.

Ms Tay was collecting books for a new secondary school for girls in Kenya.

'I heard from a friend that they had a new library, but they had no books. I started a Facebook group for this and, in less than 10 days, I had received 1,000 coupons from more than 30 friends,' said the volunteer in her early 40s.

The event was held in conjunction with World Book Day to promote a reading culture and for people to recycle books.

Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education Grace Fu was the guest of honour at the event.

Some people started queueing two hours before the event began at 10.30am.

Said Ms Shirley Chow: 'I was the first, so the person in charge gave me a chair to sit on and some drinks and food. I came early as I was afraid that I would have to fight with others for the good books.'

The retiree, who is in her early 60s, had more than 20 coupons. She was looking for cookbooks and non-fiction material.

Read the full story in today's edition of The Sunday Times.