Literacy news
Kent County Council to cut dedicated school library service
6 Sep 2010
The future of school libraries has once again been called into question after England’s largest local authority axed its service for tens of thousands of pupils.
Kent County Council has told its schools they will have to borrow books from their local libraries instead after the school library service was no longer able to pay for itself. Schools will be able up to borrow 100 books for eight weeks at a time from local libraries free of charge.
Helen Boothroyd, chair of the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians says:
“A service that relies on teachers going into their local library is not going to replicate an all-singing, all-dancing school library service.”
“In a number of authorities the expertise in terms of working specifically with schools and supporting them in literacy interventions and the curriculum resides in the school library service staff. Public library staff do not have the same expertise.”
School library services are not statutory, so authorities can choose not to run them. There are growing concerns that public spending cuts could threaten remaining services.
Alan Gibbons, children’s author and libraries campaigner, says:
“The progressive closure of school library services is a catastrophe. The notion that a public library service is going to take up the slack is laughable.
“The public services are coming under the axe and individual school libraries are going to be under pressure.
“There is no sign from Government of setting the basic principle of retaining a reading culture.”
The concerns arise as the Government called for library services to be revamped as the number of users continues to fall. Figures released last week revealed that the number of people that use the library has dropped by 32 per cent in the past five years and 60 per cent have not used a library in the past year.
The Government has suggested relocating library services to places including pubs and supermarkets to make them more accessible.
In Kent, money to buy-in a library service had been given to schools but they could choose whether to opt in. There were 900 schools eligible to use the service across the county (the biggest local education authority in England) and in Medway. The council said it was used by 189 schools in the financial year until April 2010, mostly primaries.
Read more on the TES website.
