NEWS
Bradford staff take action over cuts
LIBRARY staff in Bradford have begun a series of strikes to protest against “swinge- ing cuts”.
Unite members, including those who work in both libraries and museums, held a two-day strike at the end of October. They are planning on holding further days of action as they fight Bradford City Council’s plans to cut around £2m from its museums and libraries budgets over the next two years.
Unite members voted by 77 per cent to take 14 days of action throughout autumn and regional officer Mark Martin said: “Li- braries and museums remain an integral part of the city’s social, cultural and educa- tional fabric – and we continue to believe that they are worth fighting for.”
National Theatre digital archive
PROQUEST has announced a new launch in association with the National Theatre. The deal will see a range of digital per- formance resources made available for the first time outside of the National Theatre’s archive. It will include streaming video and archive material that provides theatre students with a unique insight into life at the National Theatre.
Highlights include performances of the Danny Boyle-directed adaptation of Fran- kenstein and James Corden in One Man, Two Guv’nors. Find out more at
www.proquest.com.
Call for LILAC 2020
presentations A CALL for presentations for next year’s LILAC Conference has been issued. The conference takes place in Notting- ham from 6-8 April 2020 and organisers are looking for proposals on any aspects of information literacy. There are no specific themes, but proposals must highlight inno- vative practice or research in the field. Deadline for submissions is 5pm on 13 November. Anyone interested in submitting a presentation must register, and full details can be found at
www.lilacconference.com/register.
8 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
School library provision inequalities revealed
INEQUALITIES in school library provision for pupils and pay and conditions for library staff have been revealed in research commissioned by the Great School Libraries Cam- paign. The headline finding was a socioeco- nomic inequality with a significant drop off of library provision in schools where pupils were eligible for free school meals. Schools with a higher proportion of chil- dren eligible for free school meals (FSM) are more than twice as likely not to have a designated library space onsite. It also found that schools with the high-
est level of FSM eligibility are significantly more likely than average to have no digital device provision in the library. The report also found that the majority
of school library staff contend with “insecure employment terms, low pay and a lack of investment in CPD.” The overall picture for library provision
was that 87 per cent of schools that took part in the survey had a designated library space, dropping to 67 per cent in Wales and 57 per cent in Northern Ireland. However the report acknowledges “that
the relatively high level of provision may reflect a bias in the survey group toward schools with a library” – as schools with library spaces were more likely to respond to the survey. School library sector organisations are calling on the Department for Education to
create national School Library Strategies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, drawing on the example of the National School Library Strategy in Scotland. Nick Poole, Chief Executive of CILIP,
said: “On the one hand, it is a testament to the headteachers, teachers, governors and librarians that value and promote the importance of school libraries for learners and their school. On the other hand, the research paints a picture of inequality of access and opportunity and insecure employment that we cannot accept. The findings highlight the urgency of securing national School Library Strategies and investment in England, Wales and North- ern Ireland, drawing on the example of Scotland.” Richard Gerver, an award-winning head teacher, educationalist and a patron of the campaign said: “A good school library is at the heart of a great school; well stocked, well-staffed and beautifully designed. It is for that reason that I urge the Government to better support educators in providing that quality in every school in the country.” Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Cres-
sida Cowell, said: “This research shows an inequality in library provision that is a social mobility time bomb… I know from visiting schools around the country for over twenty years that schools with both a library and librarian have a huge advan- tage over those that do not.”
Council loans £182,000 to
community library project A DISTRICT council has agreed to a “short term loan” of £182,000 to a parish council to keep its library open as a community library, according to the Northampton Chronicle. Daventry District Council will make the
loan to allow Moulton Parish Council to stay in its current location and take advantage Northamptonshire County Council’s offer to provide books, ICT and other support in return for an annual fee from the parish council. The loan will allow the parish council
to purchase the lease and in return it will provide a community library for a ‘sensible minimum period’ – suggested as 15 years. Councillor Richard Auger, who is due
to become leader of the district council at the start of November, said: “As a country libraries are one of the fabrics of our soci- ety… I know we wish that things could be better in terms of funding and maintain- ing these things, but sometimes it takes a positive intervention from the local mem- bers to achieve something that is positive for that community for generations.”
October-November 2019
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