THEY’VE had to contend with cuts in opening hours, reduced staff and declining stock, but libraries across the country say they are experiencing a recessionary boom.

A Sunday Times survey of 29 library authorities — covering more than 90% of Ireland’s 388 public libraries — reveals that borrowing has increased by up to 30% this year. Every authority except Offaly has experienced an increase in loans, with an average rise of 11% during the first nine months of the year.

Librarians are also reporting more visitors, with people searching newspapers and online databases for jobs and using e-training courses to update their skills.

Jean Webster, senior executive librarian for Co Waterford, which had “unprecedented growth” in loans of 27% this year, said there had been a change in the type of material borrowed since the economic downturn. Travel and home-improvement books have become less popular than manuals about preparing CVs and small business start-ups.

The South Dublin library authority has had its busiest year yet, with 32% of its population carrying a library card. A survey found that a high percentage of young men were using libraries to access the internet, particularly about jobs. Internet usage rose by 69% this year.

Staff at Monaghan’s libraries — where borrowing is expected to grow by 12% this year — say more men are visiting during the day, more people are reading and photocopying daily newspapers, and there has been an increase in borrowers of school and college books.

The Official Driver Theory Test, which costs €18, has topped the most-borrowed list for seven of the nine recorded months this year. There is also evidence that readers are looking for light relief from the doom and gloom with chick-lit titles featuring strongly.

Yesterday, Dublin central library in the city’s Ilac centre was doing brisk business. Among the patrons was Mark McGuigan, who has been coming there for 11 years. He borrows about four books a month, as well as several CDs.

“I’m a musician so I get a lot of stuff for research — CDs that maybe I wouldn’t buy,” he said. “They have a lot of blues and jazz and traditional music and a lot of old music that can be hard to find. Book-wise, I buy fiction, so from the library I usually get factual stuff. They have a lot of science, biography, music books.”

Also there was Dorothy Quinn, who borrows four or five books every month, and saves about €600 a year by using the library. “I read so much that I buy and use the library,” she said. “It’d be mainly fiction that I get. I read across the section, including thrillers and Patricia Scanlan.”

The growing popularity of Ireland’s libraries comes despite funding and staff cuts. Several local authorities imposed stock-buying moratoriums on their libraries this year and allocated the book-buying fund to other departments.

“The book fund tends to be hit in a recession. It puts pressure on staff who have more people coming in but less money to buy stock,” said Brendan Teeling, assistant director of the Library Council. “The library authorities have also been affected by the [civil service] moratorium on recruitment. Staff who leave on early retirement are not being replaced and contracts are not being renewed.”

Loans in Cork city libraries have increased by 4.5% this year despite a four-month book-buying moratorium and a 10% cut in staffing levels.

John Mullins, senior executive librarian for Cork city, said a virtual halving of its book budget had made the stock less attractive for those seeking summer titles.

“Already it is planned to reduce the mobile library service. Other services will undoubtedly be affected and wider reduced opening hours may be a feature in 2010,” he said.

Wicklow reported a borrowing increase of 2%, despite losing three staff members and a knock-on cut in some branches’ opening hours. It expects its membership to exceed 30,000 this year for the first time.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown experienced a 21% jump in borrowing this year with its Deansgrange, Dundrum and Stillorgan branches averaging the highest increases of 30%. Offaly was the only area to report a decline in items issued. It said this did not reflect activity and that its libraries were busier than ever.

According to figures from Nielsen BookData, sales of books in shops have increased in the past 12 months. Revenues are slightly down, however, due to discounting by shops and publishers.

Most borrowed titles in September 2009

1 Official Driver Theory Test Prometric/Road Safety Authority

2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows/ J K Rowling

3 Brooklyn/Colm Toibin

4 Happy Ever After/Patricia Scanlan

5 Heart and Soul/Maeve Binchy

6 Once in a Lifetime /Cathy Kelly

7 Man Gone Down /Michael Thomas

8 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas /John Boyne

9 The Secret Scripture /Sebastian Barry

10 This Charming Man/Marian Keyes

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb