Initial draft for discussion
Campaign for the book
Charter 2008
The 2008 Year of Reading has been a great success. There have been many exciting initiatives such as the Boys into Books campaign. In many ways, reading has never been more popular. Millions of books are bought and devoured by a huge reading public. Many authors are major figures in public life.
These successes can disguise very serious problems however which are undermining the place of the book and reading for pleasure in national life. Here are some of the challenges we face:
*public library closures- sixty last year and more planned
*a loss of professional library staff- down 13% between 1995 and 2005
*more untrained volunteers instead of qualified library staff
*fewer books in schools, a 15% reduction while there has been 28% rise in spending on education
*a shift from books to computer services
*the closure of school libraries to make way for IT suites
*the sacking or down grading of both public and school librarians
*the closure of school libraries
*the marginalisation of reading for pleasure and the reading of whole books in many schools as teaching to the test replaces the pleasure of acquiring knowledge for its own sake
Given the present economic difficulties, many of these challenges are likely to become more pressing.
We, the signatories of this Charter commit ourselves to campaigning for the following:
1. The central place of reading for pleasure in society
2. A proper balance of book provision and Information Technology in public and school libraries
3. The defence of public libraries and librarians from attempts to cut spending in a ‘soft’ area
4. An extension of the role of the school librarian and a recognition of the school library as a key engine of learning.
5. The recruitment of more school librarians. It is a national scandal that less than a third of secondary schools has a trained librarian
6. The defence of the professional status of the public and school librarian. Opposition to downgrading. In some places this has reduced librarians’ salaries by up to half
7. The promotion of reading whole books in school rather than excerpts
8. A higher profile for reading for pleasure in schools, including shadowing book awards, inviting authors and illustrators to visit, developing school creative writing magazines
Supporters of the Campaign for the Book do not see themselves as competitors with professional associations, trade unions and existing library or school campaigns. We seek to create a national network to help coordinate the efforts of all who want to protect the status of the book and reading for pleasure. We will offer our support to local campaigns and initiatives.
It is time to stand up for reading.
It is time to campaign for the book.
For further information contact Alan Gibbons at: aagibbons@blueyonder.co.uk
Entries (RSS)
August 9th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I should very much like to support this campaign. I am particularly appreciative of the inclusion of school librarians and school libraries. How do we sign up to the campaign?
Elizabeth Bentley
Moderator for School Librarians’ Network
School Librarians Network is a forum where UK school librarians (and
MROs and support staff) can exchange news, views and ideas and give
each other mutual support.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Elizabeth,
Thank you for your support. I will add your name to the statement when it is formally launched in September as schools and colleges return.
Please circulate the statement to all your colleagues.
Best wishes,
Alan Gibbons
August 11th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Please add my name to your list as well, if you are signing up ‘ordinary’ school librarians as well!
August 12th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
\Please add my name to your campaign. On my author visits into primary schools I see many wonderful school libraries and meet dedicated school librarians. There should be more of them not fewer as they are vital in nuturing children’s love of books.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I am so heartened by your Campaign for the book.
At Poole we are an underfunded Library Service that has received National acclaim
for its achievements in the last few years. Hard won I have to say by totally dedicated
employees. The Council whilst patting themselves on the back for the acclaim we have received
have made major cutbacks in our service.
We have fought tooth and nail to retain our fantastic Central Childrens Library but have been forced
to reduce the area by one floor, saving rental, thus reducing both the Childrens Library, Book stock
and IT Suite.
In the face of this we are expected to remain positive after what can only be described as an act
of vandalism.
What price can be placed on the ability to read, to learn, to grow?
August 19th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Lin,
You sum up perfectly the raison d’etre for the campaign. Would you like to add your name?
Best wishes,
Alan Gibbons
August 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Positively yes and than-you.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
You have my wholehearted support, too.
