Cork’s northside library branches open fewer hours
Cork City Council has three library branches on each side of the city, but those on the southside — Bishopstown, Douglas and Tory Top Rd — open 127.5 hours a week between them, compared to the 100 hours on the northside.
The three northside branches in Blackpool, Hollyhill, and Mayfield close for an hour at lunchtime every day. Of these, only Mayfield has a weekly late opening on Thursdays, but all three southside branches open until 8pm once a week.
Councillor Patricia Gosch, chair of the council’s tourism, arts, and cultural strategic policy committee, asked in 2011 for lunchtime openings in northside branches and for equal hours between the northside and the southside.
“We were told two years ago that it was a priority for the council to increase opening hours, both lunchtime and evenings, as soon as staffing allowed,” said Ms Gosch, a Fine Gael representative on the city’s north central ward. “But I’m not happy that the northside always has less; these hours have to be reviewed again to make sure there’s parity.”
Labour councillor in the north-west ward, Michael O’Connell said he hoped the €4.1m library being built in Hollyhill would be open all day and six days a week.
The 2011 FG-Labour Programme for Government promised support to local authorities to provide longer opening hours, among a range of initiatives to support literacy development.
City librarian Liam Ronayne said the library service has 10 fewer staff than the 74 who worked in 2008 across all branches, including the central library on Grand Parade. A Government ban on recruitment and the non-replacement of retired or staff who leave has caused the restrictions.
“For health and safety reasons, we have minimum numbers of staff who need to be on duty, so that really impacts issues like lunchtime opening,” said Mr Ronayne. “I am aware of concerns about apparent disparities between the southside and northside, but there is no intentional reductions in one place over another.”
Mr Ronayne said there have been more cuts to southside library hours, through fewer evening openings in some branches. He said the Hollyhill branch, due for completion in mid-2015, will open during lunchtimes and should also have one evening opening a week. Opening hours are also influenced by volume of business, with the central library the busiest, followed by Bishopstown and Douglas.
Mr Ronayne said he expects the Hollyhill library to be very busy as its location on the grounds of a local school was chosen to encourage the widest possible community use.
Northside
- Blackpool: 32.5 hours
- Hollyhill: 32.5 hours
- Mayfield: 35 hours
Total: 100 hours
Southside
- Bishopstown: 47.5 hours
- Douglas: 40 hours
- Tory Top Rd: 40 hours
Total: 127.5 hours
