Bob's Blog - from the desk of CILIP's Chief Executive

Back to schools

2010-03-17T11:51:00Z

Well, the government may not value school libraries but former government Minister Estelle Morris (now ennobled as Baroness Morris of Yardley) certainly does. That's why she's chairing the Commission into the Future of School Libraries co-sponsored by MLA and the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and that's why, as part of the Commission's work, she chaired the "round table for key national figures" which took place yesterday afternoon.

As you would expect, the usual suspects were round the table including SLA, ASCEL, TRA, MLA, NLT, etc as well as CILIP (me) and CILIP's School Libraries Group (Sue Shaper). And also school library campaigner Alan Gibbons, still buzzing after his Monday evening appearance on Newsnight.

Estelle chaired the meeting deftly (sorry but she's such a nice and down-to-earth person that I can't get my head round calling her "Baroness"), steering the discussion around the various "lines of enquiry" established by the Commission and asking politely challenging questions. The "lines of enquiry" were clustered for the purposes of the discussion into four main areas of interest: the outcomes to which school libraries can contribute; the resources and the partnerships needed to achieve those outcomes; and the opportunities for libraries in the changing landscape of education.

Happily, there was as much discussion about librarians as there was about libraries with a general view that qualified school librarians should be regarded as part of the curriculum team not the support team, and should have parity of esteem with qualified teachers. I also made the point that educationalists need to recognise, explicitly, the important role that librarians play within the schools and childrens workforce. I've made the point before - to the Training and Development Agency (TDA) and to the relevant government officials at what is DCSF and was DfES - but to no avail. The government's published Children and Young Peoples Workforce Strategy still makes no explicit reference to librarians - probably because there's no librarian on the Childrens Workforce Expert Group responsible for the strategy. Unlike the TDA and the Departmental officials, Estelle got the point and gave me the impression that the Commission would pursue it.

The discussion round the table was enthusiastic, creative and positive, and afterwards Sue Shaper and I agreed that one way in which CILIP (through SLG) can add value for the Commission is by feeding in case studies of good practice from our network of school librarians around the country - as we will start to do today when we send in CILIP's formal submission to meet the deadline for receipt of formal submissions by the Commission.

In the past when I've been advocating for the value of school libraries (and school librarians) I've usually left the meeting - with the TDA or with DCSF/DfES officials - feeling vaguely deflated. But not yesterday. As I strolled back to Vauxhall tube station in the Spring sunshine chatting with Estelle I felt distinctly encouraged. She will lead the Commission well and ask intelligent questions of the right people. Sue Wilkinson (MLA) and Jonathan Douglas (NLT) will provide the Commission with excellent support. And the report of the Commission's findings - scheduled for publication in June - should be (to quote a familiar phrase) well worth reading.

Paxo scoops library review

2010-03-15T23:32:00Z

Well the threatened British Airways strike didn't knock libraries off the Newsnight agenda on Monday evening as I thought it might. A good piece on film - are libraries still necessary or have they had their day? - followed by a studio discussion with Jeremy Paxman asking the questions and Libraries Minister Margaret Hodge and library campaigner Alan Gibbons providing the answers;and largely doing a good job, I thought.

We need libraries more than ever, said Alan Gibbons, who also emphasised the need for leadership, the importance of professional library staff (nice one, Alan) and the important point that use of libraries goes up when there's investment in making the library a more attractive and accessible place. He also mentioned school libraries (as you might expect as the main driver behind the "Make School Libraries Statutory" campaign) but Paxo was not to be diverted: he kept the conversation firmly on public libraries, asking Margaret Hodge about the outcomes of her recent consultation.

Margaret twinkled a little. We're not publishing until next week so I can't say much, she trilled - thus neatly giving the game away on when the DCMS Review is to be published. She then said rather a lot. There'll be no change to primary legislation because government recognises the importance of the statutory basis of public library provision. There'll be an indication of what users are entitled to expect from their local library service - at which point Paxo interrupted which is a pity because if he'd stayed quiet Margaret might have told us more.

Instead the conversation moved to money. There'll be less of it around local government, Margaret confirmed (surprise, surprise) and she's looking for three things from libraries in response: aggregation (Why on earth are there 151 separate Public Library Authorities in England?! she wondered), innovation (Come on, let's all get into e-books! she enthused), and partnership (Look, she exclaimed excitedly, here's a library built without cost to the Council as part of a public-private development partnership!).

