We have been actively campaigning for action for a number of years
• In February 2011 a protest was held outside the Scottish Parliament to raise awareness of the issue. Protestors spoke with elected representatives Gordon MacDonald, Alison Johnstone, Iain Gray and Marco Biaigi at the protest.
• Following the protest a letter highlighting concerns was sent to the then First Minister Alex Salmond.
• Subsequently since then the professional body for Librarians in Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Scotland (CILIPS), has formally responded to various local authorities who have proposed, and subsequently cut services.
• Individuals have also engaged with local authority consultations but have often found their responses have been ignored. For example in East Renfrewshire in the spring of 2015 the proposal to cut the number of school librarians received the highest number of responses and yet the proposal was not dropped.
• CILIPS produced School Librarianship: An Advocacy Strategy, highlighting the positive contribution school libraries and school librarians make in supporting the curricular and developmental needs of young people. This was distributed to every school in Scotland and to Education Scotland and other Education leaders.
• During our campaigning many colleagues have met with local councillors and elected representatives to discuss the issue.
• A Facebook page has been created to highlight the issue. This currently has over 900 likes.
• We work very closely with both CILIPS and the School Library Association (Scotland) to advocate the importance of school libraries and school librarians.