INSIGHT
‘‘ School Libraries Group
School librarians: inspiring the future, one dream at a time
I
f you’re reading this, you already know that school librarians are important. You know that they boost attainment and provide
opportunities for learning outside the classroom. You know they encourage learners to seek further information, and engage in wider reading. You know they play a key role in the development of the curious mind that defines a lifelong learner.
I want to take you beyond what you already know, to connect you with school librarians in a human context and I can’t think of a better way to do this than to share my own experience of the profound and lasting impact they can have.
School
I was a bookish child, so perhaps it’s no surprise that at lunchtime on my first day in high school, I was to be found hovering in a quiet corner of the library, rucksack slung over one shoulder, too scared to even think about claiming a chair for myself. There were barely any other students in the room, but there were books; row upon row of them. For me, the child who had read every book in her primary school library and resorted to perusing a dictionary for silent reading each day, it was paradise.
I made a few friends in those early weeks but none so important that they held more appeal than that warm, whimsical space I sought out each day. The chaos of the hallways never encroached upon the stillness of the library and if the mayhem outside ever did threaten to intrude, the librarian was more than equipped to subdue it. I would arrive at school early and spend a heady half-hour wandering
50 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
amongst the shelves. I would catch up on homework during break and spend lunchtime lost between the pages of my book. Often, I would stay after school to read or carry out research for one of my homework projects. Time spent there was a gift and I treasured it. I remember there was a small cupboard towards the back of the room. Someone had removed the door, and narrow shelves spanned the three remaining walls. Each one was packed with prospectuses from universities across the UK and some from even further afield. One person could fit inside quite comfortably and I spent many happy hours sitting on the floor in the semi-dark hush, hidden from the world as I dreamed up future after future for myself.
Transformation
Between homework, research and the careful consideration of my continuing education, I read, leaping across genres and age ranges with the fervour and enthusiasm of a young person falling hopelessly and irrevocably in love. My transformation from keen reader to book devourer occurred under the librarian’s watchful eye, without judgement or comment. She answered my questions, honoured my requests, and highlighted titles she thought might be of interest. More than once, she was forced to step over me as I sprawled in the centre aisle, pouring over the next instalment of Joan Lingard’s Kevin and Sadie series, so eager to find out what happened next that I could not bear to pause my reading even to tuck myself away behind a desk. She never complained. Once, there was even the slightest hint of a smile.
This librarian played a large part in defining the person and the reader I
Alison King is the Literacy Lead and PSE Coordinator at Kings Monkton School in Cardiff. She was a judge for the 2020-2021 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals and sits on the committee for YLG Wales and SLG. She is a keen reviewer for The School Librarian and is working towards her CILIP Chartership.
am today. Without her, my mid-teen fascination with Wicca would have been fleeting and poorly informed and I would probably have believed everything I read in the news. I would never have met Kevin and Sadie, or made that defining leap from children’s stories to young adult fiction. I might have struggled to dream up one future for myself, let alone hundreds. The school library without her would have been as useful to me as the Chemistry Lab without a Chemistry teacher.
I am a school librarian myself now, striving to encourage and support the curious minds of the future. Thanks to her, I am well-versed in magic of all kinds, with a strong bias towards magic-by-page and the captivating power of libraries. Far from the luxury that certain powers would like us to believe they are, school librarians are an essential element of any child’s development, academic or otherwise. She was certainly essential to mine. My librarian and I were not friends, but our relationship was marked by tolerance in the beginning and later, by mutual respect IP
October-November 2021
My transformation from keen reader to book devourer occurred under the librarian’s watchful eye, without judgement or comment.
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