So, thanks to Paxo's gentle interrogation, we now know rather more about the outcomes of the DCMS Review than we're supposed to know before publication "next week" (which is more precise than the official DCMS line of "shortly"). Affirmation of the statutory base, indication of a user entitlement, support for innovation, shared services, and development partnerships. Those all seem to be policy positions that we would support.

"Next week" we get to see the full report. But, until then, Newsnight has a scoop! Well done, Paxo!

No time to blog!

2010-03-11T17:04:00Z

Whoops! It's a whole month since I wrote anything on my blog! Although you've been keeping it alive with comments on school libraries for which much thanks - particularly to the commentator who said I should appear on Question Time. My aspirations are lower - a question on Question Time about libraries would be good!

Sorry for not writing but I've been too busy writing other stuff. A feeble excuse! I hear you cry, What sort of "other stuff" could be more important than blogging?!

Well the Business Requirements Document for the "Big Conversation" for one thing - now signed off by Council which means we can start to recruit a consultant to carry out the actual "conversation." Keep an eye on the CILIP home page for more details!

The CILIP Corporate Plan 2010 was another thing - now also signed off by Council and posted on the CILIP website so we all know what we're supposed to be doing and - important, this - so does the Charity Commission.

A draft Information Policy for CILIP was the third thing - kicked off by the CILIP Web/ICT Programme Development Board last year and now revised for consideration by Council next week, on 18 March.It seems right, doesn't it, that the information profession's professional body should have an information policy?!

And then there's the latest round of quarterly business performance reports, also for consideration by Council on the 18th. That's been the fourth thing (See, I'm trying hard to break away from the tyranny of three - despite all the adverts that keep telling me that three is a magic number...).

And then there've been appraisals to conduct and the public library review to discuss and the review of CILIP governance to consider and the CILIP Branch and Group Forum (which takes place on Monday) to prepare and my football team to worry about (six games, one win, not good) and others odds and ends to do in my roles as Secretary to CILIP Council and Project Manager for the Big Conversation project.

And then there've been two conference papers to prepare. One on stuff to do with special collections for the Worcestershire and Herefordshire sub-regional Inspire group which met in the splendid surroundings of Hereford Cathedral Library on 3 March - an excellent event! And an excellent steak pie and pint of Thwaites in the Spread Eagle, just across from the cathedral, the evening before!

The other conference paper is on librarians and publishers working together for the annual Independent Publishers Guild conference on 20 March - which reminds me, I've also spent some time helping to judge the IPG Independent Publishing Awards which will be announced at said conference.

So you'll see I've not been idle - just too knackered to fire up my blog and engage my brain when I get home in the evenings, preferring instead to slump in front of the footy on the telly with a glass of something refreshing...

So consider this "No time to blog!" blog as a kind of combined catching-up and throat-clearing exercise. I think there may be more serious stuff to blog about next week....

Balls to libraries, says government

2010-02-14T20:32:00Z

There are two rules for effective campaigning: the proposition must be clear and credible; and there must be no "wriggle room" to allow for a response full of fine words but no action.

The current campaign to make school libraries statutory illustrates this admirably. Schooling is statutory. Effective (professional) library provision is integral to the learning and teaching process. So libraries in schools (with properly qualified staff) should also be statutory. A no-brainer. And no wriggle room.

But somehow I wasn't surprised - just saddened and frustrated and angry - when the government responded to the campaign last week with "The provision of school libraries is not a statutory requirement and we have no plans ... to make it so" - thus inviting everyone involved in the planning and governance of schools to cut library provision out of their budgets in the coming round of public spending reductions. See http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22227 for information about the online petition to government and the government response.

The detailed response from DCSF (presumably signed off by Secretary of State Ed Balls) calls school libraries "a key resource for pupils and teachers" but then reiterates government policy to delegate decisions about resources to individual schools and closes "We remain of the view that it is for head teachers to choose how to spend funds delegated to them and the Department would not wish to constrain that freedom."

Balls! Or rather, what a lack of balls! What an abdication of responsibility and leadership! Government is perfectly willing to intervene in schools when it wishes to - the truth is that government simply does not see school libraries as important enough to warrant intervention. Government produces guidelines for schools - but that too downplays the importance of school libraries and school librarians. DCSF guidance rarely mentions school libraries, the Expert Group set up by DCSF to support the Children and Young People's Workforce Strategy does not include a librarian, and the Training and Development Agency (the sector body for the schools workforce) brackets library staff with ancillary workers not qualified teachers.

