It’s World Book Day - Thank Your Librarian

I am not a fast, nor an avid, reader of books. The news and social media sure. TV, films, music, audio books, podcasts, YouTube videos; all are seductively unchallenging compared to sitting down and reading a book.

Some are blessed with more awe-inspiring bibliographic curiosities: my friend Lydia read 115 books last year, so I asked her why she likes reading. She told me that she ‘likes learning about difference experiences of the world’, that ‘it feels like a solid routine and a healthy hobby’, that it relaxes her, and takes her away from reality, that there is a community that comes with it and that books give her a special bond with her mum.

Ultimately, for myself I enjoy writing more. There is, though, something shared between these two acts, not least on a practical level - it would after all be impossible to read if nobody wrote. But there is something more philosophical at play here. In writing, we embody a promise that there is something we feel is worth sharing and in reading we make a promise to share in something beyond ourselves.

Aristotle wrote that ‘man is a political animal’. Gendered terms aside, and without getting into the pith of that claim, there is an acknowledgement embedded in this that we are social beings and that to me means we have things to share and to share in. That could be anything from our cultures, our intellects and emotions, our experiences or our civilisation.

Animals and plants have behaviours we expect and humans are no different. Just how a flower may turn to the sun, we may turn to each other and express the uniqueness of our lives and the complexity of our existence.  

This may all be said to be very romanticised, but it is not entirely without a grounding. In my previous article I said that ‘the tide of literacy must rise, or many of our young people and our society will be left to flounder in a swell of lost opportunities.’ I went on to call for the Government to expand its pledge to have a library space in every primary school, so that the same commitment is made to secondaries. 

I was concerned in that moment with literacy. Today I want to go back to the same trough, but this time I don’t want to talk about libraries, but rather the people who staff them. Because, we owe it to our young people that we employ the best and most enthusiastic readers and writers in our school libraries.

No one would deny that a classroom is only ever enriched by learned and passionate educators. That it takes something different, some form of art, to take a subject and put it in the hands and minds of others. How can the same not be said for those who curate an open and accessible collection of some of the most important and meaningful achievements in human history.

Research recently published by the Department of Education shows just how much these staff do: All technicians with library or resource centre-related responsibilities are involved in supervising pupils using the library or support with library research and learning (100%) as well as overseeing the use of books and library resources (100%). Almost all are also doing tasks such as library promotions, displays, and activities (99%), and the vast majority are cataloguing library resources and index learning (97%), and updating and maintaining data and other information (95%). Producing library resources (93%) and supporting with library technology (91%) are also two very common responsibilities. A further 30% of librarians report carrying out tasks and responsibilities not included in the original answer options. Some examples are arranging author events, running book clubs, recruiting, training and managing volunteer student library assistants, and running reading interventions.

Reading this, we can see that libraries take work, that there is more going on than the provision of a room. A library’s properties, after all, go far beyond the spatial - for some, a bare room, furnished with a stack of books and a smattering of chairs, is all they would need. Most, however, would not be in heaven, requiring encouragement to push them and to inspire them on their reading journey. 

So what is to be done? Ringfence funding, remove the need to cover library staffing costs from core school budgets, and set aside funds so that schools can embrace the expertise that a librarian can bring without any risk that they might need to consider other spending requirements first. We might then further help young people to fulfil those shared promises that I spoke of earlier, or at least do so in a form that lasts more than the few moments so much online content takes now.

Many may say that I ask for too much, that money is scarce and demand is high. That could be right, there could always be another priority and my proposal may never make its way into the non-fiction section. But I hope that on this World Book Day, inaugurating a new year of reading, we can engage our imaginations enough to consider how something like that may be possible, and what good it could bring.

Image: Flickr/Daniel Mennerich

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