Galway East TD and Minister for Rural Affairs Seán Canney has welcomed a further investment of €200,000 in eBooks and eAudiobooks following an upsurge in the use of public library online services.
The allocation by Minister Canney’s Department, the Department of Rural and Community Development, follows a previous investment of €200,000 in March.
Minister Canney said: “The COVID-19 emergency has seen a huge increase in library online services.
“Since public library buildings closed on March 12, there has been an average of 504 people a day registering for the Borrowbox service that provides eBooks and eAudiobooks. Before the closure the daily average registration was 134 borrowers.
“That represents a 264% increase, while the average number of eBook loans has doubled compared with before March 12, increasing from 1,106 to 2,502 per day.
For Galway, the total number of Borrowbox loans was 25,075 between January and April this year with 6,584 people registered to use the service.
“As well as the increased investment, I am pleased that my ministerial colleague, Minister Michael Ring has announced a fund of €20,000 to support the provision of an Easyreader collection of books for emerging adult readers and people with literacy needs.”
Library staff are continuing to innovate online with STEAM workshops, virtual coding workshops, virtual bookclubs, and online Storytimes.
Another impressive initiative has been the delivery of the Spring into Storytime reading programme, which would normally be held in libraries nationwide.
As this was not possible this year because of COVID-19 restrictions, the programme is being delivered entirely online. The numbers have been outstanding with 302,787 views of the 476 Storytime videos to date, compared with total attendances of 20,500 in library branches during the whole of 2019.
Under the Government’s Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, libraries are scheduled to partially reopen for “click and collect” or “pick and go” services as part of Phase 2 on June 8.
There will be no access to library spaces or equipment until June 29, when a small number of people will be permitted to enter the buildings.
The process of lifting restrictions will be informed by advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Information on all online resources are available at https://www.librariesireland.ie/news/online-services-during-coronavirus . Online user guides are available at https://www.librariesireland.ie/elibrary-user-guides.

For more information, contact Minister Canney on 086-2513639
June 1 2020