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DESPITE A CUT in annual funding of almost €1 million since the start of the recession, Dublin City Libraries continue to serve thousands of people each week – including the sick and elderly.
And one of its most innovative strands – the mobile library service – is used by about 500 people per week.
The library-on-wheels visits 24 areas across the city, stopping off at schools in the morning and residential areas in the afternoon and evenings.
Mark French-Mullen, divisional librarian at Dublin City Public Libraries, told TheJournal.ie that the service is “highly valued by those communities”.
“We aim to provide a service that is accessible to all, and we do that through our network of 21 branch libraries – including the central library on Henry Street. However, Dublin is a very extensive city and there are still areas that are not convenient to one of our service points,” French-Mullen said.
He added that the mobile service is “particularly valued by those who cannot travel easily to the branch library. That may be due to distance or it may be due to incapacity or age. For many the mobile library is a beacon in their week.”
The organisation also provides a limited home delivery service to those who cannot leave their house.
The library, which is free to join, has a selection of books, DVDs and audio books. If customers can’t find what they’re looking for, they can request a particular item. Almost 5,000 requests are placed every year.
French-Mullen said that some of the most popular books at the moment are The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and the Driver Theory Test.
Funding for Dublin City Libraries peaked in 2008 at €2.2 million. In 2013, the figure stood at €1.34 million.
French-Mullen said the biggest hit came in 2010, when there was a decrease in funding of 20-25 per cent. The rate of cuts has slowed since then, with a three per cent dip in 2012 and “no real cuts” in 2013 and 2014.
“The fortunate thing was that we were starting from a very good position,” French-Mullen noted.
He added:”Our long-term goal would be to have [permanent] libraries in all areas where there is a demand.”
TheJournal.ie visited the mobile library at its Artane stop this week.
Róisín Shanahan uses the service regularly with her children Ellen, 8, and Tadhg, 6.
“It’s great for the kids and myself. I’m doing a counselling course so I find I get a lot of books for the course here … The kids love coming up picking their own books and, knowing they have to return them within a week or two, they’re reading them. Otherwise they’d just be watching telly,” Róisín said.
“I like the Roald Dahl books, he’s my second favourite writer. Jacqueline Wilson is my favourite,” Ellen added.
Dave Murphy, 36, lives locally and has attended the library “most weeks” for the last five years. ”It’s brilliant. It’s great for cookbooks and things that you mightn’t necessarily want to buy,” he said.
If you don’t think you’re a big reader, you’ve the cookbooks, DVDs, even audiobooks for going walking – which are brilliant as well … I got an American Civil War DVD boxset by Ken Burns – it was five discs and I watched the thing twice. You just sort of see stuff and you say ‘ah, sure it’s free so just chance it.
Sarah Kennedy, 17, is among the many students that visit the mobile library regularly.
“I use it every week. Usually you get school projects and presentations and you can reserve books on the topics that you need. You’d get a better insight than the internet gives you. I had a project on civil rights so I got books about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King … they were very interesting,” Sarah said.
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Good luck to the Guinea pigs that step forward to take that vaccine.
@Vladimir Macro: I’ll stick with the people we voted in to represent us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Freedom_Party
@MrMagoo: I really hope that any vaccine that is released is a safe one. I personally will only considerate it a safe vaccine if it is endorsed by Dr Judy Mikovits.
@OhToBeARossie: At least do your family the service of studying Vitamin D & C supplementation.
@Alpha Centauri: yes, she is completely honest, has never stolen anything and did not have a paper completely disqualified on the grounds of it being complete waffle and isn’t at all trying to pedal her book to all the new conspiracy theorists that have emerged out of the this.
@Dell: Ther’s always one
@Vladimir Macro: oh there’s millions of us who don’t use YouTube as reliable sources.
@Dell: You know when you have a medical issue and try find out what the problem is.
You go to the Doctor and explain the case. Then you say to the Doctor, well I read it could be this or this. Doctor says dont google it.
Well guess who is advertising on google now. The government and HSE re covid.
Yet our doctors dont trust google. Google also own youtube.
So which is it?
@Vladimir Macro: I see she got 0.67% of the vote in the last general election, chairperson of the Irish Freedom Party…
https://archive.vn/20200210203504/https://www.irishtimes.com/election2020/tipperary
The video you posted yesterday of her explaining her opposition of Covid-19 social distancing didn’t mention she was the chairperson of a fringe political party. That’s an important omission, as it means, she wasn’t talking as an academic but was expressing a political opinion.
@Vladimir Macro: there’s a difference between advertising a legitimate established service and pedaling lies. The unfounded rubbish you are swallowing is the online equivalent of the travelling medicine show with their heal all snake oil. You’re even helping them along, omitting information and political affiliations of the “experts” in these videos.
@David Jordan: She did explain she was the chairperson towards the end.
Look all the studies on Vitamin D and C that are out there. Many studies from different parts of the globe. A political party is irrelevant to those studies. Yes here stance is but that doesn’t mean it’s a lie.
Calm down do your own research
Ivor Cummins on Twitter has all the links. He has no political affiliation.
I’d be more worried about taking a new and untested vaccine than Coronavirus to be honest.
