Redevelopment of Ballyroan Library Books Mean Business Business Support at South Dublin Libraries TEDxTallaght Thinking Made Visual
Children’s Services Year of Craft 2011 Libraries App
Off The Shelf Books Mean Business at South Dublin Libraries
Mayor Cllr Caitriona Jones with Justin Keatinge at the launch of Books Mean Business
Presenter Miriam O’Callaghan in conversation with Roddy Doyle at a recording of Miriam Meets earlier this year in The County Library
During November South Dublin Libraries, working in partnership with South Dublin Chamber and South Dublin County Council, celebrated the wide range of free library resources on offer to businesses across the County. The programme began with the launch of Books Mean Business - a new, up to the minute Business Collection of books, magazines and online resources at the County Library Tallaght. Guest of honour Justin Keatinge, co-founder and managing director of Version 1 who was recently shortlisted for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, spoke inspiring words about starting and
Business Month brochures at County Library
growing a successful business in Ireland. Justin complimented the new book collection, saying how impressed he was at the mix of classic business books and exciting new titles. He expressed his appreciation of the value of the new business section at the County Library Tallaght, and what an important resource it is. The official launch was followed by a special Business Mentoring event –
Check out a Champion at the County Library: Your Business, Their Knowledge. Over the course of the evening, aspiring business owners “borrowed” mentors in such areas as Tax / Finance, Social Media, Web Design, Market Research, Business Planning or many others for an opportunity to gain free advice and insight and a helping hand on the road to starting their own business. The event was a great success with both mentors and business startups expressing a request for another similar event. Business Month continued with a variety of events at all South Dublin Library branches.
TEDxTallaght 2011 Thinking Made Visual was the theme for the second TEDxTallaght organized by South Dublin Libraries and held at Victory Centre, Firhouse Road. Mentalist Shane Gillen performs at TEDxTallaght 2011
“WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS— SHARED LEARNING” “VERY INTERESTING, THOUGHT– PROVOKING” “REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT TEDX EVENT”
Speakers this year included Hilary Kenna, Roisin Heneghan, and Shane Gillen, along with selected videos shown from www.ted.com. What is TEDx? It is a local branch of the global non profit organisation called TED whose brief is to encourage innovation and creativity across many disciplines. TEDx is a program of local, selforganized events that bring
people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxTallaght where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxTallaght event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are selforganized. TEDxTallaght 2011had as its theme ’Design—Thinking Made Visual’. As 2011 is The Year of Craft in Ireland we wished to celebrate design
and creativity from all areas of life in our second TEDxTallaght event. TEDxTallaght again proved a very uplifting and inspiring evening. To watch the talks visit www.tedxtallaght.com
Dive In—Totally Teen Festival A varied programme packed with activities to suit different interests was designed including: Author Visit from Celine Kiernan, award winning author Creative Writing Workshop with popular author Claire Hennessy Everyone knows that teenagers can be a tricky group to reach. With this in mind, our Teen Team sat down to develop a programme that entice teens into libraries.
Graphic Art Workshop with artist Maeve Clancy
It was felt a bit of fun was needed in the festival and a Wii Tournament was organised for a Saturday afternoon at County Library Tallaght. This was a huge hit with a number of teens coming along who would not regularly visit the library. DJ Ryan Phillips (Spin 103.8) and the Dublin Rose also came along to play against the teens and chat with them, adding to the fun and relaxed atmosphere.
Screenwriting workshop with actor/director/writer Vinny Murphy
Support for Senior Cycle Exam Students As students around the country settled into their new lives in September, the County Library team began to plan a study support programme for Senior Cycle students. Building on the success of a similar programme last year, a series of workshops designed to assist 5th and 6th year students in preparation
for their Leaving Cert exams took place in October. Topics included: Playing with Shakespeare presents Hamlet Prepare for Your Special History Project Study Skills with Ann Lavelle Noise Creative Careers—an informal session for students and professionals involved in the creative industries.
