Irish libraries: An introduction

Abstract

This article originated in a desire to provide a ‘landscape report’ on the different library sectors in Ireland, and describe their current state and future plans for the benefit of delegates at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2022 in Dublin. The initial plan was to collect the individual contributions and synthesise them into a single, seamless piece of work. Having received the contributions, however, I decided on a light-touch editorial approach. So, I revised the texts for consistency of grammar, condensed or expanded a small number of sections, and made slight stylistic changes. Otherwise, I let the authors speak for themselves. What follows, therefore, is a series of separate stand-alone descriptions. The approaches adopted by each of the authors and the levels of detail differ in each piece. When put together, however, they do provide an introduction to the different library sectors in Ireland today. I trust it is of some interest to the readers of IFLA Journal.