Good morning, everybody. I will make three main points, as a lot of what we will discuss is covered in the petition. I will first give a bit of background on why we are calling for a national strategy for school libraries in Scotland.
We firmly believe that school libraries are unique in their ability to support teaching and learning and that they should be the central resource of every school, open every day and staffed by a professionally trained librarian. We believe that all learners should have equal access to a qualified school librarian.
Currently, there is no national strategy and, unfortunately, young people in Scotland are subject to a postcode lottery with regard to the level of school library service that they receive. That is resulting in educational inequality. I will highlight the situation regarding school libraries in some areas of Scotland.
Schools in Glasgow share one librarian between every two schools; Renfrewshire has only seven librarians across 11 schools; in South Ayrshire, library assistants have replaced professionally qualified librarians; and in Fife, school librarians who have retired have been replaced with library assistants, which I think is a hidden cut. As for Dumfries and Galloway, the librarian at Dumfries academy retired and was not replaced, and responsibility for the library was given to the head of English instead; moreover, I believe that Lockerbie academy currently has no librarian.
Within the past financial year, East Renfrewshire Council has proposed moving to a model of sharing one librarian between two schools, and Falkirk Council has proposed a 50 per cent reduction in the number of school librarians and closure of the centralised school library service. Most recently of all, Argyll and Bute Council has proposed the deletion of all 10 school librarian posts.
The Scottish Parliament information centre briefing comments that the number of school library staff fell in 2012 but that since then the number has remained relatively stable. However, the data neither tells us how many of those staff are professionally qualified librarians nor shows how many of them are shared between schools.
I hope that our initial petition has already highlighted the positive impact that a school library can have. The report “Impact of School Libraries on Learning: Critical review of published evidence to inform the Scottish education community” sets out a considerable body of international evidence showing the impact of school libraries including—and maybe most important—positive attitudes towards learning and higher examination scores. However, I must point out that the report made it clear that, in order to have that impact, schools need a qualified, full-time librarian who is proactive and has managerial status.
In addition to the research that I have already submitted, I draw the committee’s attention to the junior certificate school programme support service demonstration library project, which was set up in Ireland. In 2001, the Irish Minister for Education and Science provided funding for that project as part of the early literacy initiative, and 11 schools that were identified as serving socioeconomically disadvantaged communities were given funding for a fully resourced school library, managed by a professionally qualified full-time librarian. Over a three-year period, the project underwent a major evaluation, the main findings of which included: significantly improved reading scores among the students at the schools in question; continually increased book borrowing by students; evidence of better attendance; improved levels of concentration; and increased interest and motivation among students. The official report on the project, “Room for Reading”, which was published in 2005, said:
“the findings demonstrate over and over again, that well stocked, well managed school libraries, with access to books through structured library programmes that are directed towards the learning needs and interests of even the most reluctant and hesitant readers, can have impacts that are very significant.”
Perhaps I can finish by giving the committee an idea of our vision of a national strategy or at least where we think such a strategy should begin. We welcome the recent publication of the national strategy for public libraries in Scotland. As school librarians, we work closely with our colleagues in the public library sector, and this would be an ideal time to launch a framework for a national strategy for school libraries in Scotland.
In that respect, we think that four initial steps could be taken. First of all, there are no definitive figures on the number or proportion of schools that have a school library and a professionally qualified full-time school librarian, and we recommend that the education department ensures that such information becomes part of the annual data submission from schools.
Secondly, we recommend that the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning considers examining in greater depth the role that school librarians and school libraries play in supporting pupils’ literacy levels, enjoyment of reading, information literacy skills and access to knowledge, as well as their self-esteem, confidence, and sense of safety and wellbeing in the school community.
Thirdly, we ask that the cabinet secretary publicly welcomes school libraries’ demonstrable contribution to educational attainment and discusses with Education Scotland the prospect of embedding school libraries into its inspection framework.
Finally, we recommend that the cabinet secretary has a member of staff acting as lead for libraries to support the work of headteachers and school librarians in delivering positive outcomes for pupils.
School libraries are not just about shelves of books, computers and the issuing and the returning of books. A good school library with a full-time professionally qualified librarian is all about a relationship and a culture. A good school librarian can put the right book into the right child’s hand at the right time.