School Librarian of the Year 2012

Adam Lancaster
Librarian/Associate Assistant Headteacher
Monk’s Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

"I suppose I should really speak from the heart as that's why I'm in this job, certainly not for the money but definitely for the passion!"

Adam's Acceptance Speech

Wow. They say that they don't tell you if you've won until the day itself and I can tell you they really don't tell you till the day!

I therefore find myself a little under-prepared! But I suppose I should really speak from the heart as that's why I'm in this job, certainly not for the money but definitely for the passion!

Firstly I'd like to thank my school and our head Kate for nominating me. I truly believe we have some the best staff and students going making mine such an enjoyable job. I'd also like to thank all the sponsors and of course the SLA for administering such an important award.

And it really is an important award and an important organisation, helping us to shout about school libraries and librarians, because honestly being a school librarian can be a very lonely job. We are the minority of minorities! Very often we are the only person in a school with our qualifications, training and skills and I suppose that's why school libraries and librarians aren’t understood and find themselves in this ever cut, decreasing situation. But as much as circumstances are to blame I also think some of this can be attributed to our own attitudes in schools.

A lot of the time we as librarians spend our lives working on the surface of education in schools. Running great events and creating great opportunities but how much does this really impact on the attainment and achievement of the young people in our schools? How much do we achieve our goals set out by our school? I suppose the question I'm really asking is how much difference can one person make in a school? Invariably the answer, no matter how inspiring or enthusiastic they are, has to be very little.

How much impact can we make teaching information literacy skills to some students a small amount of the time? How much difference can we make to encouraging a love of reading when young people are only in school 15% of their lives and an even smaller percentage of that time in a place instilling a love of books in them?

Just think though how much bigger the impact would be if every teacher utilised our knowledge and skills. What if every single lesson had information literacy embedded in every piece of work set? What about instead of just one person encouraging students to enjoy reading some of the time, every single member of staff all the time was showing the importance of reading for pleasure?

As librarians we need to be leading and effecting change on a whole school scale. We need to immerse ourselves in teaching and learning and set our sights and standards high. We need to grab every opportunity that exists and show how much difference we can make, show how important we are.

For as bad a position school libraries are in we are also in the best position we've ever seen. With the government and Ofsted’s focus so tightly tied to reading and literacy we have the skills to make a difference.
It always amazes me when a new reading initiative or a new focus on literacy comes along because these are the things we do, the things we’ve always done and will always continue to do. But we need this more than ever to impact and lead on these issues.

It's not going to be easy. But then anything that's worth anything has never been easy. If we want to show that libraries and librarians are not just important but vital to schools we need to do something about it. Let's not make the excuse of circumstances and situations let’s put all our efforts into making our library the most effective place in school. Let's impact on student attainment and achievement. Let's lead staff and share our knowledge and expertise. Because if we do I promise that it will be seen. It will be seen across the school in every classroom and it won't just be one voice shouting about the library it will be a full scale orchestra.

If we do this we as a profession we can truly make a difference.

Adam Lancaster, 1 October 2012