CILIP, the CILIP School Libraries Group and the School Library Association regularly review our COVID-19 guidance to schools. We are glad that the guidance has been useful for thousands of school librarians as they support their students and school communities through the process of planning for classroom-based teaching.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) solicited further advice from Public Health England on our behalf in February concerning the risk from materials in light of new variants of the coronavirus. PHE have responded to say that “There is currently no evidence of increased or possible transmission from goods associated with the new variant of COVID-19. Current published advice remains unchanged.”

Based on this advice, our guidance for school librarians relating to quarantining of books and materials handling remains unchanged. We will continue to liaise with PHE and DCMS and will continue to amend our guidance accordingly.

COVID-19 Guidance for School Libraries

CILIP Coronavirus Information Service