lbThe  School Library Association have launched a Primary School Library Charter on Monday 15 th February. The charter will help primary head teachers and governors set up and run a school library or increase the contribution that their current library makes to the school’s effectiveness and the pupils’ well being and learning.

At Dolphin Booksellers and at SmithMartin Partnership we are so pleased that the value of libraries in primary schools is really celebrated. A well resourced library with an area and space which is attractive for children to sit and read or to access information is so important. Library spaces we have created have been places that children just love to be in.

Many schools, for many children, are the only place that they have access to a wide range of books. It becomes the very start of their own reading materials and if we are lucky it can be the catalyst for finding the way to local libraries.

Sir Tim Brighouse, associate professor at the Institute of Education , University of London and former Schools Commissioner for London, welcomed the charter, saying: ‘The school library is one of the key indicators of whether a school environment is as best fitted as it can be for learning. If the library is a desert, you start to worry.

Lucy Bakewell, librarian at Hill West Primary School in Sutton Coldfield and the first primary winner of the SLA’s School Librarian of the Year award (2009), believes that a primary school library plays a unique role in ‘grabbing children when they are building their vocabulary and growing their imaginations to introduce them to reading habits and information handling skills which will stand them in good stead later’. She adds: ‘Primary school librarians are also well placed to reach parents and help to create a reading ethos in families as well as in schools.’

Watch this space for more information, we will be interested to find out the response from Gordon Brown to a letter from international colleagues.

Dolphin Booksellers for up to date information and a chance to buy books on line.