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24Aug2009
School libraries - a child's right

Posted by Jonathan Douglas

The Campaign for the Book is arguing strongly that school libraries should be statutory. On the face of it this is such a necessary requirement for teaching and learning that it feels like legislating for the obvious. However substantial anecdotal evidence of the closure of individual school libraries and statistical evidence of the massive reduction of local authorities’ school library services means that school library provision can no longer be taken for granted.

This is significant for literacy as it suggests both the weakening of an important resource within schools and is also a negative statement of schools’ prioritisation of the creation of a reading culture. So it is not surprising that the National Literacy Trust is supporting the Campaign for the Book’s lobby.

School libraries are a vital resource; surely accepting the argument of the Campaign for the Book and making school libraries statutory is a quick win for any political party? It is a relatively easy requirement which is probably already fulfilled by the majority of schools. It would, for instance, be a perfect headline for a new government’s first schools bill. However a quick examination of the pattern of school library provision in England explains the hesitation of the political parties:

• The complex range of stakeholders means that it is possible for no one to take overall responsibility for school library provision. Schools have their own delegated budgets to provide libraries within schools, local authorities’ schools library services’ budgets are also delegated to schools. However, schools library services are legally created by public library services, even if they sit within Children and Young People’s Services. Schools, local authorities’ Children’s Services or Public Libraries, who is in charge of school libraries? At a conference ten years ago a culture minister dodged a question about school library services in the morning explaining it was the remit of education and later that afternoon a schools minister dodged the same question explaining it was the remit of culture.

• Following a decade of enforced delegation, schools library services have been dramatically cut and significantly weakened. This means that primary schools in particular, who are far less likely to have their own librarian, are now less likely to be able to access local authority support in the management of their school library.

• The evidence for the positive impact of a school library in the UK is not compelling. Whilst it would seem common sense that a school library empowers learning and teaching, following the publication of Empowering the Learning Community in 2000 (1), the government commissioned two pieces of research to determine the evidence base connecting school library provision to attainment in England (2). The reports found rich international evidence but a relatively weak domestic evidence base.

• The international evidence suggests that it is not the mere presence of a school library but its quality which will determine its effectiveness. The evidence suggests that the effectiveness of provision correlates with the presence of a skilled librarian, the quality of stock and the integration of the library with the teaching and learning strategies of the school. This means that not only does the service need to be statutory but that quality control mechanisms need to be in place. Statutory provision needs to be supported with the engagement of agents such as Ofsted.

September 8 is UNESCO’s International Literacy Day, a date at the start of school year which reminds the world that literacy is a basic human right. In the UK, access to quality school library provision needs to be an expression of that basic right. If this is to happen then there needs to be a serious policy discussion about why it is not currently the case. The last year has seen two significant reviews of public libraries, both of which will report in the early autumn. 2010 should be marked by a similar investigation into the current provision of school libraries, examining the policy systems which need to support this provision. This needs to examine the purpose of schools library services in the new educational landscape, the quality of current provision, the mechanisms for establishing a child’s entitlement through statutory provision and the need for a national advocacy and development agent for the school library sector. This would be a substantive step forward in addressing the future of a resource that can no longer be taken for granted.

Jonathan Douglas, August 2009

(1) Library Information Commission Empowering the Learning Community report, March 2000
(2) Impact of School Library Services on Achievement and Learning in Primary Schools
Professor Dorothy Williams, Louisa Coles and Caroline Wavell, The Robert Gordon University, 2002
Impact of School Library Services on Achievement and Learning
Professor Dorothy Williams, Louisa Coles and Caroline Wavell, The Robert Gordon University, 2001