I have worked in a public library for over 10 years and seen a decline in funding, deskilling of the service and cuts to both the number and pay of professional librarians. As you point out, libraries are seen as a soft target and are often the target of short-sighted ’savings’. At the same time, we are taking on more community outreach activities and partnership working with other organisations. The Council obviously needs us, relies on our excellent reputation and public accessiibilty but seems reluctant to grant the funding needed for a modern, professional service.
It would be lovely to restore more focus to books rather than IT. Both have their strengths and place but I strongly believe the book fulfils needs that computers can’t.
Thankyou so much for starting this campaign. It’s good to know that people outside the service are aware of the issues we face and that they care about what’s happening.
Please add my name to your list and I will circulate your statement to all the other public libraries in Somerset. Hope it’s a fair swap!
August 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Please add my signature to your campaign. I wholeheartedly support it.
Lynne Coppendale, BA (Hons), DipIS, MCLIP. i.e. Chartered Librarian working in schools.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Thank-you Alan, please add my name and I will pass
the information on to some friends.
Lin
August 21st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Please add my name too. Very sad at what is happening in libraries.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 am
Brilliant Charter. I am sure many in the Workers’ Educational Association would wish to sign up to it. I certainly do.
I have recently renewed my membership of the local library and it’s fantastic. It’s a public service that must be defended but, as you so clearly point out, is slowly and inexorably being cut back. Whatever became of ‘education, education, education’ which, perhaps rather naively I suppose, should include greater access to books and more, not less, professional support from librarians, who in turn should be properly rewarded for their contribution to the public good. Please add me to the list of supporters.
Jol Miskin
WEA Tutor Organiser, Sheffield
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
I wholeheartedly support this campaign. Please add my name to the statement.
As a regular library user I appreciate how important they are for our communities.
Sue Taylor
Workers’ Educational Association
Sheffield
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:08 am
Excellent and timely initiative - please add my name.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I’m a less regular library user than I should be (though my two young children both make very regular use of Oxford’s public libraries), but I fully recognise their essential place in society (both my parents are professional librarians - recently retired - and I’ve seen the problems the service faces at first hand): it’s a scandal that they’re being so squeezed. Please add my name to the statement.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Please add my name to this campaign. I am fighting hard to get library provision for young people in an inner-city ward of high social deprivation in Oxford, where the level of educational achievement is in the lowest 10% of the country. The best we can hope for is a tiny pot of developer money for outreach library provision which may well be vired elsewhere in the County, and there is no funding for qualified staff to administer this service. As a professional librarian working in HE, as a UNISON steward, and as a Lib Dem City Councillor I would be very happy to sign up for this - the young people in Rose Hill need a safe place for lifelong learning, and where better to start than a local, well-stocked library with IT equipment that provides them with books and e-books that could empower them to access a far greater range of employment opportunities than are possible right now
September 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
And so say all of us. I’m pleased to say that on saturday 18th October I’ll be at the opening of a new library in Wickersley, Rotherham - a partnership between the Council and a local community centre - small beer perhaps but a little buck in the trend and a model perhaps to waft at the cutters and hewers. Let’s make National Poetry Day - October 9th -’Defence of Libraries’ day as well. All the best Ray Hearne, writer, singer and loudmouth.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Ray,
Thanks. Great to hear some good news.
Best wishes,
Alan Gibbons
September 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The world is a far better place as a result of books. You have my total support.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:19 am
When I was a child, I devoured many books in the children’s section of the library, especially books by English authors, among them Rosemary Sutcliffe, Enid Blyton, A.A. Milne, and Lewis Carroll. It saddens me that my 11-year-old nephew does not read, not even the Harry Potter books, although he likes the films.
I wish that American schools did not make students read 19th-century fiction. That turns them off. In my school we read Silas Marner and Tess of the D’urbervilles when we were too young to appreciate them. In my free time, I read books by J.D. Salinger and Kafka.
