Service Indicators 2009: Waterford City Council Library Service

Library Public Opening Hours

• Average Number of opening hours per week for full-time libraries: 47.54 hours
• Average Number of opening hours per week for part-time libraries: 19.6 hours
• Number of full-time libraries that have lunch time opening: 2 (100% of full time Libraries)
• Number of full-time libraries that have evening opening: 2 (100% of full time Libraries)
• Number of full-time libraries that have Saturday opening: 2 (100% of full time Libraries)

Library visits

• Total Number of visits to full time libraries: 284,900
• Number of visits to full-time libraries per 1000 population = 6228

Library Stock

• Annual expenditure on Stock per head of population: €4.61
• Number of items issued per head of population for books: 5.13
• Number of items issued per head of population for other items: 2.21

Annual expenditure on stock: €211,287.22

• Total number of books issued: 234,809
• Total Number of other items issued: 101,059

Internet Access through libraries

• Total number of Internet sessions provided: 34,865

Public Libraries User Survey 2007
In September 2007 Waterford City Council Library service participated in a national survey of library users by the Library Council. All three of our branches took part in the survey and we received an over whelming response from our users to the survey.
A total of 1132 surveys were given out across the service and the response rate was  Central Library 77%, Ardkeen 72.1%, and Browns Road 97%. The over all response rate for the service was 75.8%.

The results of PLUS told us that:

• 96% of respondents said their over all impression of the library was Very Good or Good 
• 89.1% of respondents were members of the library.
• 62% of respondents came in to the library to use the Lending service
• 64% came in intending to use a computer
• 51% came in intending to use the Internet
• 2.1% intended to use the Optical Scanner, 0.5% to use the text enlarger and 1% to use text to speech software.
• 90.4 % of respondents thought the opening hours were very good or good.
• 92.8 % of respondents thought the ease of access to the library was very good or good.
• 96.5 % of respondents thought the staff helpfulness they encountered during their visit was very good or good.
• 86.6% of respondents thought the ease of movement within the library was very good or good.
• 97.5 of respondents who answered the question on whether theythought the library is a safe place to visit answered very good or good.
• 52.3% came to borrow books, 43. % borrowed books
• 17.8% came to borrow music, 16% borrowed music
• 22% came to borrow DVDs, 17.8% borrowed DVDs
• 34.8 % read a newspaper or magazine
• 86.4% thought the choice of books was very good or good
• 93.4% thought the physical condition of the books was very good or good
• 74% thought the choice of music was very good or good
• 63.3% thought the choice of DVDs was very good or good
• 38% came in to the library to find something out
• 78% found the complete or partial answer to their query
• 94.7% of those who came in to find something out said that the staff assistance they encountered was very good or good.
• 91.3 thought that the computer facilities were very good or good
  

© Waterford City Council 2009