Book Week launches with plan to get more children into libraries

A library card should be given to children at brith, according to the director of the Scottish Book Trust.

The move would raise literacy and also secure the future of libraries.

Marc Lambert made the call at the start of Book Week Scotland – and called on councils and schools to take action.

It comes as hundreds of events are taking place at libraries across the country as part of the national celebration of reading.

"Every child when they start nursery, primary and secondary school should be introduced to their local library and receive automatic membership," he said.

"If children and young people learn early on to love their library, they will become library users for the rest of their lives.

Libraries must be enabled to advertise and communicate with their customers and potential customers better

"This relationship, between the individual and their local library, is one of the most important there is, benefiting the individual in many different and wonderful ways throughout the whole of their life."

To mark Book Week, hundreds of books will be given away for free and five new large installations are being unveiled at sites in North Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh and Shetland.

The aim of the artworks is to make libraries more visible and valued in their local areas.

Well-known poets and writers have also penned love letters to their local libraries.

Lambert highlighted the part libraries themselves should play in reaching out to local communities.

He said: "Libraries must be enabled to advertise and communicate with their customers and potential customers better.

"In order to survive the local authority cuts that are coming and prosper in the 21st Century, libraries need to reach out to their local communities in more evident and assertive ways.”