New chapter as libraries to open every day of the year

LIBRARIES are set to begin opening their doors from 8am to 10pm every day – including weekends and even Christmas Day – as part of a new plan to try and almost double their membership.

Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring today launches the Government’s library strategy, which will outline the plan to lengthen opening hours.

The libraries will be staffed as normal during standard opening hours, but outside of this a selfservice system will apply.

Currently, just 16% of the population are library members – or 755,000 people – but the Government aims to increase that to 30% of the population by 2022.

There are currently 330 library branches in Ireland, but the vast majority open only during normal office hours. The initiative will be rolled out to 100 libraries in a fiveyear strategy, with a view to bringing it to 90 others after 2022.

Under the new My Open Library scheme, libraries will be open from 8am to 10pm daily, including weekends as well as holidays such as Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. The Government has invested €3.4million in installing self-service technology, with an additional €1.2million coming from local authorities.

It is understood there will be a ‘security presence’ to ensure ‘things are in order’ and that the library is ‘safe and secure’ when unstaffed.

Staffless libraries have already been piloted in Tullamore and Banagher, Co. Offaly. Opening hours there increased by 63% and 85% respectively, with the number of visits to the facilities in Banagher rising by 183%.

Not everyone has been in favour of the new system, with trade union Impact last year warning that such a move could undermine child protection protocols and put young people at risk.

It was also reported that 111 people had their open library membership temporarily withdrawn during the pilot programme in Offaly for mostly minor breaches of the rules.

While the plan is acknowledged as being ambitious, a Government source said its previous one – which introduced a single national library catalogue and supported a nationwide delivery service – was as ambitious and was achieved.

The prolonged opening hours aim to make the system more accessible, particularly for those whose jobs involve shiftwork.

Last year, visits to public libraries rose to 17million. It was mooted earlier this year the abolition of library fines was set to be introduced, in a bid to make the service more ‘user-friendly’. Mr Ring is expected to confirm this today.

In Dublin, these fines amounted to 30 cents per week, or part of a week, for each item that was not renewed or returned by its due date, and similar rates are applied around the country.

Self-service system will apply