ClareLibrary.ie guides to library services, branch libraries etc
Title
Clare County Library
Description
Following the completion of its first phase of automation (the creation of a bookstock and membership database and the creation of a county-wide network linking all branch libraries to the central database), Clare County Library assumed full responsibility for all its Information Technology requirements in 1997. Staff of Clare County Library's own IT Department have been responsible since then for the maintenance and development of all of its Information Technology requirements, from software to hardware, from servers, firewalls and routers, to PCs, the county-wide network and the library website. The library also delivers two and half times the national average of Internet sessions to the public. Clare County Library developed its own IT department from existing resources, following automation. No extra staff were recruited. Library IT staff taught and trained themselves, and four have studied for and achieved professional qualifications in IT.
The library also services the IT requirements of the County Arts Office, and created and maintains websites for the County Museum, County Arts Service, County Heritage Office and the County Archives. It is also responsible for almost 100 public-access Internet PCs, which have become two crucial service indicators for Clare County Council, of which the library service is an integral part.
Clare County Library was the first public library in Ireland to offer its catalogue on the Web; the first to offer a local authority museum website; the first with an online Community Information service; the first with Online Publications; the first with online Literature Promotion; the first with an online catalogue of photographs, the first with online maps, and the first to create a Virtual Branch Library (in Cranny). Clare County Library sees its award-winning website as a fundamental part of its operations and structure, viewing the ‘library’ as neither a building nor an institution but a resource to be used by people for information, learning, culture and the imagination thereby improving the intellectual and cultural quality of life of the community. Unity of place – the county of Clare in the republic of Ireland - provides the basis for this website. Covering everything from history, genealogy, people, places, the Arts, Heritage and Archives to community information, literature promotion, Prism (the online catalogue), Foto (the photograph collection) and the online maps, the library website is an essential first stop for anyone interested in County Clare.
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