Authors call for 'a library in every school' legislation (UK)

A host of award-winning authors including Sarah Waters, David Almond, Philip Reeve and Malorie Blackman are calling on the government to make it a legal obligation for every school to have a library. The position of the Department for Education is that while it would like to see a library in all schools, "this should be a local decision, not one mandated by government", and it is "up to schools to target resources appropriately". But the campaign, run by writers' body the Society of Authors and backed by a mass of writers, publishers, academics, librarians and education professionals, is asking schools minister Nick Gibb to make it a statutory requirement for every primary and secondary school in England and Wales to have a library, on the grounds that "there are proven links between reading and attainment"