I’ve taught college courses that I think of as Reading for Pleasure: adventure novels, detective fiction, the fiction of espionage. The espionage fiction course included The 39 Steps, The Riddle of the Sands, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The detective fiction started with Vidoc and included fiction by Poe, Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Ruth Rendell, and P.D. James. One of the adventure novels was B. Traven’s The Death Ship.
The students were unaccustomed to reading for the fun of it. I hope I got them all hooked. But my nephew, a well-spoken boy, seems intractable.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:20 am
When I was a child, I devoured many books in the children’s section of the library, especially books by English authors, among them Rosemary Sutcliffe, Enid Blyton, A.A. Milne, and Lewis Carroll. It saddens me that my 11-year-old nephew does not read, not even the Harry Potter books, although he likes the films.
I wish that American schools did not make students read 19th-century fiction. That turns them off. In my school we read Silas Marner and Tess of the D’urbervilles when we were too young to appreciate them. In my free time, I read books by J.D. Salinger and Kafka.
I’ve taught college courses that I think of as Reading for Pleasure: adventure novels, detective fiction, the fiction of espionage. The espionage fiction course included The 39 Steps, The Riddle of the Sands, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The detective lit. course started with Vidoc and included stories and novels by Poe, Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Ruth Rendell, and P.D. James. One of the adventure novels was B. Traven’s The Death Ship.
The students were unaccustomed to reading for the fun of it. I hope I got them all hooked. But my nephew, a well-spoken boy, seems intractable.
September 17th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Books do more than furnish a room, they furnish a mind.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Dear Alan
Thank you for starting this campaign. When I used to work for Cape Town City Libraries, every library had a separate children’s library and at least one dedicated children’s librarian. That should be the standard for all libraries in the UK.
Please add my name to your campaign and let me know if there is anything else I can do in support.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I’m wholeheartedly in favour of your charter and wonder what progress you have made with it since September. I would very much like to have my name added. My interest is in school libraries and in funding for teaching assistants to improve what their school library can offer pupils.
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I give my full support to this campaign.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Hi Alan,
thank you so much for this campaign. I have fought hard for 5 years now and finally for the first time in its history, my school is investing in libraries, building two new ones, employing more library staff and integrating information literacy into the curriculum. Having said that, I think there are many teachers and managers who don’t quite see WHY we need to teach reading and using books when we have LOADS of computers in school. So we need national campaigns like this one! I could not have done my job if it wasn’t for clever people like you who provide fantastic ammunition.
PLease add my name to your list.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Please add my name to this campaign. As a librarian with Library Sevices for Education in Leicestershire I am becomign increasingly concerned by the dwindling number of qualified librarians in secondary schools and the marginalisation of the library in many schools and colleges. Computers have a valid place in these libraries but so do books and reading! With such a wonderful breadth of novels published for children at the moment the library should take a prominent position in every school in the UK.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I agree with your charter and would like my name to be added to the list
October 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I agree with the charter. Please add my name to your list.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Please add my name. This morning at work I had one of those ‘this is why I wanted to be a librarian’ moments - talking to and helping a woman who has only recently started reading. It had taken great courage for her to come into a library but she’d found the Quick Reads and had started to read them. Now she wanted something else. Tim Coates is wrong to say that trained librarians only sit in offices. It’s not what I trained for and despite the wishes of some of my colleagues I refuse to do it. This woman told me that coming into a library is her Wednesday treat now.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Has the campaign been launched yet?
I am a School Librarian (or Learning Resources Manager as I am now called!) and would like to add my name to the petition
October 16th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Please add my name to the petition. I am a school librarian and am worried about the reduction in use of the non fiction collections in libraries due to ‘googling’. I can see this leading to a reduction in budget allocation. I have only recently started to work in school libraries and would be grateful if anyone can point me in the direction of further reading on the subject.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Please add my name. I’ve worked in school libraries in London since the 1980s, when there was a policy that every secondary school should have a qualified librarian & a well-funded library. Once the individual boroughs became took the schools on, funding for books started to dwindle - in fact, my budget remained the same for nearly 20 years & I had to write to educational charities to beg for money!
