Glasgow City Council is considering removing librarians from 30 schools, but Record View demands that they think again.
Glasgow City Council is considering removing 30 librarians.(Image: Getty Images)
School libraries play a crucial role in expanding the minds of pupils.
Not every child grows up in a house with books. For some youngsters, a school library is where they discover a lifelong appreciation of books.
So it’s deeply concerning that Glasgow City Council is considering removing the position of librarian from its 30 secondary schools.
While there are no plans to close the libraries, the loss of such experienced professionals would be devastating.
In these financially straitened times, all local authorities must make difficult decisions to balance their books.
But it seems perverse that cutting cash from the school libraries budget would even be considered in the first place.
Councils are being forced into these choices by a council tax freeze that has devastated local services.
The freeze was brought in by the SNP to try to tackle soaring household bills.
This was considered a vote winner by successive first ministers and enjoyed widespread support.
Now the freeze has been lifted and bills have gone up again but the damage done to local services is still being felt.
But before councils resort to measures like removing librarians from our high schools, they must think of the impact on young people.
This generation of high school pupils has already lost years of schooling through the Covid lockdowns.
They deserve to have their services protected – especially those which help them expand their horizons.
Libraries can play as crucial a role for kids as classrooms. They deserve investment – not cutbacks.
The city council must think again and keep its librarians.
He’s Don a U-turn
Stock markets around the world slumped again as US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on more than 90 countries.
Trump is touting tariffs as the answer to trade deficits with other nations – but clearly the move will slow the global economy and devastate jobs.
During his visit to Scotland last weekend, it appeared that Trump was on a more reasonable course.
It may have been the sea air at Turnberry and Aberdeenshire that made him mellow, as he appeared to open a window of opportunity to get a deal done on whisky tariffs.
But now he’s back on the warpath and using the threat of tariffs to get his own way with countries that should be allies.
It’s typical of this erratic, unpredictable figure that he would say one thing one week, and something different the next.
The world will be much safer and more prosperous place when his time in office finally ends.