This article is from page 14 of the 2011-07-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE familiar site of the old Clare Library delivery van will soon be a thing of the past as the organisation was this week granted funding for a replacement vehicle.
Over the last number of years, the van has transported tens of thousands of books and other materials between Clare’s 15 libraries, making it possible for people in even the smallest rural libraries to have a full selection of reading materials.
Clare Libraries was last week granted € 40,000 in funding for the purchase of a new delivery vehicle, which library officials hope will prove as useful as its predecessor.
“Most people will be familiar with the library van which is always on the go, moving books from one library to another. The old van was a great service to the libraries over the years and made the service which we were able to provide much better,” said Frances O’Gorman, Senior Executive Librarian with Clare Libraries.
“If someone wanted a book in Ennistymon, let’s say, and it wasn’t available, then the van would transport what they needed from Ennis or whatever library had the book. So it allowed us to offer people a large amount of services, even in smaller places.
“We have 15 libraries around the county so this new van will certainly be kept busy.”
The € 40,000 was part of a national allocation of € 5.8 million announced by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government last week.