Working in an independent school, I now have a very generous budget & enjoy being able to do my job properly & provide a well-stocked library. However, I know from past experience that many kids in state schools do not have access to books at home and believe access to libraries should be a right, not a privilege.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Please add my name. I’ve worked in school libraries in London since the 1980s, when there was a policy that every secondary school should have a qualified librarian & a well-funded library. Once the individual boroughs took the schools on, funding for books started to dwindle - in fact, my budget remained the same for nearly 20 years & I had to write to educational charities to beg for money!
Working in an independent school, I now have a very generous budget & enjoy being able to do my job properly & provide a well-stocked library. However, I know from past experience that many kids in state schools do not have access to books at home and believe access to libraries should be a right, not a privilege.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:38 am
I am looking for some idea and stumble upon your posting
decide to wish you Thanks. Eugene
October 29th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Hello Alan
Please do add my name to your campaign and let me know if there is anything specific you would like me to do with the student teachers I’m in contact with through Read to Inspire. In the first instance, I’ll be directing them to your website and supplying copies of your draft charter for discussion.
Thank you for mobilising everyone on behalf of the book and more importantly future readers.
Best wishes,
Nikki
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
[…] and he is spearheading a campaign against library cuts in the UK. You can find details of his Campaign for the Book on his own blog, where you’ll find out how you can get involved in supporting this fantastic […]
November 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Dear Alan,
Please add my name too. It is great that you are spearheading this. Before I began working in a school I was a children’s librarian in a London borough and very proud that my library was the only one where children’s issues were increasing. When I left, they chose to save money and not replace me for a year, thus - I felt - undoing all the hard work which had gone before. I understand the frustration of librarians across all sectors and feel that in the National Year of Reading it is a disgrace that we are having to fight for libraries and librarians in this way.
Thanks for mobilising the troops!
Min Edmonds
November 5th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Min,
I can only echo your comments and endorse them with all my heart.
Thank you,
Alan Gibbons
November 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Although not a qualified librarian I heartily support your campaign. I have spent the last sixteen years creating a secondary school library that encourages reading for pleasure and provides information for everyone and is very well used. Had I found time I would have enjoyed obtaining the qualifications but encouraging the use of the library and reading has been my main priority. It is an uphill struggle to keep improvements ongoing when budgets are tightening and the powers that be fail to recognise the need for school libraries to be central to reading and learning.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Please add my name! I’ve been a school librarian since the 1970’s and worked in several schools in Bedfordshire. Recently we have endured single status regrading since when Head Teachers can employ unchartered staff for very little money. In the last two years we have lost shelf space to computers and my budget this year has been cut by a third - in fact now half the amount I was receiving in 2001. One of our clerical assistants has not been replaced while the support staff in the rest of the school is increasing. I still hope to invite authors to school but will be able to buy fewer books! Meanwhile the library is thriving at break and lunchtimes - heaving with students and queues to come in!
November 9th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Alan
I’d like to offer my support. I’ve followed the progress of this campaign on SLN for many months and some of the stories are horrifying. As manager of a secondary school library for a comprehensive school for over 12 years I have seen attitudes to libraries (public and school) wax and wane. We live in exciting times surrounded by enormous opportunities. With the right support our children can benefit from the wealth of information at their fingertips. Without the necessary support they will drown in a sea of useless facts.
Good School librarians can inspire children to break into new worlds by pointing them towards the rich array of fiction at their disposal and bringing them face to face with the never more approachable teen authors. They can pass on the key to lifelong learning by teaching and reinforcing the information literacy skills that will allow the child’s natural love of learning to prosper into adulthood and beyond. It should be an entitlement, not a lottery, for every child to grow in this way.
