Seanad debates

Monday, 10 May 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Ollie CroweOllie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Over the next weeks Ireland will remove Covid-19 restrictions, steps which are very welcome. The reopening of libraries today is an especially significant reopening for so many people in communities throughout the State. The communities in Galway city, from Ballybane to Westside to the inner city, are looking forward to being able to attend a library in person, and to making full use of their services. There are 1.2 million library members in the State. Pre-Covid there were 17 million visits made to our libraries each year. I am sure this is equally true for all the communities from which Members hail.There is a wealth of evidence that library staff went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure they continued to serve their communities since the start of this pandemic in March 2020. Every story about library staff rising to the challenge, whether about ensuring children had an online story time, establishing a delivery service to those who had to cocoon in their homes, ensuring a researcher received an article or a health worker a 3-D printed mask, the printing of forms for those who did not have the capacity to do so at home or about the involvement of library staff in contact tracing, is inspiring and deserving of recognition. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

However, we must now examine how we can best support libraries to move forward, both offline and online. Physical libraries are particularly important for older members of our communities to access broadband or meet their friends, while virtual libraries are likely to grow in significance for the younger members. Both are important and the Government should continue to allocate resources to continued development in both spheres. The limited amount available and the high cost of purchasing resources for libraries are concerns for their sustainability and need to be addressed. The lack of transparency in the licensing costs for libraries is also an issue. Our copyright laws should be reformed to allow libraries scan and print whole books they own in print where e-books are unavailable or unaffordable, for preservation, controlled access and to support research and learning. I ask the Leader to raise these concerns with Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin.

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