Government simply doesn't "get it" when it comes to school libraries - and to the role that a professional librarian can play in the learning and teaching process: fostering the habit of reading, encouraging the process of intellectual enquiry, enabling a cross-curriculum whole-school approach to information literacy, and inculcating the skills of "learning how to learn" which are essential for success and fulfilment in life. Indeed, there's a danger that even those who recognise the value of the school library (empowering the learner through access to resources) don't always recognise the value of the qualified school librarian. Too often school library development plans detail the space and resources to be provided but fail to give similar attention to the skills required of library staff.

Following the disappointingly weedy response from DCSF, CILIP has written to the Prime Minister reminding Gordon of his own words - "reading is a ladder out of poverty" - and asserting that a school library with qualified library staff is as much part of a child's entitlement to a decent education as a school curriculum with qualified teaching staff. You can read the letter at www.cilip.org.uk/letter-pm and find out more about CILIP's support for the Make School Libraries Statutory campaign at www.cilip.org.uk/statutory .

MLA and the National Literacy Trust have recently asked Estelle Morris to chair a commission on school libraries. This is an important step forward and CILIP will play its part in advocating for the value of school libraries and school librarians to the commission. In the mean time we can all help with the campaign for professionally led school library provision - with our local schools, with our local Councils, and particularly with all those politicians - local and national - who will soon be knocking on our doors asking for our votes. Ask them - Should school libraries be statutory? And don't allow them any wriggle room in their answer.

Save Chatsworth Library!

2010-01-27T11:20:00Z

As regular readers know, the power of three looms large in my life. So, after Spencer County Library (in Dewey ) and the Middleton interactive Learning Centre (in The Librarians ), there just had to be a third library. And late last night, after (appropriately enough) an evening in the pub, I found it - on the E4 TV channel.

At last, at the start of its seventh series on TV, we learn that yes the Chatsworth Estate does have a public library! At least it does if we assume that the Chatsworth Estate is in Tameside not, as usually assumed, in Manchester. As protesters campaigned outside the library I saw clearly in the background a sign indicating that the protesters were in Audenshaw. But perhaps the producers of Shameless, like most people, don't care much about the administrative boundaries of Public Library Authorities.

So why a demonstration outside the library with campaigners waving placards (Frank's said, inspiringly, "Libraries give us power.") and protesters handing out "Save Chatsworth Library" leaflets? Because, one assumes the faceless bureaucrats and spineless politicians of the local Council - Tameside or Manchester or some fictional Council occupying a similar spatial and temporal position to Tameside or Manchester but having no connection with the Tameside or Manchester of our world (sorry, I've been re-reading some Douglas Adams recently) - are proposing to close the library. Gosh! Have the campaigners of the Wirral inspired the script writers and producers and TV moguls to include a library storyline in a top TV series? Shameless: a story of sink estates, toxic families, feckless wastrels, lovable scoundrels, petty crime, drink and drugs, sex and swearing - and library closure!

More to the point, what credible storyline could get Frank Gallagher to stand outside a library protesting against its proposed closure? After all, as Libby the librarian said to him, "I haven't seen you in here before."

Ah yes, Libby the librarian. Frank, doing community service as a lollipop laddie, saves Libby from being run over and romance ( well, lust ) ensues. So it is, as usual, all about sex (and swearing and drink and drugs etc etc). Frank wants someone to share his love of literature. Libby wants drama, passion and a bit of rough. As relationships go, that's not a bad starting point.

The romance of Frank and Libby the librarian will be a key thread in the interwoven tapestry of Shamless storylines as the seventh series rolls out across our TV screens. As will the future for the Gallagher family now that Debbie has gone off to join the army (so says Frank, but I know she's really moved to Rochdale and enrolled in the sixth form at Waterloo Road). As will the future for the McGuire family if the truth comes out about the baby. As will - we hope - the future for the Chatsworth Library.

So, come on, you people of Chatsworth (or possibly Audenshaw or possibly a fictional community occupying a similar spatial and temporal position as Audenshaw but having no connection with the Audenshaw of our world), rise up in protest against the proposed library closure! If the people of the Wirral can do it, so can you! And CILIP stands ready to help by giving evidence at any Public Inquiry that might ensue! I've always wanted to wave a placard protesting against library closures on prime time television! Scatter!