Thursday 30 June 2011

Alan Gibbons, Campaign for the Library, Advocacy for libraries

Yesterday I was at a termly training day organised by our brilliant and very hardworking Schools Library Service (Suffolk)for high school librarians.
http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/Schools/SchoolsLibraryService/

The main event was an inspiring morning session by Alan Gibbons, children's author and instigator of the Campaign for the Book, which started out with the threat to Doncaster libraries and turned, via Wirral library campaign, into a national campaign in many authorities as county councils target local libraries in the current round of stringent budget cuts. Here in Suffolk there has been a huge public outcry against the plan to "divest" many services to local interest groups or private providers. 
I imagine Alan Gibbons has given this presentation (refreshingly without notes or AV displays) probably hundreds of times, and I was impressed by the vigour and passion of his argument and his ongoing commitment to the fight to keep public and school libraries, and school library services.
Alan's blog is updated daily with links to news and articles about library issues in UK.
http://alangibbons.net/

Later on today I came across this article from the Evening Standard about research linking book ownership to  reading success ( a bit of  a no-brainer, of course).
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23956834-prisons-must-by-law-have-libraries---so-why-dont-schools.do


The afternoon session was a workshop about advocacy. Two school libraries are under threat or have already closed in our local area, so it's a crucial time for evidence based impact assessment to fight our corner. I'm planning to produce some audio/ video clips of teachers and pupils talking about what the school library means to them and get comments about specific activities which couldn't have been done, or would have been difficult without the school library resources, including the librarian - me! 


Finally our SLS Advisory Librarians share their reading experiences and school events at:
http://twitter.com/#!/LizandJacky







2 comments:

  1. Just had a look at your blog and used my new RSS knowledge to subscribe to alangibbons and follow Liz and Jacky on Twitter.

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  2. Hi Pam
    I'm so impressed! I must get to grips with this RSS and Twitter thing.

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