National Libraries Day announced

The following is taken directly from the Voices for the Library website.  You can access the website here.

A national day to celebrate libraries has been launched and Voices for the Library are proud to support it. National Libraries Day will take place in early February 2012. It will be the finale to a week of events that will celebrate libraries and librarians, and highlight the importance of reading.

Children’s author and libraries campaigner Alan Gibbons announced the launch:

“We are delighted to launch National Libraries Day, a week of events in early February leading to a day of celebration of reading, libraries and librarians around the United Kingdom. A reading child is a successful child. A child who goes to the library is twice as likely to be a good reader and that child becomes a literate adult, a lifelong reader. There are 320 million visits a year to our libraries but we can make them even more popular.

We see National Libraries Day as a positive day of celebration to promote the whole culture of reading for pleasure, information and engagement whether you read your traditional books or on your laptop or e-reader. It is time to make reading a universal culture. We want people to go to their local school or public library and use their School Library Service. Use it. Join it. Love it.”

A group of leading literacy, reading, library and education organisations, including Voices for the Library, met at the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals and agreed to support the day. 

Planning is at an early stage but National Libraries Day activities will include encouraging people to join and use their library, and providing promotional materials and support so local communities can run events such as read-ins, poetry sessions and parties across the country. It is hoped that all sorts of libraries across the country will get involved including public libraries, in schools, colleges and Universities.

“National Libraries Day follows the tremendously successful Save Our Libraries Day, which took place on the 5th February.” said Annie Mauger, CILIP’s Chief Executive, “Save Our Libraries Day was successful because individuals and communities that deeply care about their libraries got out there and made a noise. People love libraries; National Libraries Day will be an amazing opportunity to show how deeply they care.”

You can find  Voices for the Library website here,   on Facebook here at Voices for the Libraries or follow them on Twitter at @UKpling


You might also like to follow us on twitter at  @SandersteadLCG and @SaveSanderstead


Our website also has a wealth of information at www.savesandersteadlibrary.co.uk