A league table of library membership nationwide shows a dramatic divide. So just why are Dubliners more likely to use their friendly, local library than people up the road in Co Louth?
WHERE YOU LIVE affects the value of your home. But a new survey reveals that where you live also determines whether or not you carry a library card. A league table of library membership across the country shows a dramatic geographic difference in people's love of libraries. Fingal County Libraries, in north Co Dublin, tops the book-loving list, with more than 35 per cent of the local population carrying a library card. In contrast, only one in 10 people in Co Louth are registered at one of the county's five libraries.
The Service Indicators in Local Authoritiesreport shows that the top three areas for registered library members are Fingal (35.4 per cent), Dublin City Council (35.2 per cent) and South Dublin (32.3). At the bottom of the league are Louth, (10.7), Laois (11.1) and Donegal (11.2)
So why are you more likely to use your library if you live in Donabate than if you live in Dundalk? The answer does not lie in theories about the relative literary sophistication of rural or city life. Instead, there appear to be practical reasons that make library membership more popular in some parts of the country.
In Co Louth, it may boil down to the filling-station effect. It seems the county's Border status may not only affect petrol and grocery shopping, as many residents are also happy to pop into Northern Ireland to borrow the latest Marian Keyes or Andy McNab. Louth does not have a county librarian after a recent retirement, and the post is due to be filled soon. Peter Murphy, executive librarian at Dundalk Library, believes there are a few factors which affect statistics about Louth reading habits.
Firstly, the survey figures only list current library membership. As Murphy points out, many counties issue three-year cards, which may not reflect how much the cards are actually used. Then there is the unusual feature of a €7 joining fee to join a library in Louth. This drops to €1.50 if you are unemployed or a pensioner, but compares to a free membership system in most other areas of the country.
"We're continuously trying to increase the membership figures and trying to get people to rejoin," Murphy says. He believes the registration fee should be reduced or abolished to attract more library members. He also feels the dreaded form-filling involved in re-registering every year may be putting people off. The county has good library facilities, he says, with "plenty of events like readings, book launches, exhibitions and events going on for children, and they're very well-attended, but it's not necessary to be a member to come to these."
The draw of the North is a factor in lower membership in Louth. Quite a few library-goers have mentioned to Murphy that the library in nearby Newry charges no membership fee and allows them to take out eight to 10 books at a time, compared to the five books in Louth.
In Co Laois, where library membership is almost as low as in Louth, the experience has been that if you build new libraries, new members will come in their droves. County librarian Gerry Maher points out that libraries such as Abbeyleix have gone from just 40 or so members to more than 1,000 in the last 12 months after new facilities were opened.
"In the last 13 months we've opened three new libraries, so the figures for registered membership should see a substantial increase next year," he says.
A counting scanner on the door in Abbeyleix has recorded 11,000 visits to the new library since it was opened. Like most libraries, the Laois ones are open late in the evenings to facilitate commuters, and all day on Saturday. Online book renewal is straightforward and internet access is a major draw for many visitors.
"In terms of a recession, library membership often goes up," Maher says. "People are less likely to just pick up a paperback with the weekly shop any more."
IN SOUTH DUBLIN, library membership has grown steadily in recent years. County librarian Ian Stobbart believes Irish libraries are evolving. Since Tallaght Library reopened in April it has recorded 70,000 internet sessions, many of them by immigrants using the facilities to keep in touch with friends and family and read newspapers and websites in their own languages. The library runs a number of classes in Polish, and it has introduced a new self-service option.
"It's like Tesco, but easier," Stobbart jokes. "And there's no money changing hands, unless there are fines. You just put the card in and press the buttons."
Not only can members renew books online, they can also download audio books to their computers or MP3 players.
"It means if you run out of things to read at 11 o'clock at night, you can just download a book," says Stobbart. "Depending on the licence agreement, sometimes you are allowed to burn it to a CD and listen to it in the car."
The powers-that-be made "a conscious decision to bring in information technology and get away from the idea of dusty books on shelves", he adds. "Tallaght Library is light and bright with plenty of primary colours, with a modern feel to it, to try and attract teenagers. With children, mammy brings you along to the library, and then at a certain point it's up to you whether to continue coming."
