Over Christmas I stumbled on BorrowBooks, which facilitates a comprehensive search of the online catalogues and websites of Irish public libraries, and the request of books, CDs, DVDs etc. via Inter-Library Loan. It’s also useful for writers if they want to know if their books are stocked by a particular library. Type in author’s name, or name of book, and it will bring up a list of libraries which stock the book or books by that writer. Library.ie has links to all Irish libraries also, but is more useful if you are interested in just one library.

BorrowBooks.ie is an initiative of the Irish public libraries, supported by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and funded by the Information Society Fund.