Waterford City Library

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2020}} '''Waterford City Library''', also known as the Central Library, is a public library in [[Waterford]], Ireland. It was the first to be built of Ireland's many [[Carnegie libraries]]. The philanthropist [[Andrew Carnegie]], who had previously opened libraries in Scotland and the US, himself laid the foundation stone in 1903.<ref>{{cite news | date = 20 October 1903| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F02E3DB1730E233A25753C2A9669D946297D6CF |title = Waterford honors Carnegie | newspaper = [[New York Times]]}}</ref>

The library is built over Lady's Gate, part of the medieval city walls of the city.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waterford |url=https://irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie/town/waterford/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Irish Walled Towns Network |language=en-GB}}</ref> The stump of the tower beside Lady's Gate on Lady Lane can be seen through glass in the floor of the library during library opening hours.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pollock |first=Dave |title=Medieval Waterford, City Walls and Towers – an illustrated guide |url=https://irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Medieval-Waterford-City-Walls-and-Towers_Illustrated-Guide.pdf |website=irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie}}</ref>

== Library Service in Waterford == [[File:Foundation stone of Waterford Free Library.jpg|right|thumb|Andrew Carnegie laying the foundation stone for the Library in 1903.]]

[[File:CLinterior.jpg|alt=Internal ground floor library|thumb|Internal ground floor library]]

[[File:Central Library at night 2024.jpg|alt=Central Library at night 2024|thumb|Central Library at night 2024]]

Central Library is the main branch of Waterford City and County Libraries, part of [[Waterford City and County Council]]. Waterford Libraries has 12 public library branches spread throughout Waterford City and County, with a centrally located headquarters on the outskirts of Waterford City.

Waterford Libraries are regularly used by 16,000 members and record in excess of 500,000 visits and 500,000 loans annually. Waterford's Central Library is one of eight [[Europe Direct]] centres in Ireland, part of a network of local contact points that serve as the direct link between citizens and the EU Institutions.

==Architecture== The classical-style building was constructed on a corner site using [[County Kilkenny|Kilkenny]] limestone. It is a protected structure.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=WA&regno=22501189 | title=Waterford City Carnegie Free Library | accessdate=16 August 2012 | publisher=National Inventory of Architectural Heritage}}</ref> In 2004 the library was reopened after having been renovated by McCullogh Mulvin Architects for its centenary.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-14 |title=Waterford City Library |url=https://mcculloughmulvin.com/projects/waterford-city-library |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=McCullough Mulvin |language=en}}</ref>

===Exhibition=== Images of the library were featured at the [[Venice Biennale of Architecture]] of 2008.<ref name="library website">{{cite web |title=Official website of the library |url=https://waterfordlibraries.ie/ |accessdate=14 August 2012}}</ref> The title of the exhibition in question, "Lives of Spaces", was intended to elicit multiple interpretations, "suggesting that, while spaces can contain many lives, they can equally live many lives themselves".<ref name="Lives of Spaces">{{cite web | url=http://www.thelivesofspaces.com/ | title=Lives of Spaces | accessdate=15 August 2012 | archive-date=21 September 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921121653/http://www.thelivesofspaces.com/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also== Carnegie went on to fund four more libraries in [[County Waterford]]: *[[Ballyduff, County Waterford|Ballyduff]],<ref name="Ballyduff">{{Cite web |url=http://www.wlp.ie/index.php/2008-projects-projectsmenu-62/132-ballyduff-carnegie-library |title=Ballyduff |last=Waterford Leader Partnership |access-date=15 August 2012 |archive-date=17 February 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130217195507/http://www.wlp.ie/index.php/2008-projects-projectsmenu-62/132-ballyduff-carnegie-library |url-status=dead }}</ref> *[[Cappoquin]] *[[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cappoquin Carnegie Free Library, Main Street, Cappoquin, Cappoquin, Waterford |url=https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22810025/cappoquin-carnegie-free-library-main-street-cappoquin-cappoquin-co-waterford |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Buildings of Ireland |language=en-US}}</ref> *[[Tallow, County Waterford|Tallow]]<ref name="BranchesT">{{Cite web |url=http://waterfordlibraries.ie/branches/ |title=Tallow library |access-date=2019-10-26}}</ref> * [[List of libraries in the Republic of Ireland]]

==References== <references/>

==External links== * https://waterfordlibraries.ie/branches/

[[Category:Buildings and structures in Waterford (city)]] [[Category:Carnegie libraries in Ireland]] [[Category:Libraries in the Republic of Ireland]] [[Category:Library buildings completed in 1904]] [[Category:20th-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland]] [[Category:Libraries established in 1904]]