Without school librarians children can still learn the literary merits of the class reading book and copy and paste their homework. A poor substitute indeed for the real thing!
November 13th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Hi Alan,
It’s been while since we met at the Salford Book Awards, don’t know if you remember me.
I just saw the article about your campaign in today’s Bookseller and wanted to offer my support. I particularly empathise with:
“The closure of school libraries to make way for IT suites.”
At one school I visited earlier in the year, the library books were in a tiny space at the back of the library behind banks of new computers. You had to go up on a ladder to access most of them.
The librarian was an old sweetie and clearly very upset about this. Her borrowing figures were down by 75% since the computers were installed and she had a book budget of zero. She described her headmaster as, ‘Not really a book person!’
Do get in touch if you think there’s any way I can help with your campaign,
Robert Muchamore
mail@cherubcampus.com
November 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
a late post, but I thought worth pointing out that while schools and universities invest millions in virtual learning, books and guided reading can do the job better, cheaper, more energy efficiently, more portably, more….
November 26th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Please add my name to the list. As a librarian in an 11-18 comprehensive school, the most enjoyable part of my job is promoting reading for pleasure. I am fortunate enough to work in a school that values its library and supports and funds it accordingly. I hope this campaign will help to raise the profile of school libraries and the great work carried out by school librarians.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Please add my name to the list. As a librarian in an 11-18 comprehensive school, the most enjoyable part of my job is promoting reading for pleasure. I am fortunate enough to work in a school that values its library and supports and funds it accordingly. I hope this campaign will help to raise the profile of school libraries and the great work carried out by school librarians.
Anne Woodworth
ILC Manager
SLA Lancashire Branch Committee Member
November 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Comments from the holder of the keys
I am very passionate about my job as a School Librarian and wanted to share these comments with you. Luckily I work in a school that cherishes reading and libraries. With the support of my colleagues the library (LRC) is a vibrant happening place where secondary students come to read during break and lunchtime. I feel the LRC is a safe haven where being creative and thinking outside the box is valued and for this reason we always have projects on the go, for example calligraphy, christmas decorations, film making etc. I find the students who do not read at first will slowly come round to books if the atmosphere is warm and book friendly. Student library assistants play a big part in deciding what books are bought for the library making it the students library and not entirely decided on by adults.
Modern technology has its place in school libraries for example during antibullying week I was able to use podcasts from the antibullying website and then read an extract from a fiction book during a library lesson. Today it is important to show students how to navigate their way through technology for research and to weigh up when it is quicker to use a book than the internet. Books are great and so is modern technology and the two can compliment each other well. There are some great initiatives to encourage students to read for example ‘Booked Up’ these schemes provide a wealth of material to work with and generate enthusiasm in reading.
Maybe we need to put libraries back in public places like train stations, shopping precincts and sports centres to make reading more accessible. I did not learn to read until I was nine and can remember the frustration of not understanding the jumble of letters. Thank the Lord for Enid Blyton who eventually got me going and gave me a love of books that has never faded. To me encouraging a student to enjoy reading is giving them the greatest gift for the whole of their life as books have saved me from all the emotional turbulence of marriage, child rearing and divorce. Reading is a quiet communicating and connecting with others and ourselves and keeps us emotional sane. Reading is yoga for the mind. Who in their right mind would ever stop the promotion of libraries and books if they wish to keep their community mentally positive with the ability to problem solve and generate new ideas.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I have worked as a librarian in a secondary school since 1994. In the early years of this government schools were really encouraged to promote literacy and as a result books and reading were given a high profile in my school. More recently schools have been too busy jumping through other hoops and literacy is no longer viewed as a priority. School leaders will only put money into their libraries and put reading back at the top of their agenda when Ofsted ask the right questions. They need to enquire about library budgets, library borrowing figures and ask what the schools do to encourage reading. The government must lead the way. So please add my name to this campaign.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
This is a very important contribution. It is very important for Ofsted to inspect the profile of reading for pleasure in schools but it is a responsibility it manifestly shirks.
