INSIGHT ‘‘ I
We want to ensure that resources are in place to support the development of an inclusive school library for all students...
Alice Leggatt is a secondary school librarian in London. She is a member of the CILIP School Libraries Group (SLG) committee and a CILIP125 recipient.
N October 2023 I submitted an article titled ‘UK school libraries are not immune to book bans’1
Following the recent removal of a ‘trans book’10 to Information Professional. This was
in response to an incident that had occurred at my previous school, where the gay children’s author Simon James Green was banned as a visiting writer by the Archdiocese of Southwark because they believed his work fell “outside the scope of what is permissible in a Catholic school”.2 I wanted to raise the alarm on a rising tide of book challenges that UK school librarians were quietly discussing amongst themselves, and to draw attention to the similarities between my situation and the book bans which were sweeping the US. I particularly highlighted that the original complaint came from a far-right blog unconnected to my school; that the reasons given for the ban mutated over time; and that a fundamental lack of understanding of the role of librarians contributed to a level of vitriol my sector then seemed unprepared for. I was concerned by the vulnerability of UK school librarians, who do not have to be qualified, are not statutory and who have no specific education policies guiding their work. I wanted our profession to look more closely at the situation, and to be ready to advocate for school libraries. In the intervening years, two studies have been published which examine how often books are being challenged in UK schools, and which books are the primary targets. In 2024, Index on Censorship found in a survey of 53 school librarians that over half ‘had been asked to remove books’ and ‘89%...were worried about the potential for censorship’.3 also warned that ‘there seems to be a lot of self-censorship4
They and
reported a rise in Freedom of Information requests being made to schools regarding ‘LGBTQ+ material’ held in libraries.5 Alison Hicks of UCL’s Department of Information Studies found similar results when she undertook research to examine the impact of the “anti-woke culture war” on library staff, reporting that ‘school library workers detailed a spike in incidents… as well as an almost unanimous focus on LGBTQ+ topics.’6
References
1. Leggatt, Alice (2023), UK school libraries are not immune to book bans, Information Professional.
2. Lough, Catherine (27 April 2022), Cancellation of LGBT author’s Catholic school visit ‘left pupils unnerved’, Independent:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lgbt-author-catholic-school- visit-cancel.
She found that in some schools “pupils contributed to the creation of a hostile school library atmosphere… by hiding certain books under bookshelves, throwing them behind sofas… (and) turning over books on display”, adding that books had been “ripped or annotated with racial or homophobic slurs”.7 Authors who visit schools are noticing increased incidents of the same behaviour. William Hussey, a gay author who has been visiting schools for 15 years, posted on X in April 2025 that he was considering stopping, saying that “Old homophobic slurs are being resurrected…the mere fact (that a child felt they could openly pose a question using a slur) was disturbing”.8 said that “the example cited is just one of many”.9
He Autumn 2025
3. Dancey-Downs, Katie (19 August 2024), Banned: UK school librarian shushed over LGBT+ books, Index on Censorship:
www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/08/banned-school-librarians-shushed-over- lgbt-books.
4. Dancey-Downs, Katie (2024). 5. Dancey-Downs, Katie (2024)
6. Hicks, Alison (2025), “It’s in my professional conscience all the time”: School library workers, book banning and censorship, School Libraries in View 7. Hicks, Alison (2025)
8. Hussey, William (20 April 2025), Why I’m thinking of quitting school visits,
X.com:
x.com/ WHusseyAuthor/status/1913889839134449699 9. Hussey, William (2025)
10. Keohan, Michael (4 July 2025), Backlash as Reform claims trans books removed from children’s library section,
bbc.co.uk:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6257p2vry3o.
11. McMenemy, David (7 July 2025), Learning from the past: Censorship in libraries,
cilip.org. uk:
cilip.org.uk/news/705265/Learning-from-the-past-Censorship-in-libraries
12. Hicks, Alison (2025)
13. CILIP (2024), Managing safe and inclusive public library services – A practical guide,
cilip.org.uk:
www.cilip.org.uk/page/safe-and-inclusive-guide
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 55
from a public
library by its Reform-led council, David McMenemy (University of Glasgow) pointed out that ‘when it comes to censorship challenges in libraries there is rarely anything we have not seen before as a profession.’11
In contrast, Alison Hicks said her own findings were “both alarming and unprecedented”.12 The
reality is likely somewhere in between these views. Yes, school librarians have faced issues of censorship before, but the way in which these challenges are now being made (often publicly and antagonistically) feels different, and the effect on student behaviour is concerning.
In his 2025 CILIP conference seminar, McMenemy argued that our profession needs a renewed push to communicate to the public what the long-held ethical principles underpinning our work are, so that they can better understand our collection development, promotion and programming choices. CILIP SLG believes likewise, and we continue to reach out to school library communities to ensure that the professional ethics of intellectual freedom are widely shared.
We want to ensure that resources are in place to support the development of an inclusive school library for all students, so that the advice given in Managing safe and inclusive public library services to be ‘prepared’ rather than ‘scared’ is achievable for an already vulnerable profession. Needless to say, the formation of CILIP’s new Intellectual Freedom Committee is especially welcomed by school librarians. IP
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