Waterford City and County Libraries will receive €100,000 in funding.
The move was announced this week, with the county's Librarian saying that it will go a long way, when people are allowed back.
Jane Cantwell is the City and County Librarian for Waterford: “This very welcome funding will allow us to continue to make our library branches across the City and County more comfortable and welcoming spaces for our communities.
"It will ensure that when we can welcome our customers back for all the events, classes, exhibitions and new digital services that we have been missing during Covid, our libraries will be bright, spacious and safe for everyone”.
It's expected that libraries will welcome back visitors in the next few weeks, but at present people can collect books at six different libraries - Lismore, Dungarvan Tramore, Ardkeen, Carrickpherish and Central Library in the city.
Cantwell said: "Normally we'd have lots of things in our libraries we'd have lots of children, we'd have Book Clubs, we'd have meetings, seminars, exhibitions - not to mind people just coming in to sit down and relax and meet their friends and read a paper or a book. Unfortunately because of Covid we have said just come in, get your book, talk to the staff and leave quickly enough.
"Now we're really moving towards having more opportunities for people to come in and I'm hoping over the next two to three weeks we'll be opening more of our branches."
This funding will supplement the already substantial investment by Waterford City and County Council in upgrading our branch library network.
Director of Services for Culture, Kieran Kehoe, said: “The Minister’s announcement is most welcome as it demonstrates the support by Government for our library service and how libraries are serving communities at local level. This funding will be allocated in particular to upgrade works in Central Library, Dungarvan and Cappoquin branches and we would expect works to commence over the coming weeks”.
Traffic to the Waterford Libraries website in March 2020 grew by almost 70% on March 2019 and use of online resources such as Press Reader and Borrow Box saw usage grow exponentially. Waterford Libraries continue to work collaboratively to bring services that are relevant and accessible to all and this funding will allow this to continue.
