Kilkenny library book spend rises, but still behind neighbours

The amount of money being spent on books for Kilkenny libraries has increased by more than 20% in recent years, but it remains low compared to neighbouring counties per head of population.

At the February meeting of Kilkenny County Council, county librarian Josephine Coyne said that around €113,000 has been invested in stock, but this has to be spread across the eight branches and mobile library. It means that roughly €1.13 cent per person here is spent on books — comparatively low to elsewhere.

Ms Coyne said it is hoped to increase this spend to €2.65 per head of population by 2023. In 2016, the spend was €93,000 — equivalent to around €0.97 for each person in the county.

“We are slowly increasing it but I think we’ve a bit of a mountain to climb,” she said.

“To compare with neighbouring counties, we are the lowest in the south-east.” Carlow has half the number of branches and half the population, but their book spend is higher.

Ms Coyne said there was growing consensus that libraries are “solid evidence of public money being returned into the economy at a community level.”

By way of demonstating the resource demand, she outlined how, last year, from around 25,000 items asked about or requested, Kilkenny only had around 4,000 — about 18% of the demand. In July/August during a children’s literacy promotional campaign, up to 16,000 items were read/borrowed, emptying the shelves of children’s stock. People trying to let these materials expeditiously were told they had to wait until they came back in.

There are eight branches across the county, including the mobile library, which has 65 different stops throughout Kilkenny. Thomastown Library and the new city library at the Mayfair building are the big capital projects progressing.

Ms Coyne outlined how the modern library service had moved on from simply being about books to a much more broad service provision for the community. With 17,500 members currently, Kilkenny is aiming to reach 30,000 (library membership at national level is at 16%). February is sign-up month, and a promotion campaign is ongoing.

Also of note, Ms Coyne said the library section had seen an increase of 35% in use of their digital service, while around 1,250 people attended age-friendly workshops last year.

Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere thanked Ms Coyne for her updates, and said he did not intend to open up the item for discussion, and the presentation had been ‘for information purposes only’.

“We have made modest increases, and increased our book fund by 20%,” he said.

“It’s a small step in the right direction.”