Librarians Are the Answer - 2026 Election Campaign
In the lead up to the 2026 Holyrood election, CILIPS launched an advocacy campaign on behalf of our membership, called Librarians Are the Answer. This campaign highlighted the ways in which library and information workers in a range of sectors play their part in tackling many of society’s biggest challenges around literacy, inequality, health and wellbeing, social isolation, the climate and many more.
As part of this campaign we:
- Supported and promoted the vision statement on Securing the Future of Scotland’s Libraries from our colleagues at the Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC), which calls for libraries to be Funded, Fairer and Future-proofed.
- Wrote to all of the main political parties standing for election and asked them how they plan to support our sector – please click here to read the responses we received.
- Shared a range of real life examples of the way our members have an impact. If you would like to share an ongoing case study or provide a short quote, photos or video about library advocacy, please get in touch by clicking here
Supporters helped by:
- Sharing case studies, the campaign and the evidence/research that is available on the CILIPS and SLIC websites with candidates in their areas.
- Using our template letter to write to candidates.
- Making use of the SLIC toolkits to help share the impact of Scotland’s libraries.
We called on candidates and political parties to:
- Commit to strategies and funding to ensure school and public libraries and their staff are valued and robustly supported.
- Put in place protection for school libraries and librarians, and prevent further de-professionalisation and cuts to services.
- Action the ‘Beyond Adequate’ recommendations to put in place better protection for public libraries and their staff.
- Place information professionals and their skills and values central to Scotland’s response to growing challenges such as tackling misinformation and ethical usage of Artificial Intelligence.
- Ensure the vital contributions of librarians across academic, health, government and other sectors are recognised and rewarded as essential to a functioning and democratic society.
Librarians may not always be the answer on their own but our campaign showed the ways in which they and their institutions are part of a whole system approach to taking on the key challenges facing society today. Librarians are vital in supporting access to books and resources, improving the life chances of so many and reducing inequality. Librarians are saving the NHS millions with their health and wellbeing support. Librarians are helping to grow the economy, reduce digital exclusion and social isolation and supporting awareness of the climate crisis. And we believe they should be funded and supported to recognise the difference they are making.
Coming together as professionals, the public, and organisations, we can continue to work together to communicate the incredible impact that libraries of all kinds in Scotland can have, powered by the skilled and talented staff who work for them.
We asked all the political parties:
- What would your party do to improve the funding support given to school and public libraries in Scotland via local authorities?
- How would you ensure our public library network is best placed to support key outcomes such as improving literacy and health/wellbeing and reducing inequality, child poverty and social isolation?
- How would you provide greater protection for our under-pressure school library sector to ensure they can improve reading for enjoyment levels as well as literacy, critical thinking and attainment?
- How would you ensure information professionals in other sectors such as academic, health, government and the third sector are valued and supported?
- How do you plan to tackle the rising challenge of misinformation? Do librarians have a role to play in this?
