Philip Pullman Condemns School Library Closure

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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 11/24/2008

Philip Pullman, the best-selling author of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy (Knopf), has slammed the headmistress of a school in Chesterfield, England, for her decision to close the library and get rid of its librarian.

Author Philip Pullman has condemned the proposed closure of the Meadows Community School library in England.

In a letter to Lynn Asquith, head teacher at the Meadows Community School, Pullman wrote that he was “deeply dismayed” by the news, which he learned from the Campaign for the Book, an initiative launched by author Alan Gibbons to support school and public libraries. “This simply cannot be in the best interests of your students,” Pullman wrote. “A library, with a dedicated and professional staff, should be at the very heart of any institution devoted to learning. 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.”

If the school, with 759 students, closed its library and eliminated librarian Clare Broadbelt, it would become a “byword for philistinism and ignorance,” Pullman told Asquith. “I urge you to think again.”

As part of a restructuring plan, the library’s fiction collection would be moved to a new “reading centre,” which students would have access to during breaks and as part of after-school clubs. Teachers would maintain the nonfiction collection.

Author Alan Gibbons is founder of the Campaign for the Book.

School Library Journal contacted Gibbons while traveling in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he explained that the Campaign for the Book was launched after he was invited to a Save Our Libraries meeting. “I approached authors I had worked with at various times,” Gibbons says. “Philip Pullman, who I met when we were short-listed for the Carnegie Medal, responded immediately along with many others.”

England’s Poet Laureate Michael Rosen met recently with Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Schools Minister Jim Knight to discuss the problem. Rosen reported that the officials support reading for pleasure “but on the ground there isn’t the staff, time or money to support it.” Following the meeting, Rosen called the situation “a national tragedy.”