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Unit 12: Library Legislation

Notes
participants working with school libraries on different levels; the Network for School
Library Centers was the core team. The focus of Mind the Gap was education in school
library programs for teachers and principals. The network worked with plans for school
library development projects and created draft models that were later put into practice in
three school library development projects: Searching Communicating Learning, SMiLE,
and Many SMiLE. The draft models were grounded in an earlier project from Room for
Language, a project called Playing Communicating Learning for cooperation between
preschools and public libraries. Mind the Gap ended when the Authority gave the
responsibility for Many SMiLE to the City of Malmö. Many SMiLE was part of a larger
project on multiculturalism; Malmö is a town with a lot of immigrants and a lot of different
languages. In the Many SMiLE project, the focus was on language development and inclusion
with the school library as the driving force.
The Library Associations as Actors
All of the Swedish library associations mentioned in this case study have been lobbying
for better conditions for school libraries, for research and development in the school
library field, for education and support to school librarians, and for mandatory school
libraries in the Education Act. They have been lobbying in parliamentary and
governmental organizations, they have invited to conferences and seminars, they have
written articles, and they have contacted different media outlets to create a platform for
advocacy. The Network for School Library Centers and the National School Library Group
have played a most important advocacy role here. They have written letters to the minister
of education, they have met with him and his secretary, and they have been very strong
lobbyists for the 2010 Act. Once the Act was passed, they followed up on the Act. [Could
you give an example or two of how they followed up on the Act?] The State School
Inspection, which has regulatory responsibility over all schools, issued a memorandum
outlining the main areas to be inspected:
1. access to school libraries, purely geographical

2. material stocks
3. the library as a tool to help achieve the educational goals of the school.
In connection with the inspections, the Swedish Library Association and the National
School Library Group began mailings with the memorandum included to all the principals
all over Sweden. This is perhaps the most massive information campaign promoting
school libraries ever in Sweden. The effect of diffusion of the memorandum and regulatory
inspections remains to be seen.
Different kinds of library associations can play an immense advocacy role, but working
together with actors from outside the library world is important when the goal is to achieve
changes in regulations and laws. With help, support and inspiration from international
library associations, the Swedish associations succeeded in getting the school library included
in the Education Act. The actors in the advocacy and lobbying efforts of people from different
library organizations, associations and institutions and from non-library groups, working
at various levels, in diverse contexts, with different backgrounds—all wanted to put the
school library on the agenda. Their different perspectives and experiences helped to make
the change possible. Working together is necessary to create change.

Questions
1. Write down the case facts.
2. What do you infer from it?
Source: http://schoollibrariesontheagenda.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/bsla_iflasl-iasl_sweden
_case_study_2013_final.pdf

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