The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Dick Roche T.D., launched the BorrowBooks Online Library Loan Service and the website www.borrowbooks.ie at the South Dublin County Library, Tallaght on the 20th of February.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister said, “It gives me great personal satisfaction to launch the Borrow Books Service and the associated website www.borrowbooks.ie. It has been the aim of my Department to enable the provision of access, through the public library service, to the very comprehensive collections which the public libraries hold and to ensure the provision of this access on a national basis. The Borrow Books Service will achieve this aim.”
BorrowBooks.ie is an online library loans service which, for the first time, brings together all of the online public library catalogues in one website for the convenience of the general public. With the BorrowBooks.ie service, library members can now search for an item of their choice across all of the online catalogues of the public library authorities simultaneously. Once the item is located, the user can request the delivery of the item, via their local library service to their local branch. BorrowBooks allows members of the public, wherever they are in Ireland, to find the material they are searching for in one place. Using BorrowBooks, a user in Wexford could discover the item they are looking for in Donegal’s collection and have it delivered to their local library in Wexford.
BorrowBooks.ie is an initiative of the public libraries service, supported by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna and funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In order to place a request, it is necessary first to be a member of a public library. Joining is a straightforward process which may be arranged by contacting your nearest local library branch to fill out an application form.
For further information on the BorrowBooks Service and www.borrowbooks.ie, please contact Annette Kelly or Joan Ward, An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, 53 & 54 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2 – telephone: 01 676 1167- fax 01 6766721 – e-mail: akelly@librarycouncil.ie or e-mail: jward@librarycouncil.ie
