School libraries in the UK: the current situation

Did you know that there are no official figures on the number of school libraries in the UK?

We’ve just released a new literature review into school libraries, looking at the current provision in the UK and the impact they’re having. Our Research Manager, Anne Teravainen, shares her views…

When I started looking into the current provision of school libraries in the UK, it quickly became apparent just how complex the situation really is. Not only are official figures on school libraries unavailable, varying definitions of what a school library actually is complicate the situation even further. As it is not a statutory requirement to have a school library, the decision to have one largely depends on the headteacher.

Our 2010 School Library Commission report suggested that the evidence around school library provision is patchy. This is certainly still true and in the absence of accurate data, our new review looked at budgets, staffing, stock and provision for technology as evidence in order to gain an understanding of the state of affairs. While this tends to be relatively small-scale survey data, a closer look suggests that the provision largely varies from school to school. Evidence also suggests worrying cutbacks in these school library resources.

The varied provision of school libraries and their diminishing resources quite obviously place children and young people in an unfair situation. Our review quite clearly highlights the importance of school libraries, not just to children’s reading skills and learning in general but also to their personal and interpersonal development.

While most of the research has been carried out in the United States, our own national data from 2016 suggests that not only do children who use the school library have a higher reading score, they are also more likely to enjoy reading, to see themselves as good readers and are more motivated to read.

It is therefore difficult to question the importance of school libraries. Even though more research is needed in the UK, we cannot deny the role of school libraries as a vital resource to support pupils’ learning — especially in times when just half the children and young people in the UK enjoy reading and levels of literacy in England are lagging behind many other countries.

Establishing the actual number of school libraries in the UK and exploring what a good quality library looks like are the crucial next steps going forward. This would highlight school libraries as an integral part of learning and ensure that they are not a wasted resource. This shifted focus would also help to ensure that all children and young people in all parts of the country would get the benefit of a good quality school library.

Read School libraries: A literature review on current provision and evidence of impact.

Originally published at www.literacytrust.org.uk.