Tim Coates, former ceo, Waterstones, is a consultant in publishing and library industries in the US and Europe. He is the author of 'The Freckle Report 2021'
Joined May 2014
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“Without study, no art. Without art no effect on humanity, because art epitomizes that which all the centuries bequeath to us, all that man has found beautiful, that which has had an effect on man, all that he has found worth saving from oblivion”
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The small group of public libraries with whom I am working in the US is growing. The intention is simple - 'to increase the use of the library in the community by improving the quality of the collections'. The work is thorough, measured and very satisfying.
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I paraphrase, but in the US, in one of the states in which I am working, the people voted against library funding - 'because libraries have indulged in too much "mission-creep"' ... It's just too true. Librarians will hate it - but their voters are right.
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I did a public library project for a large council. They placed several conditions on what I could say. My only condition in return was that the elected cabinet councillor would be involved all the time. They didn't manage that! They kept what I said away from her.
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Our bins aren’t collected because Labour and the Greens allowed an in-house service to be set up as a separate company. That company’s borrowed millions from the council, paid off directors who were claiming their jollies on expenses and were arrested on fraud charges.
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In every biography of anyone, the story changes not only depending on who writes it, but when they write it . A biography is as much about the writer as it is about the subject
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You aren’t - in any way - more than half books that are bought and read are non fiction - and that is half of a huge number - more than three quarters of the population
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I was once on a panel with Judy Blume who explained it very well. She said (I paraphrase!) 'There's a time when you should spend any money you have trying out different shades of lipstick'
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People get anxious because they find that 14 yr olds don't appear to read as much as they remember themselves reading at that age. What they don't notice is that that pattern has been true for a hundred years. Those same young people will read plenty, later on. They do.
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My experience is that one should never underestimate anybody’s ability to take an intelligent interest in and appreciate the culture around them . Generally most people don’t make a fuss about it . People read far more than is often reported
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That author was laughing because only a sawdust brain would not know that BP monitors are either expensive or they don't work.
Thank goodness, in America, libraries are being to realise 'a library of things' is a daft waste of money. One day the English will notice, too.
I talked to an established author today who laughed at me when I said "Why am I the only person in the whole world in thirty years, who says that 'public libraries are for books?'
@publiclibnews tells me that libraries now lend: fishing rods, blood pressure monitors and seeds
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I hardly need say that are many Empire medals, knighthoods, salaries and pensions arising, but no practical 'single digital presence' nor even any surviving attempt to build one. The public lost this one. It was never about party politics, or politicians, at all.
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From the outside, it was plainly obvious that the management of the project was terrible and would never work.
Forgive me, but there is an appalling arrogance, which is unjustified. And it costs a lot of precious money.