On the Road Again…

It just goes to show that while you can take the System Consultant out of the System, you can’t easily remove their love of library site visits. Last September when my husband and I went on a two week vacation to Ireland, we went directly from the airport in Dublin to Trinity College and the Old Library.

After circling Trinity College several times looking for a place to park, we finally found a parking spot on Merrion Square in front of the American College Dublin. We entered the Trinity College campus from a rear entrance, but everyone seemed to know the directions to the Old Library. On our way to the Old Library we passed the Berkeley Lecky Ussher Library, which is the main Undergraduate Library at Trinity College. In front of the secondary entrance to the library is a sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro called “Sphere with Sphere" (1982-1983).

We had come to Trinity College’s Old Library to see the book of Kells. In an age where we lose thousands of books to the ravages of time and acid paper, it was a magical moment to stand in the dimly lit treasury room and look at the colorful portrait of St. John in a book that is over a thousand years old. While at the Old Library we visited the Long Room with its barrel vaulted ceilings, gallery bookcases, fourteen marble busts and its 200,000+ volumes. We visited the gift shop before returning to our car.


Three days later on Saturday, September 9th, we drove into Kenmare amid a 21K foot race that terminated just beyond the front of the local library, I told my husband that I wanted to visit the local library during our tour of the city, but due to the heavy traffic from the foot race we ended up parking across town and by the time we worked our way back to the Kenmare Public Library, which is a Carnegie Library, but the library had just closed for the noon hour. With so many places to visit and our time allotted to Kenmare nearly over, I did not get to go into the library, but the window to the left of the door looked into a lovely children’s area.

That evening we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast just outside Killarney to find a guidebook in our room that indicated that the Killarney Public Library with its free Internet access was open on Saturdays until 8 p.m. Having whetted my appetite for a library at the noon hour, we decided to visit the library before going to mass. The library was conveniently located near a car park. There were six teenagers, three girls and three boys, hanging around outside the library. On approaching the door to the library, we discovered why the teens weren’t inside. A sign on the door indicated that due to a shortage of funds that the library’s the hours had been shortened. Having already paid the parking fee, we walked around Killarney. When we returned to our car an hour later, four of the six teens were still milling about the car park. The library must have been their preferred meeting place on Saturday evening. It’s a shame that it wasn’t open.

On Wednesday, September 13th while touring Galway, we went to the Galway Public Library, Augustine Street Branch. We passed the entrance twice as it looked like the entrance to a department store. I had hoped that they might have public access Internet, but they only have six Internet terminals available to the public, and they are for cardholders only.

My husband, Ed, looked at the newspapers, while I took some pictures of the library. The book shelves were stuffed, but the books looked older, and the carpeting and the facilities were well-worn. It appeared that they could use some additional funding. The online catalog appeared to be a Dynix product, but the staffers weren’t sure, they thought that sounded familiar. (When I returned home, I confirmed via the Internet that it was indeed Dynix.)

The highlight of the library was the children’s section. One of the pillars had been turned into a tree.  A student was showing his report card to the librarians when I entered the Children’s section. When I asked about a leaf display that I reminded me of some of the Summer Reading displays that I’d seen in our libraries, one of six young men in school uniforms volunteered that if they read 10 books that they received a McDonald’s voucher. It made me think of Rachel Miller our Youth Services Consultant at RPLS, and the McDonald vouchers she procures for our libraries and their Summer Reading Programs.

On our way out of the library, we stopped at the Information/Circulation Desk to get a recommendation on a place nearby where we could eat lunch. They gave us directions to Busher Brown’s, just a short distance away. There were lots of performers and pedestrians, but no vehicles on the streets of downtown Galway.

 

On Thursday, September 14th we visited two of the three public libraries of Atrim in Northern Ireland. We had hoped to also visit the Heritage Center, but were told that it had been closed. Atrim City Library was formerly a jail. On the walk in front of the building was a mosaic map of Atrim.

 We stopped at the circulation desk to find out if they had public Internet computers, and they did. The Internet computers were located on the third floor of the library and cost one pound and fifty to use.  The young man at the far left in the green shirt was quite helpful in helping me locate some of the keys, which were in slightly different locations on the keyboard. There were over twenty computers in the spacious room and most of them were in use, and I was allowed to use one to checked my AOL email account and send a few emails. I was not able to log on to my RPLS email or RPLS CLeO, as there seemed to be some restrictions on websites that could be accessed. My husband talked to the librarian about the library's collection and history, and the other libraries available in Atrim.

Ed got directions to the local history library, and we walked to the local history library to investigate some McKay Family History. The staff was extremely helpful.

Later that evening we went to dinner in Keady, and our restaurant, the Cauldonia, was across the street from the local library, but the library was closed.

Monday, September 18th we went to Trim to do some last minute shopping, before returning to the United States on Tuesday. It was a rainy day, but my “I love libraries” umbrella from Illinois Library Advocacy Day helped to keep the rain off, while we shopped. I also window shopped at the library, which was very attractive, but also closed on Mondays. Thanks to the large windows, I was able to get some very nice interior shots.

All in all, it was interesting to see how similar our libraries are, with many of the same issues such as aging collections, Internet Access Policies and funding.

Doris McKay, RPLS Consultant