What more honourable profession? The vital importance of school libraries and librarians

Category: Libraries Matter

The following is a guest blog by Marc Lambert, Chief Executive of Scottish Book Trust.

One of the people I cherished the most in my childhood was my school librarian, Mrs Horsefield. To me, she was wonderful. It wasn’t just that I could get books from her, though that was amazing and exciting enough. It was also the conversation about books and reading that she engaged me in, on my frequent visits to her domain.

This conversation was important. In some ways, even more important than the books borrowed. Even if I was a relative novice, she made me feel part of a club – the club of those who love reading – a place where we are all, whatever our age and experience, equals. Being taken seriously as a reader, as someone with my own valid enthusiasms and opinions, was a formative experience, and it continues to enlighten how I think about my personal and professional life today.

Besides freely offering me the benefit of her knowledge and enthusiasm, Mrs Horsefield operated with a great deal of empathy too, (she knew her chickens), a virtue leavened by the occasional flash of wry humour. “You don’t like Biggles Flies West?”, she once declared in mock horror – “Try Biggles Flies East, it’s completely different!”

I mention this for a variety of reasons, but not least because some local authorities think it is a good idea to close school libraries. How sad and misguided that is.

As my experience shows, a good librarian plays a vital, even definitive, part in a child’s development. They are not just someone who handles the bureaucracy of issuing a book. They are, in fact, a guide, a co-conspirator, a friend, and a companion who will lead you to a life that is enriched immeasurably by all the pleasure and knowledge that is to be found in books – which is to say, the whole of life, really. What greater gift from adult to child could there be? What more honourable profession?