Wednesday 20 May 2009

LIBRARY CUTS AFFECTING AUTHORS

Publishers and authors are suffering because of cuts to purchases of their books by Irish public libraries, according to a recent Irish Times report.

The budget for new books in Galway city and county’s 30 libraries was cut from €550,000 to €100,000 at the start of the year, according to the Library Council. That's a staggering cut and a real blow to the libraries who do such a fantastic job.

From the article by Genevieve Carberry:

Galway Library has had to limit daily newspapers mainly to city branches and cut the number of new books to one between all branches, Maureen Moran, senior executive librarian at Galway Library, said yesterday. She said Galway libraries were busier than ever as “it is one of the few places you can go now without spending any money”.

ONE copy of each new book between ALL branches!!!! Oh, my God...

3 comments:

Totalfeckineejit said...

Give it another 12 months and it will be a page each.

Group 8 said...

Howya, TFE?
It's pretty bad, eh? My publishers are a small outfit and Galway Libraries always bought lots of copies of their books, really supporting the local. It's always great to see plenty of Arlen House books in Galway libraries. No more, no more. I find it sad and upsetting, for writers, readers and publishers alike.

Niamh Griffin said...

It's really worrying. It's bad enough that books are so expensive to buy in the first place, without reducing the ones in the libraries...