Alan Gibbons, Philip Pullman Urge British Government to Mandate School Libraries

Alan Gibbons, the two time Carnegie Medal nominee, is urging the British government to give kids the same rights as prison inmates—the right to have a library in schools.

Alan Gibbons

That group, which includes Philip Pullman, the award-winning author of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy (Knopf), Francesca Simon, who was the first American to win the British Book Award http://www.britishbookawards.co.uk/ for her Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman (Orion, 2008), and former children's laureate Michael Rosen, handed a petition to Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools, and Families.

In a letter to Balls, the group says, "Sadly, some of our schools still lack adequate library provision. It would not be expensive to rectify this situation, even in these difficult times. The social costs of poor literacy are significant."

The petition was also signed by Carnegie medal winners Mal Peet (Exposure, Walker, 2008) and Beverley Naidoo (Web of Lies, Penguin, 2004).

Recently, Gibbons organized a weekend conference in Birmingham, England, to enlist more support for school libraries. “I would also like to see the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) indicate clearly that school library services should be the main delivery service for book stocks into schools that would otherwise not have a book stock,” he said at the time. 


Last November Gibbons and Pullman condemned the closing of a school library in Chesterfield, England. At the time Pullman said, “Nothing can replace a proper library, with its resources centrally available, and with the expertise of a qualified librarian to guide the students in the best and most productive ways of research.”

Only half of all secondary schools in England have a full-time librarian and only 28 percent have a qualified librarian.