Mobile library is on the road again

December 1997

Readers around Co. Wexford have received an early Christmas present from the Co. Council in the guise of a brand new state of the art mobile library.

The £110,000 library on wheels was provided through a Department of the Environment grant, harnessing national lottery funding, and is being dubbed the ‘first stop information shop’.

According to mobile librarian, Gerardette Roche, the new library is ‘first class’.

‘It’s bright and beautiful, purple and gold, and I’m really looking forward to showing it off to all our readers who have been waiting so patiently for the return of the library service,’ she said.

The idea of a mobile library in Wexford was first introduced in 1980, and since then it has delivered a wealth of books and information to over 100 villages throughout the county.

The amount of material in the library has increased in the new vehicle, while there will also be a core collection of music CDs and cassette tapes, while the library will also carry a range of application forms for things like motor tax, planning permission, and the register of electors.

A photocopying machine has been provided in the vehicle thanks to the support of the Wexford Organisation for Rural Development.

According to the Co. Librarian, Fionnuala Hanrahan, the popularity and success of the mobile library service is a credit in particular to Gerardette Roche and Sean Furlong, the two Council staff who have delivered the service over the years.