Libraries serve up Yeats takeaway to Chinese scholars
Monday June 19 2006
The rise in the number of foreign workers has created new demands for libraries. They now supply books in more than 20 languages.
Dublin City Libraries has Flann O'Brien's novels in Romanian, Roddy Doyle's 'Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha' in Japanese and Patrick McCabe's 'The Butcher Boy' in Czech, according to head of reader services Jane Alger.
Libraries were now renting foreign-language books to keep up with changing needs, she said.
"The demand is for Polish books at the moment and the second most popular [language] is Chinese. Two years ago it was Spanish," said Ms Alger.
Dublin City Libraries rents around 3,000 foreign-language books from an English company, Bright Books, and can return them in exchange for new books at any time.
"We regard it as money well spent. It's in the region of 70 cent per book per week but we still regard it as good value for money because we can adapt the collection to suit the demands at the time," she added.
Most of the books are selected from bestseller lists in the immigrants' countries, but the libraries also have copies of popular Irish works in translation.
Newly arrived Polish immigrants can read a translated version of 'A Compact History of Ireland', or Maeve Binchy's 'Tara Road'.
Although the Dutch are famed for their linguistic skills, they can read Gerry Adams' memoirs in Dutch. Portuguese immigrants can read 'The Mammy' by comedian Brendan O'Carroll while some of John B Keane's plays and novels are available in Slovakian.
Most of the foreign-language books are kept in the Central Library in Dublin's Ilac Centre, close to the city-centre homes of many immigrants.
Libraries in Counties Waterford, Donegal and Meath have expressed an interest in joining the book rental scheme to cater for their immigrant populations.
"It requires quite heavy staff imput because the staff have to be aware of what books are there and they need to be able to adjust and respond to demands," said Ms Alger.
She said it was important that libraries provided books for the growing immigrant population: "Even if people don't intend staying here, they are paying taxes here so they have a right to expect a service."
The book rental scheme made it financially viable for libraries to offer a varied selection to immigrants, she added.
"It would be far more expensive to buy the books and it would lead to huge space problems."
- Michael Brennan
