Information & Learning
Our Information and Learning services include services from our Reference department, our Local Studies department, our Central Lending library, and our network of local libraries. While most of these services are based on printed resources, we also assist in the provision of the in-house and externally sourced online information resources outlined below.
- Digital resources
Registered members of Cork City Libraries can access Encyclopedia Britannica Online by entering their current membership barcode.
We also subscribe to a limited number of external databases, which customers can freely access when they log on to our public computers in any one of our library premises throught the city. Reference staff can enter a password to allow free in-house access to the following business databases: Kompass, Vision-net, and FACTfinder. - Free online encyclopedia information is available at http://www.wikipedia.org/ and http://www.encyclopedia.com.
- Public Internet & computer facilities
Visitors to our libraries are welcome to book sessions on our public-access workstations for desktop applications and Internet access. You can prepare for your Driver Theory Test by using our CD-ROM facilities. - For our in-house Index to articles in selected newspapers and periodicals, choose the Newspapers & Periodicals tab on our online catalogue.
Newspapers & periodicals
You can consult a list of our holdings of Sunday, daily, & weekly newspapers and our holdings of journals on this website. Back numbers are stored in our Central Reference Library.
Local Studies
Our Local Studies department contains a wide range of books, newspapers, journals, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, and photographs and other material on the history, geography, antiquities, archaeology, genealogy, folklore, and culture of Cork city and county. Our local studies online service includes facsimiles of selected street directories, historical photographs and maps, English-Irish lists of local geographic features, and many other textual and pictorial resources which are available on our Cork Past & Present pages.
Books, DVDs, CDs
While most items can be borrowed by registered members from the general collections of Cork City Libraries — including DVDs, CDs, video tapes and audio books, as well as printed materials — items from our Reference and Local Studies collections may be consulted only in the library.
Encyclopedias & dictionaries
The Central Reference department holds a large collection of encyclopedias and dictionaries. General multi-volume encyclopedias are complemented by a number of encyclopedias on selected topics. Dictionaries cover most European languages, as well as Chinese and Japanese. Our local libraries hold smaller collections of these materials, including encyclopedias for younger readers.
Reference Department
Select the Reference link on the left column for information on our Central Reference department.