Great news for students, libraries in Ireland will now open seven days a week

Great news for parents and students alike as libraries in Ireland will now open seven days a week.

Almost 200 of the country's 330 public libraries will open their doors all week from 8am to 10pm. These new opening hours are not only great for the general public but the many students who require the library facilities for research and study on a daily basis.

The Govt's new Library Strategy will transform our libraries. I am abolishing library fines and have approved the rollout of My Open Library service which will see many libraries open from 8am-10am 365 days of the year. pic.twitter.com/nSWWH4vQlW

— Michael Ring (@MichaelRingFG) June 14, 2018

Along with the welcome news of later opening hours, it has also been revealed that late fees are to abolished. This is to encourage more people to borrow from the library. I have to say as a parent I'm delighted by this news because my son borrowed library books last year and like most kids misplaced them. We found and returned them but still had to incur the dreaded fine. This experience made me wary of taking out any more books and he never borrowed from the library since then but the removal of the late fee makes me less apprehensive and happier to bring him back. These new extended hours will give members of the public the opportunity to study, use wifi, hold meetings and, in some cases, use the free hot-desking facilities to work remotely from offices. Working remotely is becoming more common and a lot of new spaces are opening up offering a quiet desk and good wifi for those who don't have an office to work in. I think it's a great idea for local libraries to get in on this as it's a great help to small businesses and start-ups who may not be able to afford to rent offices. The longer opening hours and self-service technology has already been piloted in Offaly as of 2016. They saw increased visitor numbers of between 75 and 185 per cent in a one year period. Libraries will continue to be fully staffed during normal working hours and 100 extra librarians are to be hired in the next few months. As a bookworm, I'm looking forward to seeing if the new opening hours will be available in my local library as I'm always on the hunt for a good book, but I usually can't make it to the library after work. Now families can enjoy their local libraries at their leisure and parents of young students will have peace of mind, knowing there is a safe space for their kids to pop to after school or college to study. Now I just have to root out our library cards...