Adam Lancaster may well be the first school librarian to be appointed associate assistant headteacher, without being a trained teacher. He took up his additional post at Monk’s Walk in September 2012 when the former 11-18 specialist science college achieved academy status. In addition, he is a school governor and was a member of the panel appointing the new headteacher. No surprise then that library is firmly at the heart of school life and there are two applicants for every pupil librarian post, even though Adam has appointed 60 this year. For more information read his SLYA profile.

Kevin Crossley-Holland, President of the School Library Association, congratulated all the finalist librarians and said:

“Make no mistake about it! School libraries and school librarians are under real pressure – political apathy, cuts in their budgets, threats of redundancy, status within their schools. But all over the country, individual librarians are doing imaginative and valiant and, frankly, quite crucial work, inspiring a love of reading within their schools and communities. They’re not only custodians of the storyhoard, the river of poems and the building blocks of information but brokers of the relationship between books as physical artefacts and the Digital Age. Now, the very best of them have been shortlisted to be the SLA School Librarian of the Year. It’s an award that matters, and it should be recognised by each and every one of us.”

• Download the full press release
• Read Adam Lancaster's acceptance speech
• Read Candy Gourlay's blog about the Awards