Trish Hepworth’s Post

Bev Humphrey look at this! I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry! The law use to be ( and correct me if I am wrong ) that there was no legal requirement for a school to have a library. However, there was a legal requirement for a prison to have a library. I often pondered, would we need as many prisons if we had amazing libraries/ learning centres in all schools. Perhaps even two libraries, one for main school and one for 6th Forms. Libraries are not a luxury. They are a necessity. Also they are a place of huge facts ( The Guiness books of world records) and vast fantasies ( The lion, the witch and the wardrobe, Lord of the rings, Game of Thrones) and social anthropology ( Tracey Beaker novels etc) A library is the world! Knowledge and understanding and wonder all literally and figuratively held in your hands! Me, I love a library. I hope this is part of a sea change for the school library.

12 out of 13 authors whose books have been banned statewide in school libraries are female. I feel quite strongly about this. It is naive to think that young people will not be accessing "pornographic or indecent" materials in other forms, except that it is very likely that the videos they will access online will be male created, female objectifying, and worse, violent towards women. As both someone who has read some of the books on this list, and a parent of young children, I know which I'd prefer my children digest. The wonderful Áine Garvey, who is dedicated to student wellbeing in every way and makes it a priority to know the young people she works with well, organises books with mature content separately to the general population of books and loans according to age and maturity. Easy. Surely this is a better option than the outright banning of books? https://lnkd.in/enQThzcY

"It is too easy to think that books and reading for pleasure are not essential, whereas nothing is more certain to improve children’s ability..." 📚   Penguin author, Philip Pullman, calls on government to ensure all schools in Britain have libraries. This is the mission of our Libraries for Primaries campaign, co-founded by Penguin and our partners at the National Literacy Trust.   Astonishingly, 1 in 7 primary schools in the UK do not have a library. This rises to 1 in 4 in the most disadvantaged communities. Read more >> https://lnkd.in/eQXdJKqQ   #libraries #library #schools #school #schoollibrary #schoollibraries #reading #reader #books #book #students #publishing #PenguinBooks

'Every school should have a library,' We couldn't agree more, but why limit it to the UK? Every child in the world should have access to books... which is why we do what we do. We may be starting small but with one library in Uganda almost complete we will be heading on to the next. Please keep supporting us so we can keep up the work that we do! How can you support our work? Buy one of our published books - gift one of our books to a child in your life and you gift a book to a child in Uganda too. Twin your library or your bookshelf with our library projects. Arrange for our authors to visit you school, church or community setting. You can also simply donate to the work that we do! #everychildmatters #everychilddeservesbooks #literacy #literacyforall

School libraries are already lacking in great literature and resource books for the variety of ages, abilities and cultures due to the lack of funds governing bodies give schools to work with. And now with ridiculous censorship rules, woke agendas and people taking offence at a difference of opinion or belief, We need to be asking, "What damage are we doing to our children (and businesses) when it comes to crushing the ability to think critically, accept diversity and be able to innovate?" Because this is more than a case of placating others who are a tad bit sensitive, this is all about coercion and control meaning the masses are easier to manipulate and 'keep in their place'. Read this latest article from The Bookseller #authoractivism #schoollibraries #schoolfunding #publishingnews #literature #gowokegobroke https://lnkd.in/dzZrFics

Literacy is empowering. Literacy changes the trajectory of lives. Literacy creates a more equal playing field.

Book bans are accelerating, with more books banned during the first half of this school year than the entire previous one, reports Alexandra Alter The New York Times https://lnkd.in/gcunhyKG #BookBans #CensorshipDebate #FreedomToRead #LiteraryCensorship #BannedBooks #IntellectualFreedom #EducationMatters #LiteracyAdvocacy

- Your own vision You must have a clear vision for your school library, if you don't do, you will not be able to wake up early to go to your work! - Morals are the most important elements must be included in your vision. - Diversity must be respected your vision must be formulated according to the laws of Ministry of Education in the school country, and it's advised to be approved after a meating of the school library committee(School Principal, The Librarian, 5 teachers representing different subjects, and number of students who are rigested in the Library Friends Log. - Information Literacy is a core element in any school library vision. - the vision must be short, and summarised with accurate, expressive, and inclusive terms. I formulated the below school library vision. No copyright 👍

This is why DEI is so important.

"School libraries, and the librarians that run them, offer a haven for students to establish or regain their passion for reading, study in a quiet environment, improve their digital literacy, enhance their research skills, and, in the process, improve in core academic skills. It is time to recognize their crucial role in educating strong and civically engaged students by investing in them and including them in systems of holistic accountability.". This is a US article but the situation in the UK is IMO even more dire. This is a social justice issue as Great School Libraries report from last year shows. https://lnkd.in/eH7ENts7