Alan Gibbons
December 15th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I would like to propose an additional argument for not only the preservation but the increase of libraries. In a time of reduced resources of every kind it is obvious that one way to preserve access to a part of our culture that is both necessary and expensive — literature, knowledge and information — is by sharing. As it becomes more expensive in terms of trees to produce printed matter, energy to run computers and money to pay for it all, sharing will become more and more important. If ever there were an established institution, with infrastructure well defined and experts trained, that is a centre of resource sharing, it is the library. If ever there were a part of the community that is green, it is the library. We should not be talking only of saving libraries, we should be demanding that there be more.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Alan will you please add my name to the list of signatures in this campaign?
Please keep up the good work ,
Marie Evans
December 16th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Hear hear, Anne. Couldn’t agree more.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Hi Alan,
Please add my name to the list. Campaign for the book is a great idea. I wholeheartedly agree with the comments about Ofsted, it seems libraries and reading for pleasure don’t even feature on their radar when they definately should.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Rachel,
I will add you to the list. I tried to put your email address on my address book but it bounced back. Any idea why?
Alan Gibbons
December 29th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Dear Alan,
Saw your letter in The Author. I write a monthly column called “Publishing Snippets” (I didn’t choose the title!) in Writing Magazine, and devote a lot of space to the very issues that concern you. So of course I support and am eager to sign up to your campaign. I shall be writing about it (briefly) in the April issue of Writing Magazine, directing readers to your website.
More power to you!
Michael
January 9th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Please add my name to the list. I am a Learning Resource Centre Manager at a school in Derby. I love promoting reading for pleasure and learning. However, I am worried about the reduction of the non-fiction collections due to the internet. I really enjoy my job and |I feel the School Library to be central to reading and learning.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Dear Alan,
Please add my name to the list of your supporters.
I am the LRC manager for a large comprehensive school in Barry - no Gavin and Stacey jokes please!
Our headteacher is very supportive of the LRC as are many of the teaching staff.
With reference to the reduction in children using non-fiction books, I feel that it could also down to the teaching staff not knowing which resources are in their library, something I intend to rectify this year.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:31 pm
A huge thank you on behalf of residents of Wirral for all Campaign for the Book is doing to oppose library closures in our borough.
Wirral Council has made it plain how little it understands or values libraries and staff morale is very low so support from Alan and fellow campaigners has been invaluable. The fight goes on.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I live in the Wirral and wanted to thank you for supporting us, especially the school librarians for the SLN and Alan Gibbons.
I wish that there was a better way to get this message around though. Do the national papers know about the extent of public libraries closing in this area? Can we use Facebook? What about celebrities who are from the Wirral? Mike Mcartney, Paul O’grady, John Branes. Anyone know if they would help??
Its ironic that Liverpool was the Capital Of Culture and 4 miles down the road, our Culture, in Wirral is disappearing! We have to pay to visit the City of Culture through the Mersey Tunnel only to see that Liverpool Council are spending millions on preserving the wonderful Picton Library (as they should)
Please support us!!!!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I worked for twenty years for a local authority who then decided to restructure (a money-saving exercise) and remove all qualified staff from branches, putting clerical staff in charge. We were then deployed to travel from branch to branch doing stock work. Because of this I lost my enjoyment of the job and decided I’d had enough. For the past seven years I have been happily employed as a school librarian at my local secondary school.
My school does see the library as essential to the teaching and learning in the school and we are usually buzzing from before school in the morning to the homework club after school. We have a thriving reading club and issues are rising year on year. I actively promote and encourage reading, but also engage in ICT initiatives. I have been encouraged by a deputy head to take part in the ICT working group with the setup of a VLE in the school. We have to embrace new technology and be seen to use our skills in this so that schools will not even think of replacing us. Please add my name to your campaign for the book and I’d like info on the summer conference too please.