“A FANTASTIC INTRODUCTION FOR 5TH YEAR STUDENTS TO HAMLET” TRANISITION YR CO-ORDINATOR
Library Champions South Dublin Library champions are people who love their libraries and want to be in the know about issues that may affect them. Anyone can become a library champion…you just have to support and use libraries. We have both everyday champions and celebrity champions. Current celebrity Library
Champions include author Colum McCann, author John Boyne, Entrepreneur Fergal Quinn, Liz Nolan of Lyric FM and Deirdre Kelleghan, Astronomer. Find out more at www.sdcclibrarychampions.com
Off The Shelf Children’s Book Festival
Mayor Cllr Caitriona Jones with the Dublin Hurlers at the Launch of Children’s Book Festival
THE CREAM OF
Young readers, their parents and teachers across the County took part in this year’s Children’s Book Festival. Over 70 events were held throughout the month in our libraries and schools. In excess of 1500 children attended these activities and events . Many international authors including Daren Shan and Melvyn Burgess were joined by some of the best of Irish talent; Chris Judge, Judi Curtin and Sarah Webb included. The Celtic Rathscallions who travelled to us from Canada with their unique blend of music and storytelling were brilliant.. Little Big Top
Theatre group from Tipperary gave what has to be the most engaging maths class ever to ten groups of young children in Clondalkin and the County Library. This event was held during Maths Week and marked the first
time the Libraries have participated in this national festival.
Readers Day
CONTEMPORARY IRISH AUTHORS ALL GATHERED IN TALLAGHT FOR SOUTH DUBLIN’S READER’S DAY—IT WAS FANTASTIC! THANKS TO ALL THE LIBRARY STAFF FOR ORGANIZING THIS. FINOLA KENNY, BOOK CLUB MEMBER
South Dublin Libraries annual Readers Day took place on Saturday November 12th from in the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght. Hosted by Dermot Bolger, the line-up included Sebastian Barry, Claire Keegan, Gerard Stembridge, David McWilliams, Eoin McNamee & Keith Donald and Anna May Mangan.
Dermot Bolger in conversation with economist David McWilliams at Readers Day Nov 2011
Local Studies In 2011, the Local Studies section at the County Library continued collecting South Dublin County’s culture and memory resources for future generations. SOURCE the new digital archive which was established and developed to preserve the County’s history now currently holds over 8,500 images, books, videos, ephemera, newspapers, newsletters, maps and exhibitions relating to the County. Find it at www.southdublinlibraries.ie In 2011 two books were produced - Allegiances
Compromised and Once Upon a Time in Tallaght, and a programme of regular talks, exhibitions and events was delivered. Our Heritage Week events this year were themed around traditional crafts, and included workshops in printing, crocheting, patchwork and basket making. To celebrate the launch of the Luas extension to Saggart, South Dublin Libraries partnered with Luas in a project to display posters at each of the new Luas stops from Belgard to Saggart during Heritage
Week and for the month of September. Each poster detailed a different aspect of the history and heritage of the area. As part of the project, a walking tour of Saggart took place during Heritage Week, and the posters were also exhibited at the County Library. Local Studies staff at the County Library continue to offer research advice and assistance to those studying the history and heritage of the County, and those researching their family history.
Year of Craft 2011 It has been a significant year for craft in 2011. South Dublin Libraries put together a fantastic programme throughout the year to highlight and celebrate local craft and craft people culminating in a Christmas Craft Fair in the County Library. Workshops and demonstrations at all South Dublin Library branches
celebrated many different aspects of craft from basket weaving, to jewellery making and the renaissance of knitting. The celebration culminated in the ‘Modified Expression’ exhibition at County Library Tallaght, a collaboration with the Craft Council of Ireland. Curated by international jeweler Angela O’Kelly, the exhibition
featured beautiful works by emerging and established artists inspired by the written word—letter art, recycling, paper cuts, binding & book art.
New Smartphone App Check out our Smartphone app for the Catalogue and Library Website...the library at your fingertips…...
YAPS our New Teen Reading Blognificence!
http://southdublinteenagers.wordpress.com/
Connect with us on Social Media We at South Dublin Libraries are very active on the Web2/Social Media front. At time of print, we have 1220 followers on Twitter, almost 3000 On Facebook. We have recently started using Google+, so we’d love if you could join us there. You can also follow us on the more visual and auditory aspects of the web, YouTube, Flickr and on
Audioboo, or follow our blogs. Wherever you find the purple haired diva...who
incidentally has been christened Paige Gloria Turner by our wonderful Twitter followers.
