A PETITION calling for the protection of school libraries has been lodged with the Scottish Government.

More than 2,500 people signed the document which was created after multiple local authorities, including Barrhead’s, announced cuts to school library services.

The petition has been backed by Scotland’s largest workers’ union Unison, the Scottish Youth Parliament, Scottish Book Trust and Scotland’s Educational Trust.

This comes after Unison announced that it would be launching a targeted campaign against East Renfrewshire Council’s (ERC) proposed cuts.

Under plans to plug a £20 million funding gap, the authority’s education department is proposing a 50 per cent reduction in school library services, meaning pupils would have access to a library service less than half the week.

It would also result in the number of full-time librarians being reduced from five, or one for each high school, to 3.5.

A proposal by ERC to use senior school pupils to take up the resulting slack was quickly scrapped after a public backlash.

Steven Larkin, Unison’s East Renfrewshire branch secretary, said: “Librarians are rarely credited for their contribution to our children’s education and wellbeing. A library without a librarian is just a room with books. School libraries are hubs of dynamic learning. Qualified librarians help pupils find the information they need to study, write reports and dissertations. The research is clear, the impact on pupil learning will be dramatic if this service goes.”

These are the same cuts that had threatened the closure of disabled resource centres in Barrhead and Thornliebank.

However, the council relented and says it hopes to avoid redundancies in the event the proposed cuts to libraries are voted through.

A spokeswoman said: “We want to find a way to retain our school librarians wherever possible because we know how valuable the resource is. We will still maintain librarian cover across all school libraries but no school will have a dedicated full-time resource.

“These savings will be realised by changing the librarians’ hours and reducing the administrative activities they undertake.”