Last saved: 26 November 2008

1 September 2008

Overview of cross-border co-operation in public libraries

We live in an information society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity1. The public library service is the largest information infrastructure on the island of Ireland. Determining library usage is notoriously difficult and particularly so on an all-island basis given the different methodological considerations. Looking purely at visit counts there were 14.3 million visitors to the 353 branches in the South during 2007. A standard has been set in Northern Ireland to have 45% of the total population as users of the 111 branches in the North by 2008.

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