Information station

Clare Champion 11 February 2005

Ennis’ contribution to the development of the library system throughout the country was marked last week by Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche, at the De Valera Library, on the 21st anniversary of the completion of Clare County Council’s first library development programme. “It is quite appropriate that today’s event should take place in Ennis, as Ennis was of course the first town to adopt the Public Library Act in 1855, the 150th anniversary of which we celebrate this year,” he said. “To mark this anniversary, I am delighted to have been in a position to fund a programme of events to further promote the role of the modern public library service as a key cultural function of local authorities. You will be hearing more about these events in the coming weeks”, he added. Speaking in relation to the completion of the first library development programme, the Minister said this made provision for the development of five purpose built libraries in Clare. “The five include the de Valera Public Library and libraries in Ennistymon, Kilrush, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Shannon,” he continued. “I understand from the county librarian, Mr. Noel Crowley, that to date these five branch libraries have issued some 8.5 million books. This is a considerable number by any standards.”

Minister Roche stated that libraries are more than bricks and mortar, and surpass their function in merely providing books to the public. “As those closely associated with our public libraries will tell you, the development of ICT has opened a myriad of opportunities for the further development of the public library service,” he said. “We cannot discuss delivery of service today without reference to information technology and the relatively new role of the library in facilitating access to the Internet. The Internet initiative which provided more than 1,400 Internet access points in over 300 libraries is generally regarded as a success story,” he added. The Minister pointed out that putting Internet PCs into libraries is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential synergy between the library and information technology: “As more public services become available online we will seek to make information and assistance available to library customers”. Against that background of ICT development, he was particularly pleased to launch Foto: Clare Images on Line. “At present, I understand, about 3,000 images in total are available on line,” Minister Roche said. “You can see images from the Bluett Collection showing life in Clare in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s; photographs from the Clare Railways Collection; photographs from the Irish Tourist Association Survey in the early 1940s, the Krieger Burren Flora Collection and some early 20th century photographs of archaeological sites by Dr. George MacNamara of Corofin. “This project is the only one of its kind in the country. It’s a very exciting development and again I’m happy that my Department was able to provide start up funding for this project as part of an Information Age Project for Clare County.” The Minister also pointed out that the Clare Tithe Applotment Books Transcription Project, another ICT project managed by Clare County Library, will make the information contained in the Tithe Applotment Books available on line. “This project employs a novel approach to data input in that volunteers from Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and a growing number of other countries transcribe the data, and forward it to the library where it is checked and posted on the library website,” he said. “Something else unusual about this initiative is that it originated with the people who frequently use the library website for historical and genealogical information.”

These projects can be viewed on the Clare library website www.clarelibrary.ie, a site which the Minister acknowledged as being a very important and ever growing part of the library service. “I understand that it now attracts over 300,000 people annually with the cumulative figure since 1998 standing at 1.4 million”, he stated. Councillor Pat Daly said the De Valera Library has played a major role in the cultural life of the town and county for the past 30 years. “I am informed that, since the day its doors were opened to the public, 4.5 million people have passed through the doors and over four million books were issued. A great return on an investment of £125,000”, he commented. He said the capital finance the government has invested in the library service in county Clare has fallen on fertile soil. “We have 500,000 visits to our libraries every year for a variety of purposes - to borrow a book, to find information, to read a newspaper, look at an exhibition or enjoy a lecture,” he said. “The libraries all around Clare provide a cultural and social amenity that should be treasured well into the future.”

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