'If anyone goes out sick...we struggle to keep our doors open,' says Acting County Librarian
The comments were made at a recent meeting of Carlow County Council
"We do need more staff and more skilled staff. If anyone goes out sick...we struggle to keep our doors open," Acting County Librarian, John Shortall, told members at this month's meeting of Carlow County Council.
His comments were made in response to a question from Cllr Michael Doran who asked if the county's library services were adequately funded.
Mr Shortall said they "always need more money" but the Council have been adequately funding the library services.
"We would like more staff so maybe you could consider that in your budget decisions," he added.
A progress report on the library services in Carlow up to November of this year revealed that 151,137 people visited the libraries with 25,360 visits to www.carlowlibraries.ie.
The library services key targets as part of the "Our Public Libraries 2022" are:
Invest in library infrastructure and develop new funding programmes
Strengthen relationships with key local and national partners
Remove fines and lending charges across the service
Invest in promoting the library service nationally and locally
Support staff in developing skills to enhance user experience
Develop libraries as digital learning centres and digital enablers
Provide optimum user friendly staffed opening hours and expand My Open Library service to at least 100 libraries
Annual book fund target per local authority - €4.00 per head of population