INSIGHT ‘‘ SLG
Are librarians the key to reversing falling reading figures in Britain?
S librarians, we are all looking forward to next year, the designated National Year of Reading again. We welcome all the attention that will be focussed on reading, all of the activities, the new Booker category for children’s books to go alongside our Carnegie Medals and the other book prizes that exist. We are also happy that the Government is giving money for books to schools and are gearing up to provide activities in the libraries where we work. However, school librarians have been talking about the new Government initiative, and whether it is focussed in the right direction? Please don’t misunderstand me, it is wonderful for schools who need an update of their book stock, particularly books that reflect the cultures and identities of the children attending that school, but books – dare I say it – aren’t everything. What we as school librarians feel – and we aren’t alone in this – is that what the schools primarily need is librarians to support them. A librarian’s knowledge of texts gives them a strength from which to develop opportunities for a child to connect with the texts that support their life experience and identity as a reader and a writer. A confident explorer of texts can become a reader willing to connect with perspectives different from their own, thereby developing empathic understanding, developing the ability to be compassionate and improve their communication skills with others. Teachers need the extra input from professionals, who can make informed choices about which books the school needs, and who have time to plan and run various activities throughout the year. Whether the school has this support one day a week, sharing the professional support with other primary schools nearby – a scheme which is very successfully run by Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service for instance – or whether they opt for using the money for a professional in school for most of their school day would be up to them. School Library Services, given this money, will be able to make it stretch a long way and support many schools
A Winter 2025
beyond simply giving them a pile of new books. Schools could have parent volunteers whom they support in gaining a more professional qualification through Certification, (using some of the money to pay for this), and to encourage their volunteers to attend school librarian training sessions.
We believe that once schools have understood the value that school librarians and other professionals, such as SLSs bring, they will fight to keep the funding going way beyond next year, instead of simply having a new injection of money for books which will slowly become worn and outdated. A professional can work alongside teaching staff or the Literacy Co-ordinator to plan and implement a scheme to raise reading levels or run reading programmes in schools (which I know many school librarians already do).
Dr Margaret Merga in her article ‘How do librarians in schools support struggling readers?’ tells us that “UK findings suggest that in ‘effective’ primary and secondary schools ‘libraries and well trained specialist librarians had a positive impact on teaching and learning’, and that ‘librarians were involved directly in programmes to support reading including the promotion of reading groups’ (Ofsted 2006). Librarians in schools in the UK may also play a pivotal role in literacy interventions for struggling readers (e.g. Gorard, Siddiqui, and See).” It is not too far-fetched, therefore, to say that the most effective use of the Government’s money for the National Year of Reading is not to put more books in schools, but to give every school access to a trained professional, whether that is through an SLS or through training up or appointing a professional librarian for every school, both primary and secondary. IP
References
Merga, M. K. (2019). How do librarians in schools support struggling readers? English in Education, 53(2), 145–160.
https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2018.1558030
Ofsted. 2006. Good School Libraries: Making a Difference to Learning. London: HMSO.
Gorard, S., N. Siddiqui, and B. H. See. 2015. “An Evaluation of the ‘Switch-On Reading’ Literacy Catch-Up Programme.” British Educational Research Journal 41 (4): 596–612. doi:10.1002/berj.3157
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL 27
A librarian’s knowledge of texts gives them a strength from which to develop opportunities for a child to connect with the texts that support their life experience and identity as a reader and a writer.
Caroline Roche, MA, HonFCLIP, Chair, CILIPSLG
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