Meeting of the Parliament 09 May 2017
Mr Greer may know that at my appearance at the Public Petitions Committee just a week or so ago I made very clear my view that school librarians play a very significant part in the life of a school and in the literacy capability of young people. I not only encourage local authorities to maintain school library services, but intend to take forward the delivery of a national strategy on school libraries.
Obviously, such decisions are taken operationally by local authorities around the country. We wrestle with the question continually: MSPs ask me about concerns about their locality to do with issues and decisions over which I have absolutely no control. For example, I do not control Argyll and Bute Council’s decision that it can do without school libraries. I go to schools elsewhere in the country that have vibrant library services that are well and truly supported because the local authority values them. That is a choice that individual local authorities have made. If Mr Greer is asking for my opinion about the decision by Argyll and Bute Council, I can say that I think that it is a shockingly poor decision to remove library services from schools. However, I cannot do anything about that unless I direct the authority to do something else, which would take us into completely different territory.
I will do my level best to try to ensure that we raise appreciation and understanding of the value of library services in our schools through the national library strategy that I will take forward. I will work with local authorities to try to gain their participation in that approach.