Headteachers and senior leadership teams - do you really understand the value of your school library?
There are many reports and research papers that show how a school library with a professional librarian can make a difference. This could be a typical story of one school library and three headteachers, drawn together from various real-life experiences.
A new school
Put yourself in the shoes of the headteacher at a new school. At its heart will be an amazing school library.
You hire a full-time school librarian to make your vision a reality. The librarian sets about creating the best school library imaginable, ensuring that teachers, students and parents are all involved. Everyone is very excited about this new space.
The National Strategy for Scotland and the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) School Library Guidelines are digested and a library programme is put in place. The school librarian will support:
Over the next few years, the school library becomes a special place. The librarian works closely with teachers and students. Literacy levels and research skills are high. Reading-promotion events are a high priority, while the school librarian regularly helps teaching staff plan lessons and is always on hand to support.
It soon becomes obvious that the school librarian needs help in the day-to-day running of the library, so you employ a termtime library assistant.
Every teacher has the school library in their planning and works closely with the librarian. Resources are up to date and everyone recognises this valuable service. The budget is healthy, resources are well used, and it’s a vibrant and safe community space. The school librarian is respected by teachers and students alike.
A new opportunity arises for you as headteacher, but your school is in a great place and you are sure it will continue to thrive without you.
A new headteacher
You are the new headteacher and do not understand the value of the school library. You need to find savings and can’t understand why the library is given so much. You cut the budget. The librarian is unable to sustain the healthy stock it once had. You do not encourage anyone to use the library and decide to let the library assistant go. The number of teachers using the library drops. Literacy and research skills begin to deteriorate.
The school librarian, feeling undervalued, moves on. You see another opportunity to save money and employ only a termtime library assistant. The school decides it needs to do something more about literacy levels so buys in a reading scheme, and the library assistant’s time is now completely taken up in the administration of this - no time for book clubs, book awards or work with any other teacher.
You need to save money again and decide that the reading scheme is too expensive. The library assistant now has very little to do. The stock is old, everyone uses the internet these days anyway, so you make another funding decision: you close the school library.
However, literacy levels continue to fall. Many students do not have books at home and now they don’t have access to books at school either. Research skills are worse now: students are just regurgitating information. Many students don’t have access to computers or the internet from home so are struggling to do their homework.
Covid and lockdowns strike and the reality hits of having no school library. Your students are struggling. You see the amazing work school librarians are doing in other schools. Something is missing that is desperately needed.
Another new headteacher
You are the new headteacher brought in to help things improve. You notice that there is no school library. You have read an article by Richard Gerver, a former headteacher and the president of the School Library Association, who wrote a piece called Why the school library was my first investment. He says: “Teaching all children, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, how to access valid, trusted information from books and online, and to interrogate what they are being told, has never been more important.”
You feel inspired and begin to hatch a plan to create an outstanding library with the help of your school community.
You employ a librarian to help shape your vision. If you want the best, you recognise you will need to find the money for it. You begin to put together a team of enthusiastic teachers and make one of your senior leaders responsible for the school library.
Your library resources are up to date now. and students and staff are using the library. You have visiting authors, your students are beginning to win awards for research and your Advanced Higher results are improving. You see the difference the school library can make in your students’ and teachers’ lives.
All headteachers should know that their school library is a powerful tool. And school libraries should be available to all students and teachers - not just a select few.
Elizabeth Hutchinson is a chartered librarian and trainer for school libraries, who has blogged about challenges facing school librarians in Scotland
