Kildare County Council’s Clocha Rince Library Project receives An Taoiseach’s Public Service Excellence Award 2010

On July 8th, 2010, the project team, Ms. Breda Gleeson, County Librarian, Ms. Marian Higgins, Senior Executive Librarian, Ms. Caroline Farrell, Executive Librarian and Mr. Frank O’Meara, Principal, Clocha Rince National School, attended the ceremony at Dublin Castle to receive the award, with Mayor Brendan Weld accepting the award from An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.

Clocha Rince Community Library was established in 2008. It is a unique initiative that was cultivated through consultation between Ms. Breda Gleeson, County Librarian for Kildare Library & Arts Service, Mr. Frank O’Meara, Principal of Clocha Rince National School, and with support from the school’s Board of Management, the local Parish Priest and the Department of Education and Science.

Frank O'Meara, Principal, Clocha Rince National School, Mayor Brendan Weld and Breda Gleeson, County Librarian.

Previously, research from a report that was commissioned for the Oak Partnership found that the area of North West Kildare had a deprivation score of 8, the maximum score being 10, and the national average being 5. The variables measured included unemployment, age dependency ratio, percentages of children leaving education at 16 years of age, proportion of lone parents, percentages of people involved in small farming and people in unskilled manual class. Working with this information, a strong belief emerged that provision of the library would help to redress the inequalities outlined above through accessible services that would also help to promote a culture of reading while placing the library at the heart of the community.

While maximizing the potential of the school building, its’ accessible location to the wider rural population of North Kildare and the resources and expertise of Kildare Library & Arts Service, a fusion of ideas resulted in the community library being established in the school. The library was officially launched on the 21st October, 2008 by Mr. Michael Kitt, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Through ongoing local projects that are based in the library environment, positive community relationships continue to be fostered, with library membership continuing to grow to over 500 people. The library has now become an integral service that provides access and opportunities to the cultivation of ideas, information, knowledge, life options and learning.

The project is an example of what can be achieved when innovation and partnership is encouraged between already established services, where ideas are met with initiative and where solutions that positively reach the goal of serving the community are realised. Kildare County Council is committed to using new ways of seeing and thinking to deliver better services and will utilize the continued learning from the Clocha Rince Project to look at ideas to provide community services to rural areas that would otherwise not be able to access them, crossing traditional boundaries, nurturing new relationships and delivering workable and cost effective services.