Incidentally, the same authority that I left has invited me to take a group of pupils to a library supplier to select some books for a new library which is about to open in our area!
January 27th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Sharon,
I am delighted that you now have a more satisfactory professional life as a school librarian. Your story sums up what our Campaign is all about, the managed symbiosis of the new and old technologies and the preservation of reading for pleasure as a key activity. I will send you details of the conference by personal email.
Best wishes,
Alan Gibbons
February 4th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Sign me up please.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I thought you would like to know that the school that I work in as a librarian has taken the decision to close the school library from Easter and make me redundant. In the eleven years that I have been the librarian at Ryde High School on the Isle of Wight the school itself has not had a fund for the purchase of books, the only new books have been those that have come from government initiatives like the recent “Boys into Books” and books bought out of my own pocket. The government might be making all the right noises about books and reading but increasing numbers of school senior management are taking the view that books and libraries are unnecessary.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with the aims of The Campaign for the Book. Please add my name to the list of signatories. What worries me is the mindset of those whose attitudes made it vital to set up the campaign.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I’m a poet who often uses haiku to create interest in poetry as well as reading and/or writing other poetry.
Books are still incredible ‘vehicles’ even in the 21st Century and often fuel groundbreaking advances in non-related areas. Basically books are fantastic catalysts in our lives! I am also working on my first children’s novel. Books give so much richness in a person’s life whether they are 8 months, 8 years, or 80 plus years old; books are amazing.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Alan, please add my name to your campaign. As an author I obviously have a vested interest. But, as an individual and as a parent, I have serious concerns about the decline in real literacy in the country. Teachers are being robbed of the opportunity to foster a love of reading and of books by a need to stick to a corriculum that denies the true purpose of education. Cramming pupils with facts, instead of teaching them the value and joy of learning, makes them resistant to garnering knowledge for its own sake. The decline of libraries deprives many readers of their only source of both information and pleasure. The computer has its place, but not everyone has, or ever will have, access to the electronic interface. In any case, I suspect the holding of a book in the hands will always be a better experience for most than simply gazing at a screen full of words. All power to your campaign, Alan.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Dear Alan
Please add my name to your list. I’ve worked in school libraries all my life, ( quite a long time) and think they definitley need preserving. They are lively, vibrant places which should inspire a love of reading whether in a traditional book or on the net. Keep up the good work.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Please add my name to your campaign. I strongly agree with everything included in your Charter.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Please add my name to the list. I was at the SLG conference at the weekend and heard you speak there, and I am only embarassed I have not added my name before! Totally agree with everything said. Keep up the pressure!
April 17th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Please add my name to the list. I have been a school librarian for many years and think libraries need support as it seems like a constant battle to simply keep going. I fully agree with everything in the Charter. Good luck
April 29th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Please add my name too. Alan, you have visited our school library. When I go back and see the library and how busy it is, I realise what a good job I must have been doing, but it never felt like that when I was there. You are very alone and little recognised. And librarian posts in schools are disappearing. The school where I was is good and there is a great head of English and support for reading, but it hasn’t always been like that, and it can all so easily be lost because someone leaves, or because the government says jump somewhere else.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Please add my name to the list. I thought I was well aware of the problems facing libraries (I live not far from the Wirral) but I was shocked when I read about the issues you describe. I was lucky to have great libraries in both primary and secondary school, but I recognise the problem with only teaching narrow excerpts from books rather than the whole thing.
I wholeheartedly support everything your charter stands for. Keep up the great work.
Best of luck
Phil
May 14th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Please add my name. There is now scientific evidence that reading, particularly literature/fiction, benefits the human brain.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Please add my name to the open letter supporting the statutory requirement for a school library.
I feel that our young people often struggle in choosing books. They think they don’t like reading when they just haven’t found the right book yet. I think this is a quote from Alex Williams.
A professional librarian can help and guide them in their choice.
