Librarian cuts 'deeply damaging' to Glasgow schools

Proposals to remove librarians from every Glasgow secondary school would be "deeply damaging" to the sector, a body for the profession has warned.

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) has written to Glasgow City Council expressing "significant concerns" over the local authority's plans.

Glasgow Life, which manages the service on behalf of Glasgow City Council, would place an assistant in each of the city's high schools instead, in a move to save money.

However CILIPS say this step would "de-professionalise a vital service" and affect the quality of the service.

In a letter to Glasgow Life from Sean McNamara, CILIPS's director, the body say the library cuts would "further create a growing divide in social class and opportunity."

A council-approved review of library services in February 2024 targeted savings of £100,000, a move which CILIPS claimed has put Glasgow libraries into an impossible position.

Glasgow Life has argued the plan will increase access to school libraries citywide by 27%, by raising the number of hours when facilities have some form of staffing, even though it would remove 16 roles in total from the school system.

Mr McNamara said: These proposals would be deeply damaging to the education of young people and would de-professionalise a vital service.

"School librarians support curriculum delivery, help raise attainment and literacy level and must be protected nationally and locally.

"This £100k pre-agreed cut leaves the service with little option but to find damaging cuts, and we believe the only way to avoid diminishing the service significantly would be to reverse this financial decision urgently."

In the letter to the Glasgow Life board, Mr McNamara wrote: "Librarians are specialists in matters of media and information literacy, ethics, and censorship, and with a recent rise of book banning requests it is vital that school librarians are in place in schools to provide their expertise."

He added that Glasgow Life should reconsider whether the £100,000 saving was needed.

the librarian body should be treated as singular nA Glasgow Life spokesperson previously said: "Glasgow Life is bound by Glasgow City Council's commitment to no compulsory redundancies.

"Should the proposal be approved, affected staff will have the opportunity to apply for promoted positions or be redeployed into available vacant roles commensurate with their existing pay and grade."

The spokesperson added that funding available to provide school library books and other resources would remain above the Scottish average.

Consultations with trade unions on the proposals are already under way.