Sean McNamara, the director of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Scotland (CILIPS), has now written to all councillors on the board of Glasgow Life, as well as council leader Susan Aitken, criticising the circumstances under which the cuts were passed and urging that they be reversed.
Scotland’s biggest teaching union has already said that the cuts would deliver a “blow to the life chances of students” in Glasgow.
Following the review of provision, officials at Glasgow Life want to replace librarians with library assistants who will be overseen by three “area-based” librarians and one “principal librarian.” They claim that this change would in fact “increase provision” in school libraries by raising the total number of staffed hours.
In the letter to councillors, Mr McNamara rejects this claim, arguing that running libraries with “staff at a lower grade” will “diminish the service’s impact severely” and describing the move as “de-professionalisation” which “does not work and does not support pupils effectively.” His letter also states that expecting term-time library assistants to offer the same level of services to schools and pupils “will be unrealistic and puts an unfair burden on the assistants.”
The letter goes on to state that CILIPS “empathise with Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life” as they struggle to cope with budget cuts, but argues that “cutting school libraries to this level will have a long-term impact for a short-term saving.”
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Mr McNamara explains that professional librarians are “specialists in matters of media and information, literacy, ethics, and censorship”, before citing a “recent rise of book banning requests.” These challenges, he says, make it “vital that school librarians are in place in schools to provide their expertise.”
The council’s overall handling of its budget cuts is also criticised in the letter, which highlights that a £100,000 reduction was “agreed in advance with no detail provided at the time to parents, pupils or other members of the tax-paying public.”
SNP and Green councillors voted for the cut during the budget-setting process that secured a three-year budget over 2024-2027. At the time the administration was also criticised for secrecy surrounding a decision to cut hundreds of teachers from Glasgow’s schools – an arrangement that was defended by SNP Councillor Christina Cannon in her role as education convener, who said constituents would fine out about cuts “afterwards”.
The CILIPS letter argues that had there been “an understanding of the level of damage the [library] service would need to take” in response to this cut, then it would have been “challenged more severely at the time.”
Mr McNamara concludes his communication by urging Ms Aitken to reverse the cut, stating: “A removal of all school librarians to save only £100,000 is a false economy and the young people of Glasgow deserve much better.”
Speaking to The Herald, he explained CILIPS believes that “the pre-agreed cut of £100k” means that serious damage to school library services would be inevitable. As such, they believe that “the only way to avoid diminishing the service significantly would be to reverse this financial decision entirely.”
In response to initial reporting, a spokesperson for Glasgow Life confirmed the proposals, which they said are “being discussed with affected colleagues and our trade unions.” They added that no staff will face compulsory redundancy.
Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council have both been contacted for further comment.