PUPILS from two Scottish island communities have made a protest video to save their school librarian.

The youngsters from the islands of Mull and nearby Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, launched the campaign after council chiefs voted to axe the school librarian at Tobermory High School - a post currently held by Sue Penny.

The move is part of a wider fight to save school librarians and the mobile library service across Argyll and Bute after the council cut them as part of a savings package of £10 million.

The threatened mobile library service on Mull is particulalry important because it serves primary schools across the island as well as being used by others in the community.

Acclaimed children's author Debi Gliori, whose 2012 novel What's the Time, Mr Wolf? was nominated for a Scottish Book Trust award, has already described the move as a "dreadful cost-cutting exercise" and highlighted the fact the area will be home to Trident missiles, but not school librarians.

In the new video one pupil says: "The school library is just a great place to be able to study and really get your head down and work really hard because sometimes at home it can be difficult not to get distracted. It's just good to have somewhere quiet where you can completely focus on what you're supposed to be doing.

Another adds: "I think it is pretty much essential to have a school librarian. She is always a welcoming person. You get a really friendly welcome when you first walk into the library."

A spokeswoman for the Mull and Iona Libraries Action Group said: "The wider community has rallied round to support Tobermory High School Parent Council.

"Mull and Iona are documented as being in the worst three per cent of Scottish postcodes for the measure of geographic isolation and removal of this service will increase already high levels of social exclusion and disproportionally affect many."

Ann Eastwood, a Mull resident, added: "Parents and students fear the consequences of losing a qualified school librarian, whose role extends way beyond the stamping of books."

Caroline Wood, a retired headteacher, said: "Over a long and varied career I have experienced how motivational the access to a changing range of books is to the development of pupils literacy and learning and, as they get older, access to a knowledgeable and qualified librarian.

"Cutting library services on the island as agreed by the council seems to fly in the face of councillors laudable statement to maintain funding for the youngest and vulnerable members of our community."

In an earlier statement, Dick Walsh, the council leader, said the decisions made meant that, despite significant financial challenges, the council could continue to deliver a huge range of services.

He said: "We can provide much of what our communities have told us they want and we can invest in regeneration and the prosperity Argyll and Bute deserves.

"This is a time of unprecedented challenge for local government and drastically reduced funding means we had a savings target of over £10m in 2016/17 alone."