[ Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, Section 15(2) Two-Year Progress Report ]
Additional information regarding on-going and future strategic plans:
• There are 10 libraries in the Cork City Council administrative area. 4 libraries have ‘My Open Library’ facilities, offering extended open hours, using a mix of staffed and unstaffed self-service hours. It is an objective of Cork City Council Libraries to expand the ‘My-Open Library’ scheme to all its libraries. • The Library Links service provides library services to housebound people within the city area pre-boundary extension. It is envisaged to extend this service to the entire city area facilitated by the Age Friendly Representatives which work in each library. • Mobile Library Services may be expanded to more remote locations, nursing homes and smaller communities, subject to funding and capacity building. • The delivery of a library, arts venue and community facility has been identified as part of the Cork Docklands Framework Masterplan with a feasibility study to be undertaken. • The provision of libraries will be examined as part of the infrastructure requirements for the existing and anticipated future population of Cork City. There were increases in library membership, visits and items and e-items borrowed, partly facilitated by Cork City Council increasing the My Open Library service to 4 libraries in October 2023, resulting in the service being available to the public for an extra 4,895 hours. The large increase of visitor numbers in in 2023 in comparison to 2022 reflect that full service only resumed in March 2022, following total and partial lockdowns due to the Covid Public health Guidelines. It took some time for public confidence to grow. During the pandemic remote use of the service such as online registration and the use of eBooks / eAudio reached an all-time high.
Figure 56: Annual Figures for 2022 and 2023 for Cork City Libraries
Category monitored 2022
2023
% change
Registered Members of Cork City Libraries
40,410
41,868
+ 3.6
Visits to Cork City Libraries
699,947
864,230
+ 23.5
634,781
694,361
+ 9
Items Borrowed
138,875
162,131
+ 17
e-Items Borrowed
77
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