The Government has announced that €20 million will be provided to recognised primary and post-primary schools for the purchase of books, audio books and other media for the purposes of improving their existing literacy resource banks.
This €20 million fund will be paid to schools in the coming weeks and is additional to that already given for the school books rental scheme.
The grant is to be paid to schools based on pupil numbers at the same rate for all schools, primary and post-primary. The department will also send a guidance note to all schools, with support from the libraries service, on how schools can best use the funding received.
Public libraries already provide a range of supports for school under the Public Library Supports for Schools jointly agreed by the Department of Education and the Department of Rural and Community Development. Public libraries will support the roll-out of the School Library Book Grant through the provision of additional measures and resources.
Webinars in May will focus on selecting a book collection for each school.
€20 million school library book grant for primary and post-primary schools
