I was delighted to hear back in June that Nick Poole had announced, at the CILIP School Libraries Group conference, that there was to be a Great School Libraries campaign. For the first time in a while I saw a real opportunity for school librarians to raise awareness of the need for all children to have access to the same resources across the country. Twitter was going crazy and they were all asking the same questions I was. What was this going to look like and how could I help?
I heard that it was a joint initiative between CILIP, CILIP SLG and the SLA and was really pleased to receive an invite from Alison Tarrant, the CEO of the School Library Association, to join the working party for the campaign. I was a little star stuck at first to find that I would be joining Caroline Roche, Barbara Band, Nick Poole and Emma Suffield amongst others, many of the people who I admire greatly in the library world. It was lovely to meet some of them at our first meeting in August.
All children deserve the right to a good school library and they should have equal rights to the opportunities a great school library can give them. From improved literacy and good communication skills, to great research skills and critical thinking, leading to better job prospects and a role in our society. Every child deserves this and our campaign is the start of a three year journey to make this happen.
We can’t do it without the support of school library staff and teachers. This has to come from the heart of our community and a willingness to say yes we want this to change. What can you do?
1. Take a look at our website, read and understand what our campaign is all about.
2. Sign up and look at the press release which is included in the September newsletter. It has a couple of articles for you to read and share.
3. Most of all we want you to join in the conversation. Our children deserve great school libraries and this can only happen if we are all on board.
You can follow along on twitter #GreatSchoolLibraries and share your best practice via our case studies template. This is about raising awareness about what is currently going on in school libraries in order to give every child access to the same.
Every child deserves a great school library.