In a recent parliamentary inquiry regarding the expense of rejuvenating the fund for school libraries, Education and Skills Minister Norma Foley quoted a staggering figure with a peculiar specification of costs. The Minister asserted that hiring a librarian for each school would round up to a whopping €212 million covering costs such as physical layout, infrastructure, IT facilities, assistants for librarians, inventory (in both physical and digital forms), a national coordinator, professional advancement, and many others.
It was indeed baffling to learn that the Minister included the allocation of library assistant roles within her calculation. It is a usual practice for a single certified librarian to run school libraries while a group of library assistants, chosen from the student community, supports them. Not only does this offer a wonderful chance for students to learn about customer service, information technology, and project management, but this assistance comes at no cost.
Additionally, her reference to professional development seemed odd since librarians typically self-finance their ongoing professional upskilling—by pursuing degrees, diplomas, or master’s, in addition to any further training through various professional organisations—all at their own expense.
The reply by the Minister seems more like an uneasy justification to mask longstanding inertia. Rather than progressively seeking an economically feasible resolution, she has offered an astronomical price as a defence for ongoing neglect of this fundamental feature of our educational infrastructure.
We, the School Libraries Group of the Library Association of Ireland, reaffirm our tangible and realistic request that the Minister finally fulfil the commitment made by the Department of Education in 2005—to universally apply the Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP) Demonstration Library Project across all Deis schools, as recently regarded as “an urgent national priority” by Joint Oireachtas Committee reports. The key benefits that school libraries offer to students from disadvantaged backgrounds are accessible to students in merely 30 out of 235 Deis schools.
There’s no need for the Minister to be concerned—library assistants are ready to shoulder the responsibility!
Andrea Dillon, Secretary of the School Libraries Group of the Library Association of Ireland, sends her regards from Dublin 2.