Kilkenny County Library Service: Early Years

In August, 1925, Kilkenny County Council took over the running of the Library Service. The City Library remained under the ambit of Kilkenny Corporation and thus had a strange relationship with the evolving County service. There are no records of issues recorded for the Library in the 1933 Annual Report. This may be because the Library was still using the Cotgreave Library Indicator which did not facilitate the recording of issues. The development of the City Library may well have being stymied by being under a separate authority.

It is interesting to note that other sites in the City maintained collections in addition to the City Library. These were:

 

Mr. McSweeney is recorded as the local Librarian in the City Library in 1933. B.M. Barron was the County Librarian. 25 individuals served on the Library Committee. Among their number they included five clergy and one woman.

The main development in 1933 was the transfer of the central book repository that served the County from the City Library to a portion of Evan’s Home. Previously this portion had being used for educational purposes. The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust contributed £140 towards the internal alteration and repairs of the building.  

In 1937, the Library Service maintained over 103 Centres in the County, mostly in Schools. The books were exchanged every four months. Local volunteers ran these collections and many selected stock at the central repository. The educational emphasis of the service was still strongly emphasised with some fictional works read for leisure being described as ‘tripe’ in the 1937 Annual Report.

The service had a stock of 33,330 in 1937; total issues were 87,774 with 29,386 books being dispatched around the County. Interestingly despite official attitudes 67,273 of these issues were fiction, 13,587 children’s and 6,914 non-fiction.