Click through to www.southdublinlibraries.ie to connect with us on our Social Media platforms
Off The Shelf S O U T H D U B L I N L I B R A R I E S W W W . S O U T H D U B L I N L I B R A R I E S . I E
Ballyroan Library Castletymon Library Clondalkin Library County Library Tallaght Lucan Library There is clear evidence that the availability of reading material, and the fostering of reading for Mobile Library Service pleasure plays a significant role in the children’s reading and learning performance. Whitechurch Library Stewarts Library, Palmerstown Major concerns have been raised in Ireland during 2011about child literacy both in the recent
Ready to Read: Literacy Programme from South Dublin Libraries
NESF report and in the latest PISA data from the OECD. The PISA data shows that between 2000 and 2009 Ireland had the largest fall in literacy standards of any OECD country, falling from 5th to 17th place in the international ranking.
Google can bring you 100,000 answers, but a librarian can bring you back the right one Neil Gaiman
South Dublin Libraries in response to these reports have developed a pre school literacy project which is being delivered across the County through branch libraries, pre school facilities and schools. The project title is Every Child Ready to Read and it is the first of its kind to be developed by a public library service. A book fund grant of â‚Ź40k from the DOEHLG was used to purchase literacy material and software to facilitate the project delivery. Another literacy project is currently being delivered by the library service to Adamstown Community College in Lucan. Students at the school represent a broad diversity of families living locally including a small number of students from backgrounds that experience low levels of family literacy. These include students of migrant families drawn from a variety of nations and ethnic backgrounds, families with one or more children with specific learning difficulties, families from the travelling community, families experiencing unemployment and difficult socio economic circumstances, families headed by single parents. Support from South Dublin County Libraries will be in the form of stock to assist in delivery of onsite library services. High interest low reading ability hard copy stock will be made available to all students on campus. In addition the online resources on www.southdublinlibraries.ie will be demonstrated and made available to the school community. A whole-school library registration project is nearing completion and all students and teachers should be registered and using our online and download resources by early 2012.
Whitechurch and Clondalkin Libraries—100 Years a Lending.. Whitechurch and Clondalkin Libraries both unique Carnegie Libraries first opened their doors in 1911 to a century which would bring huge change and transformation for all. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style by T.J. Byrne, a noted architect at the time, an exhibition celebrating the work of T.J. Byrne was curated and
Whitechurch Library & Artchitect TJ Byrne
displayed during 2011. The centenary celebration
events attracted a huge attendance. Clondalkin Library had a interior facelift to celebrate the first one hundred years of service to local communities. Similar work is planned for Whitechurch Library during 2012.
Ballyroan Library 2 We are delighted to announce that work has started on the redevelopment of Ballyroan Library with a completion date of late 2012 for the delivery of a vibrant, 21st century, flexible community facility. The library which is one of the busiest in the country had become cramped and unable to deliver the levels of service required by the thousands of people who visited each week. The new two story building will provide 1,434 sq metres (15,435 square feet) of library space for the local community and will offer a truly modern library service. Express check out/return facilities, digital book download facilities and shelving for ‘quick picks’ and bestsellers will be found along an internal street running between both entrances. This new enlarged reading room will become a place to read, browse, check online reference services or read a newspaper or children’s story in one of the window seats. A children’s area to the south of the central reading room will include space for book readings,
family learning sessions and general children’s activities. An exhibition area with moveable walls will be situated at the south end of the internal street. Additional space provided by the rebuild will also allow for the provision of flexible spaces to maximise service delivery to local communities. Life long learning programmes currently provided by Ballyroan Library require multiple rooms in order for programmes to be delivered simultaneously – and so the new seminar room will allow for subdivision of the space provided. Demand for digital training and eLearning is high amongst local communities and a seminar/ digital training space on the ground floor will also facilitate delivery of these activities. Upstairs, heritage material & essential reference resources will be found, both digitally and in hardcopy format. Here local residents will be offered a space for study and research.
Artist’s Impression of the New Ballyroan Library
Mayor Caitríona Jones turns the sod for the new Ballyroan Library assisted by Minister Alan Shatter and Cllr. Paddy Cosgrave The car park to the south will become a public square with a shared surface for people and cars. This area will be planted with trees and benches to allow people space to sit and read. On street parking will be maintained on the perimeter of the site. We look forward to documenting the progress of this project over the coming year on our social media sites. Keep your eyes peeled!
www.sdcc.ie www.southdublinlibraries.ie
South Dublin Libraries 2011
1.3 million Books Borrowed 1.4 million Visitors 250,000 Computer Sessions 2.5 Million Page Views of www.southdublinlibraries.ie 3,000 Followers on Facebook 1,200 Followers on Twitter