A host of award-winning authors including Sarah Waters, David Almond, Philip Reeve and Malorie Blackman are calling on the government to make it a legal obligation for every school to have a library.
The position of the Department for Education is that while it would like to see a library in all schools, "this should be a local decision, not one mandated by government", and it is "up to schools to target resources appropriately".
But the campaign, run by writers' body the Society of Authors and backed by a mass of writers, publishers, academics, librarians and education professionals, is asking schools minister Nick Gibb to make it a statutory requirement for every primary and secondary school in England and Wales to have a library, on the grounds that "there are proven links between reading and attainment".
"The absence of school libraries and trained librarians is deplorable – particularly in primary schools," Society of Authors' general secretary Nicola Solomon has written to Gibb. "Over the last decade libraries and the use of school libraries services has been undervalued and neglected. It is our belief that this needs to change and that all primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a library, and dedicated librarians should be compulsory in secondary schools and all but the smallest primary schools."
As a new survey from the School Library Association shows that around 80% of school libraries have seen a real terms cut in budgets over the last year, support for the Society of Authors' campaign has poured in from the literary community.
"Study after study has shown how children who read for pleasure achieve significantly more, regardless of background, than those who don't," said children's author Helena Pielichaty, chair of the Society of Authors' children's writers and illustrators group. "It makes sense, then, to find as many ways of promoting reading for pleasure as possible. Let's have a library at the heart of every school and books at the heart of every library. Let's nurture generations of story-loving, fact-discovering, poetry-guzzling pupils and let's give teachers the tools and time to do it. I truly believe that if we do, educational standards in the UK will rocket."
Waters, the award-winning author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, added her agreement. "Books matter," she said. "They inspire, they inform, they delight; they encourage independent thought, invention and empathy. At a time when public libraries are being closed down, and when hard-pressed families have ever less money to spend on books, it is absolutely vital that school libraries are made a priority, and that teachers are given every support in fostering literacy."
Blackman, author of the bestselling Noughts and Crosses series, said it was "astounding that in the 21st century it is not compulsory for each and every school in the country to have a library and a dedicated school librarian". "How can the provision of a library service in our country be compulsory in prisons but not in schools? Reading for pleasure leads to reading for education, illumination, communication and instils nurtures and encourages understanding and empathy – at the very least," she said. "As one in three homes in the UK do not contain books, school libraries play a vital part in creating access to the tools which enable all of our children to fulfil their potential."
Kevin Crossley-Holland, children's author and the new president of the School Library Association, meanwhile, stated that "a well-stocked, well-furbished, well-administered and well-patronised library – a place to inspire the imagination and provide information, a place of delight – should be the cornerstone of every primary and secondary school in our country".
Crossley-Holland, who has won both the Guardian children's fiction prize and the Carnegie medal, added: "If only the government would full-bloodedly espouse and implement this mission, they will be making a profound statement about their commitment to educational standards, and to what it actually means for a society to be civilised. Here's a common cause, and an investment in the future, if ever there was one."
The Society of Authors now has a meeting lined up with Gibb to discuss the issue of making school libraries statutory, it said.
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 June 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/27/authors-library-every-school-legislation?newsfeed=true
The position of the Department for Education is that while it would like to see a library in all schools, "this should be a local decision, not one mandated by government", and it is "up to schools to target resources appropriately".
But the campaign, run by writers' body the Society of Authors and backed by a mass of writers, publishers, academics, librarians and education professionals, is asking schools minister Nick Gibb to make it a statutory requirement for every primary and secondary school in England and Wales to have a library, on the grounds that "there are proven links between reading and attainment".
"The absence of school libraries and trained librarians is deplorable – particularly in primary schools," Society of Authors' general secretary Nicola Solomon has written to Gibb. "Over the last decade libraries and the use of school libraries services has been undervalued and neglected. It is our belief that this needs to change and that all primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a library, and dedicated librarians should be compulsory in secondary schools and all but the smallest primary schools."
As a new survey from the School Library Association shows that around 80% of school libraries have seen a real terms cut in budgets over the last year, support for the Society of Authors' campaign has poured in from the literary community.
"Study after study has shown how children who read for pleasure achieve significantly more, regardless of background, than those who don't," said children's author Helena Pielichaty, chair of the Society of Authors' children's writers and illustrators group. "It makes sense, then, to find as many ways of promoting reading for pleasure as possible. Let's have a library at the heart of every school and books at the heart of every library. Let's nurture generations of story-loving, fact-discovering, poetry-guzzling pupils and let's give teachers the tools and time to do it. I truly believe that if we do, educational standards in the UK will rocket."
Waters, the award-winning author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, added her agreement. "Books matter," she said. "They inspire, they inform, they delight; they encourage independent thought, invention and empathy. At a time when public libraries are being closed down, and when hard-pressed families have ever less money to spend on books, it is absolutely vital that school libraries are made a priority, and that teachers are given every support in fostering literacy."
Blackman, author of the bestselling Noughts and Crosses series, said it was "astounding that in the 21st century it is not compulsory for each and every school in the country to have a library and a dedicated school librarian". "How can the provision of a library service in our country be compulsory in prisons but not in schools? Reading for pleasure leads to reading for education, illumination, communication and instils nurtures and encourages understanding and empathy – at the very least," she said. "As one in three homes in the UK do not contain books, school libraries play a vital part in creating access to the tools which enable all of our children to fulfil their potential."
Kevin Crossley-Holland, children's author and the new president of the School Library Association, meanwhile, stated that "a well-stocked, well-furbished, well-administered and well-patronised library – a place to inspire the imagination and provide information, a place of delight – should be the cornerstone of every primary and secondary school in our country".
Crossley-Holland, who has won both the Guardian children's fiction prize and the Carnegie medal, added: "If only the government would full-bloodedly espouse and implement this mission, they will be making a profound statement about their commitment to educational standards, and to what it actually means for a society to be civilised. Here's a common cause, and an investment in the future, if ever there was one."
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| Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian |
The Society of Authors now has a meeting lined up with Gibb to discuss the issue of making school libraries statutory, it said.
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 June 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/27/authors-library-every-school-legislation?newsfeed=true
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