@Adam Conroy: exactly. It’s about first with the vaccine, patent it, money in the bank. Side effects?, well the usual, one in bla bla bla.
No HIV vaccine after 30 years but a vaccine for covid after a few months. I smell more WHO lies/propaganda.
@Quiggers: or sars vaccine for 17 years
@Vladimir Macro: there’s several candidate Sars vaccines, but no Sars, that’s why the vaccines were not used.
Stadler, K., Roberts, A., Becker, S., Vogel, L., Eickmann, M., Kolesnikova, L., Klenk, H.D., Murphy, B., Rappuoli, R., Abrignani, S. and Subbarao, K., 2005. SARS vaccine protective in mice. Emerging infectious diseases, 11(8), p.1312.
@Quiggers: apples and oranges. There are thousands of mutations for hiv so it is very difficult to create a vaccine though they are getting close. Also, it isn’t deadly anymore so not as much as a rush.
Some good news at last
I’m a bit wary about this fast track to a vaccine. I wonder what pharmaceutical companies are involved in the production of this and what their reputations are. How come the WHO won’t reveal that to allow the public to make an informed decision? The article mentions how contagious the virus is and focuses on the number of deaths and cases globally, yet overlooks the 1,529,606 people that have recovered.
@Yolita Ferue: they won’t reveal the companies for a few reasons . First they cant be seen to be promoting any pharmaceutical company over others and wouldn’t want people to decide not to get a vaccine because they may not know the brand name of the companies. Second is down to finance if they reveal the companies it could affect the stock value if their vaccine failed during trials and the last reason could be that a number of companies are collaborating on different vaccines and not all the companies will be Involved in the same callaboration by the end
@Paul O’halloran: I think the public has the right to know what pharmaceutical companies the WHO is promoting for their own health and safety, we don’t want something bigger and more catastrophic than the opioid crisis in the US to happen globally and in terms of choice if there’s a number collaborating on different vaccines. Surely, if they have confidence that their vaccines have been tested and are effective, then they shouldn’t have to worry about their vaccines failing at trials. Most people don’t care about the stock value of these pharmaceutical companies, these companies already make gigantic profits from human suffering.
@Yolita Ferue: look at the share prices and which ones have gone up a lot lately
Cha ching
@Macca Attack: yes, it does take millions and millions of euro to develop a single vaccine.
@Brendan Cooney: no doubt about it Brendan and they will charge a fortune for it and will make billions out of it. Sooooo, ,,, what’s your point
@Brendan Cooney: also takes minimum of 6 years to properly test it
Fantastic news.
@Johnny 5: They better hurry up before our water runs out and we can’t wash our hands every 3 minutes!
I had a nightmare recently that the world leaders had a secret society that met around one of those huge round tables and decided that to tackle climate change they must create this virus that wouldn’t be deadly enough to derail society but would get everyone to take the vaccine and 75% of those who took it ended up sterile and governments blamed the pharmaceuticals for rushing an untested vaccine but secretly paid them billions. I have a weird mind.
@Pedro: interestingly enough, the SARS-COV-2 virus infects the testis, the virus itself might be harmful to fertility. This is because the testies (and kidneys) have the ACE-2 receptor that the virus uses to infect cells…
Fan, C., Li, K., Ding, Y., Lu, W.L. and Wang, J., 2020. ACE2 expression in kidney and testis may cause kidney and testis damage after 2019-nCoV infection. MedRxiv.
@Pedro: I would be very happy to take such a vaccine, if it caused me to be sterile!
Finally a voice of reason and balance from one of the worlds leading scientists:
https://t.co/opqPJ2e6dc?amp=1
@OhToBeARossie: I particularly like the election results part of that page
@Dell: 0.3% in the last general election, that’s pretty poor.
Yeah but what about Bill Gates? BILL GATES??!?!? 5G??!?!? PLANDEMIC?!?!?
@Jesus Christ: Don’t worry. The Lord has promised more plagues. One to fit every conspiracy theory actually.
“…top contender vaccines are racing to be completed”. What could possibly go wrong!?
The common cold is a type of corona virus and we still don’t have a vaccine for it so good luck with that!
The modern day Holy Grail of exploratory medicine. The testing/development is expensive but the rewards are a potential blank cheque.
For brain dead society
@james r: Tell us why oh enlightened one?
Bill Gates of hell vaccine reg number 060606 will be tot of the list
@Jimmy Carroll: I’m totally going to take the word of the guy on the journals comment section, who didn’t even string one intelligible sentence together, over the word of world’s top scientists.
Some good news and it can’t come soon enough !
How long does it take to vaccinate 5 million people? A year, 2 years?
Its going to be one hell of a plan
How long does it take to vaccinate 5 million people? A year, 2 years?
@John Keane: Its going to be one hell of a plan
12-18 months, average 15, 2 months ago in March – meaning June next year at the earliest when it would be deemed safe and effective, fully approved and ready to roll out.
Still optimistic, in my view – I just hope there’s no shortcuts taking place or corners being cut. As I said before, this pandemic will most likely be over by the time the vaccine comes, it’ll just be useful in preventing further ones.
have your say