Clare Library Devt. Plan 2010-2015: submissions requested

[Paddy Casey]

As many of you know, Clare County Library Service is preparing a Library Development Plan to cover the period 2010-2015. As part of the process, they are actively seeking consultation with the public on the development and future priorities for the service. Submissions are welcome from individuals, groups and organizations as to how they wish to see the Library Service develop (see http://clarelibrary.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... -plan.html ).

At this crucial time in the planning of the Library's resources for the next 5 years I feel it very important that those of us who have profited so much from the Library's Internet services speak up to make it clear how much we appreciate them and how important it is that their development be continued.
 
Information technology and the Internet have changed our lives and are leveraging our existing resources by leaps and bounds. The team at Clare County Library headquarters farsightedly predicted these changes many years ago and, with very limited resources, have built up a set of Internet-accessible County information services which are the envy of every other county in Ireland. These systems, together with the rich trove of historical documents at the Local History Centre in Ennis, have provided a backbone for the preservation, documentation and promulgation of Clare local history and heritage. This backbone has provided invaluable support to a large community of volunteers in Clare and around the world who, at no cost to the County, have been working over the years to document the County's history and heritage and put the information online for the benefit of the County's residents and the descendants of Clare families worldwide. Numerous examples of this work, which arguably started with the transcription of the 1824 Clare Tithe Applotments, can be seen on the Clare County Library website at http://www.clarelibrary.ie . In the area of Clare genealogy alone, enormous numbers of family historians have benefited from the Library's growing online collections over the years.

The fostering of links between the County and its sons and daughters in the worldwide diaspora is an essential element in developing the County's heritage and promoting the tourism with which it is inevitably linked. The Library's Internet services are key tools in this endeavour.

In my opinion a clear feature of the Library's IT achievements has been the leverage: with very limited resources at the Library headquarters in Ennis large numbers of unpaid but very skilled Clare-oriented volunteers worldwide have been put to work over the years for the benefit of the County.
 
It is therefore essential that this highly-leveraged structure be maintained for the benefit of the County and, where appropriate, developed to take advantage of new IT technologies currently under development.

If there are any of you Clare Past forum members who feel the same way as I do you might like to make your views known in the form of a submission to the Library Development Plan process. I certainly will.

Submissions should be emailed to mailbox@clarelibrary.ie or sent by post to the County Librarian at County Librarian, Development Plan Submission, County Library HQ, Mill Road, Ennis, County Clare.

Note that the closing date for submissions is 26th March, 2010.

Paddy