It should be their right to have acess to a library specially aimed at their age group.
I wish you every success in the Campaign.
Linda
June 24th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Thank you so much for initiating this Campaign. You have my total support so please add my name to the open letter.
The post code lottery with regard to the provision and staffing of school libraries is a national disgrace. I am a Chartered Librarian managing a school library. I love my job, which offers great opportunities to support, inspire and motivate young people but I am incredibly frustrated by the contraints under which so many librarians in schools have to operate. Of particular concern is the lack of recognition by school managers and governors about the role of the librarian, inadequate staffing levels, low status of librarians and reduced budgets.
You are right to seek a proper balance between books and ICT. In my current role I embrace both and have strengthened my position in school by being fully involved in the team that is developing our VLE. At the same time I organise reading groups, author visits and a whole range of other reading promotions to foster reading for pleasure and as a result my school library is usually buzzing with activity. However, I could be earning far more to do the same job in another part of the country.
Well done for bringing this great Campaign to the fore! I’m sure you will get masses of support.
Liz
July 6th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
[…] founder of pro-library group Campaign for the Book, recently led a delegation of noted children’s authors, library leaders, and publishers asking […]
July 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Please add my name to your campaign. I have worked in school libraries since 1974, as a Chartered Librarian and recently as a dually qualified Teacher-Librarian, and I have just retired from a Lewisham school. In the last two years I have seen what is possible where a new headteacher gives full support, status, funding and staffing to create a Learning Resource Centre which is at the heart of reading and learning. All students deserve that in their schools - in fact, it should be made compulsory! I am pleased that I had the chance to be part of that before the end of my career.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
[…] Forum is shortly to have an electronic debate, initiated by the School Libraries Group, re the Campaign for the Book initiative and the online petition to campaign for statutory school libraries for England & […]
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I’d like to whole-heartedly offer my support to this campaign.
I work as Librarian at a High School and I absolutely love my job. I’m in the very fortunate position of having a Senior Leadership Team who have fully supported my push for a total refurbishment of our school library. During the summer holidays a scheme of works was undertaken which has seen our Library transformed from a drab and dreary space which was full of tables and chairs and old computers with a few bookselves on the periphery to a beautiful, thoughtfully designed Library. incorporating ICT and study areas. We have more than doubled our book stocks in the past twelve months and have installed a new computerised library management system. It is a pleasure to come to work and see the students sitting reading and enjoying the experience. It should be the same in all schools!
November 26th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Hi Alan,
I am reading (THE EDGE) and I’m coming to the end of it.
I just wanted to ask if you were thinking of making a movie?
Chloe Williams
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Hi Alan, please add my name to the campaign too.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Alan
Having just read your article in The teacher, I couldn’t fail to sign on the dotted line. I am the Lead Literacy Consultant in Coventry working with Primary schools. We are incredibly lucky to have an amazing School Library Service run by an inspirational children’s librarian. We work closely with our library colleagues, they share the sort of knowledge about books that I can only dream of. Reading opens up a wide world of imagination. It is a right for every child across the land to sit on the floor in a library and choose a book, read a story, share and experience, listen to a story and begin a life long love of books.
Charlotte
January 27th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Hi Alan
As the current SLA School Librarian of the Year and a Primary School Librarian, I wanted to congratulate you on the fantastic campaign for Statutory School Libraries. At Primary level I can see the great importance of reading, especially for boys. At Primary we are at the beginning of where children begin to learn, where they begin to develop their imaginations, knowledge and vocabulary and where information handling skillsare first taught. Without an effective school library many children are not being given the chance to become information literate, making the Secondary School Librarians job even harder.
If there is anything I can do to support you please do not hesitate to contact me.
Lucy
February 9th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
[…] words expressing passionate commitment to the library service. Subsequently, a supporter of the Campaign for the Book has pointed out that when, last year, a local Tory council proposed to shut down the popular Old […]