“That is one thing they must do. Another thing they must do is make sure that every school in the country has a library. Many schools do not. Think again.
“If we make a saving here, we will make a loss elsewhere. Health, sociability, work and all other issues will come into play.
“I beg us all, before we allow another library to be lost or librarian laid off, to think seriously, ‘Is this a saving?’.”
Baroness Rebuck, Labour peer and chair of Penguin Random House publishing group, thanked Lord Bird for calling this debate and spoke of the importance in supporting libraries and bookshops in improving literacy levels in Britain.
“For me, the big issue — if I may borrow a phrase from the noble Lord [Bird] — is books and their enduring importance to civil society and the extent to which both bookshops and libraries are essential to their continued success,” said Baroness Rebuck (pictured below).
“Without both, we will not achieve 100% literacy, which is an essential aim in the 21st century and a bedrock of social mobility, social cohesion and a strong economy.
“Libraries should be seen as key community centres, open to all, where, alongside books, people can rely on other essential life services.
“Reversing the decline in library provision and ensuring that every school has its own library will be a start to reversing the decline in the literacy skills of our young.
“We are the only developed nation where our young people significantly underperform their elders, according to the OECD’s 2012 survey.
“Our poor performance is also affecting our economy. It is estimated that more than 9 million adults of working age in England have low basic skills, which is costing our economy around £80 billion per year.
“The big issue is: how can government assess and help to rebalance the competitive landscape in bookselling in the UK, and encourage more people to value our bookshops before we lose them altogether?
“Central government also need to address the funding deficit in local authorities, where competing essential services too often result in library closures. Our trajectory towards one library per 50,000 people is simply a disaster.
“We have a stark choice. If we lose our celebrated bookshops and libraries we will never improve our nation’s literacy.”
Earlier this year, Bird co-launched a Project Literacy campaign in the House of Commons with model and actress Lily Cole to emphasise the importance of “social literacy”, highlighting his own journey from illiteracy and how learning to read and write changed the trajectory of his life.
