CILIP President Biddy Fisher calls on the PM to make school libraries statutory. Read the press release and the open letter she sent to Gordon Brown.
CILIP has called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to exercise national leadership by demanding that school libraries with qualified librarians should be made a statutory duty. This initiative follows widespread dissatisfaction among CILIP’s members with the negative response made to an online petition on the Number 10 website calling for this statutory provision.
The Government’s response stated “The provision of school libraries is not a statutory requirement, and we have no plans to change the current legislation to make it so.”
This prompted CILIP President Biddy Fisher to write an open letter to the Prime Minister stating: “Good school libraries and their librarians are an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Just as it is a statutory duty to employ qualified teachers and deliver the National Curriculum, so it should be a statutory duty to provide school libraries with qualified librarians as an essential part of every child’s entitlement to a decent education”.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals has more than 21,000 members, and its School Libraries Group has taken the lead on this issue. With their active support, CILIP has also recently invited the Education Spokespersons of the three main political parties to commit to holding a national seminar on the role of school libraries should they become the next Government and investigate whether they should be made statutory.
This demand is just one of six priorities identified in CILIP’s Manifesto 2010. It sets out specific action the next Government should take to ensure that the high-quality library and information provision delivered by skilled and committed practitioners continues and improves. The Manifesto will be sent to all General Election candidates and will be used by CILIP activists during the election campaign.
The full text of the CILIP President’s letter to the Prime Minister is available on the CILIP website at: www.cilip.org.uk/letter-pm
Details about CILIP's support of the Campaign for the Book's Make School Libraries Statutory Campaign is also available on the CILIP website at: www.cilip.org.uk/statutory
ends
Press contact:
Guy Daines, Director, Policy and Advocacy
Tel: 020 7255 0632
email: guy.daines@cilip.org.uk
or
Kasey Butler, Corporate Marketing Manager
Tel: 020 7255 0653
email: kasey.butler@cilip.org.uk
Notes to editors:
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. It forms a community of around 36,000 people engaged in library and information work, of whom around 21, 000 are CILIP members and around 15,000 are regular customers of CILIP Enterprises. Visit www.cilip.org.uk for more information about CILIP.