Stobbart believes Tallaght Library has become a large beacon of community in the rapidly changing cityscape. "It's a focal point," he says.
For an immigrant community it can be a place to meet locals and reconnect with things from home.
Deputy city librarian Margaret Hayes believes Dublin city libraries continue to be popular because they're accessible. It has never charged for library membership and it is a basic tenet of library facilities that "we have always stood over and would fight for", she says.
The city libraries introduced wireless internet access last year. Seats where people can use their laptops are extremely popular in the Central Library in the Ilac Centre, Hayes says. Recently, the monitoring system has highlighted an increase in job-hunting and CV preparation through the Wi-Fi system, indicating an immediate effect of the economic slowdown. But the traditional business of lending books still continues.
"That's still our core business," Hayes says.
There are nearly 100 book clubs affiliated to city libraries, and the One City One Book campaign, which tries to create a citywide book club, has been a success. Next year's book will be Bram Stoker's Dracula.
In Fingal, county librarian Paul Harris is proud of his ranking at the top of the list of library membership countrywide, "especially when you consider it's been consistently high over the past six to seven years, when we've seen a 22 per cent increase in our population". One of the secrets of the region's success is the long opening hours. A survey a few years ago found that inconvenient opening hours were the main disincentive to library membership.
Another improvement has been enhancing the buildings and making sure they are in convenient places. "If it's easy for people to get to a library, they'll come," Harris says. "The lessons we've learned are: put a library in the right place, open it for the hours that suit people and give them the kind of services they need."
Children's choice: best reads
Keith Kirwan(10), of Scoil Plás Mhuire boys' national school in Dublin's city centre, is currently reading Adam's Starling, by Gillian Perdue. After two days, he's on page 31.
One of the best books he's read is The Wonderful World of Knowledge, which was "about dinosaurs". He likes comics too, which his nanny buys for him. These have different stories about wolverines who attack the US president and security robots who come to the rescue.
Ryan King(nine), from Scoil Plás Mhuire's fourth class, loves a book about a shark called Finn's Causeway Adventure, by Lauren Graham and Dave Orchard. "I like it because people think the shark is very bad and it's going to eat them - but it's not," he says.
He reads as part of his homework each evening. If he had free time and he couldnt play football or go on computers, he'd read. His favourite book to date is The Witches, by Roald Dahl, which took him about a week to read, and he loves his weekly comic book, Match.
Like many young readers at Scoil Plas Mhuire, Nghia Tran(11) loves books that set out to solve a problem. Millions, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and Derek Landys Skulduggery Pleasantare perfect, as is anything that says "don't try this at home" on the cover.
Nghia has read all the Harry Potter books and liked them, especially the last one. He loved the spells best of all. He hasnt seen any of the films yet.
Across town at Coláiste Iosagáin girls' secondary school in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, first-year student Aisling Selvaggio(12) reads two books in a week "if they are really good books". Her favourite authors are JK Rowling, Meg Rosoff and Darren Shan, whose books "are really scary". She likes the Noughts and Crossesseries by Malorie Blackman.
"My mum read me the first Narnia book," she says. "It's hard in secondary school. I read when I get to bed at about 9pm to around 9.30 pm."
Her classmate, Kate Ní Mhaonaigh(12), is currently reading the Harry Potter series and she's recently read Small Steps, Louis Sachar's follow-up to Holes. She's also been reading Siobhán Parkinson's Dialann Sár-Rúnda Amy Ní Chonchúir. She reads in bed from 9pm.
"I love the Darren Shan series and Claire Hennessy's Dear Diary," she says. "I always read. I tried reading The Hobbit- I managed to finish it. I thought it was good at the start, but by the end it was a struggle to finish. We had to read it in sixth class."
She also likes The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier, a story about three Polish children during the time of Hitler's rule.
Caitríona Ní Cheallaigh(13) is currently reading Shirley, by Charlotte Brontë. She prefers Emily Brontë to Charlotte, though she's "not sure why". Caitríona reads "any chance I get - I read when I go to bed at about 9pm for an hour, and I usually read while Im eating".
As well as the Brontë sisters, she really likes Eva Ibbotson, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. - In conversation with Catherine Foley
