Knowledge is free at the library,
Just bring your own container
By Michael Plaice
What happened 14 million times in Ireland last year? There could be a few answers
to that question, but the one I’m thinking of is that 14 million times last year, in
Ireland, someone walked into a public library and widened their horizons. This is just
one of the pieces of information unearthed by the Public Library User Survey (PLUS)
undertaken all over the country a few months ago.
Who are these people? The answer is everyone and anyone, you and me. From preschool children who are spending a few quiet, or not-so-quiet moments in the bright,
welcoming children’s areas, to people involved in self-directed, second chance
education, to the older person with time and a need to find out how to contact their
son or daughter by email in Australia. Open to all and with a year’s membership
costing around the same as a cup of coffee in your local café, it’s your local library.
The library is possibly the most democratic and welcoming public space you’ll come
across, working with mainstream needs, but also part of its work is to chip away at the
disadvantage suffered by marginal groups in Ireland. So your library helps people
with literacy problems, people who need information on where to find other services,
or maybe people who just need a friendly space to relax and feed their imaginations.
With the current difficulties in the economy which we all face, the library is well
placed to help out in a variety of ways. It has both a human and a technological
dimension for anyone looking for information. The human dimension starts with the
person behind the counter. Librarians don’t always know what you want to find out
immediately of course, but they often know the best first steps to take. You may need
to know something which is very particular to your location. Things your local
librarian has been asked a lot of times over the years... That irritating quiz question
that won’t go away is one frequent task brought to the counter in the library. For
example; What do Mao Zedong, Casanova and Pope Pius XI have in common? (They
were all librarians at an early stage in their careers.)
While everything on the Internet may not be what it seems, the technological
explosion in information in the last fifteen to twenty years has transformed libraries in
particular. In this way, libraries have become ‘libraries without walls’ as their main
purpose shifted from being warehouses of knowledge, to being gateways to
knowledge. A large part of the push for this change came from libraries themselves,
and the new technologies were enthusiastically welcomed by both library authorities
and library staff. It was seen by librarians that technology enables people, with a little
help sometimes, to make sense of the vast array of information and knowledge that is
available through a wide variety of media. It provides access through existing and
new technologies to information from national, local, commercial and community
sources, helping everyone to learn new skills and make informed choices throughout
their lifetime. The recent (June 2008) Government document on libraries, Branching
Out – Future Directions lists some of the achievements in this direction in the past ten
years. These include the provision of 1449 public access Internet PCs, the provision
of optical scanning facilities for library users with visual impairment, printers to
allow printing of Ordnance Survey maps; the development of online public access
catalogues by library authorities, the Changing Libraries programme delivering the
www.askaboutireland.ie showcase of local studies material, The Ask About Ireland
Irish Times Digital Archive, Griffith’s Valuation and Historic Maps among others. In
the PLUS survey it was also found that 42% of visitors intended to make use of
technology during their visit. All of this technological investment was coupled with
spending on the core business of libraries also, i.e. books, with library authorities
estimated spending 132% more on stock in 2007 than they did in 1998.
In County Cork alone, there are 28 branch libraries and 5 mobile libraries, covering
all areas of the county from Youghal in the east, to Charleville in the north, to
Castletownbere and Cape Clear in the west. Mobile libraries are visiting schools
which are miles away from the nearest town, and keeping lively minds going in
nursing homes. They also bring romance and culture, and a social lifeline to
individuals in remote locations, who are increasingly cut off from any other service or
social contact. Cultural events for all ages and educational/recreational events for
children are happening every week in these branches. This is a huge undertaking, both
financially and logistically, and is backed up by the commitment and the experience
of library staff. Festivals like the Children’s Book Festival in October, the Bealtaine
Festival for older people in May, and the West Cork Literary Festival in July are just
part of the cultural services libraries in Cork county are providing.
All this didn’t start yesterday of course. Back in the days of the fabled library of
Alexandria, libraries were special buildings for privileged groups of wealthy or
learned people. But the newly literate masses brought a demand for books in the 19th
century, and the first public libraries began appearing in Ireland in the 1850s. Thomas
Davis, the Young Irelander, was one who helped the ideal that this was based on to
take shape when he said: “ Educate, that you may be free”. In 1924 the Carnegie
system, (public libraries endowed by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie) was
extended from city boroughs into rural communities. The numbers and size of these
libraries grew quickly and the local county councils took them over in 1925. The first
Cork County librarian was the writer Frank O’Connor, who recalled in An Only Child,
the ‘queer treasures...I clutched to my chest, coming over Parnell Bridge in the
evening on my way from the Public Library’. In his essay Reading, Writing and
Rebelling, Fintan O’Toole speaks of how, “ the child learning to read is admitted into
the communal memory by way of books...and that the idea of a communal memory
contained in books is one whose significance becomes clear when we imagine its
absence”.
So use your local library and surprise yourself. Here are ten things you may not know
you could do at one near you...
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Look for your ancestors
Read a newspaper
Join a book-club
Check Ordnance Survey Maps
Listen to a well-known author
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Attend a craft class
Check your emails
Search the Internet for free
Look at an art exhibition
Oh yes...borrow a book!
This article was first published in the Southern Star 7 March 2009. Click here for
access to the original.
Michael Plaice is the Regional Librarian for
West Cork libraries and is based in Skibbereen library.