Dublin City Council has defended a 60 per cent increase in charges at the capital's 22 libraries. Fees payable for overdue books have been increased from 25c (20p) a week to 40c a week. Reservation charges and other fees have risen by a similar amount.
The council says the increase is the first since 1988. It has been accompanied by improvements in the services to book borrowers, according to the assistant city librarian, Ms Margaret Hayes.
Users of city libraries can now access the catalogue and renew their loans online. Borrowers can access the library catalogue on the Internet at www.iol.ie/dublincitylibrary. With a PIN number obtained from their local branch library, they can renew borrowed books on the Internet up to five times.
In addition, the loan period has been extended from two weeks to three, and the number of items that can be borrowed has been increased to eight. It is planned to introduce an Internet book reservation service shortly. The library website also provides access to other databases, such as a recent exhibition on the North Strand bombings during the second World War .
Free public access to the Internet is now available at all Dublin city libraries. In some branches, one-to-one tuition on the Web is available for targeted groups, such as older people.
Last year, three million items - books, videos, tapes and CDs - were borrowed, an increase of 7 per cent on the year before. Ms Hayes attributed the increase to the rise of book clubs and promotions by the libraries of new acquisitions.
The most popular books with borrowers last year were non-fiction. Top of the list was An Accidental Diplomat by Éamon Delaney, followed by Homan Potterton's memoir of growing up in Rathcormick. Bill Cullen's It's a Long Way From Penny Apples made it onto the list despite being published late in the year.
Other next most popular non-fiction titles were Anne Robinson's Memoirs of an Unfit Mother, The Official Driver Theory Test and No Logo by Naomi Klein.
Harry Potter, in book, video, CD and tape form, dominated the fiction list. This was followed by Ian McEwan's Atonement and John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. The remainder of the top five was My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain and No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod.
Unlike the UK, Irish libraries do not pay royalties to authors. However, Dublin city libraries are one of the biggest book-buyers in the State, with an acquisition budget of £1.76 million this year. The budget of the library service this year is £13.1 million.
