[ Cork City Council - Annual Report 2020 ]
Libraries
3-D printers were loaned to BenchSpace, collaboration with Cork International Film Festival allowed those at home to enjoy cultural cinema from across Europe through our online service. Books were provided as part of the food parcels delivered to homes by DEIS Schools and the libraries worked with Cork City Councils’ Community Response Unit, especially in May and December with newsletters being distributed to all communities through the unit. Heritage Week and Children’s Book Fest hosted very successful online programmes, National Play Day was celebrated in the outdoors on the Grand Parade, while Culture Night brought literature onto the streets of the City with Words on Windows, a collaboration with The Glucksman, UCC, showcasing artwork by teenagers in Direct Provision on the façade of The City Library. The year saw the publication of Homeless Moments in association with FOCUS Ireland, contribution to the GLOW Festival and a feature on Nationwide. The libraries’ Creative Ireland projects continued with a very successful anthology of Cork writing CorkWords published.
Due to the COVID-19 emergency, libraries closed to the public on 12 March, 2020 following an instruction from Central Government. For the first time in almost a century, since the years after the destruction of the Carnegie Free Library by Crown Forces in 1920, there were no visits to our cities libraries. This was to continue throughout the year with brief reopenings and limited services provided as we went through different levels of restrictions and lockdowns. Though libraries closed, staff commitment to community remained very strong with many staff volunteering for contact tracing, HSE duties, Friendly Call, Community response and Park Rangers. Staff ensured our Housebound Service was the first in Ireland to be extended to those cocooning and the delivery of books to people in their homes was invaluable. Staff introduced creative initiatives to engage people online. This has continued to develop and will be a positive legacy of 2020. Cork City Libraries collaborated with many organisations to bring innovative services to the public. Tablet devices were provided to the Cork COPE Foundation’s #WhoIMiss campaign to help residents stay connected with loved ones during the COVID-19 emergency.
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