I’ve changed my mind — ‘Open Libraries’ are the way to go

An automatic locking system and a “radio frequency identification system” means it would be possible to keep libraries open out of hours, every day of the year, writes Victoria White.

National Library Dubiln

I can see their faces in my mind’s eye. I don’t know any of their names but some of them know mine. They have been a constant in my life from the time I sat on the floor reading picture books to toddlers to today when I approach the poor blighters with half the title of a book I want immediately.

My librarians. I don’t know where I’d be without them. I don’t know where I’d be without the three libraries I frequent, triangulated from my house in south Dublin. For someone like me, who has no job and no work-place, the public library has been the way I have kept learning, kept trying new things.