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April 13, 2006
About Tim COATES
Tim Coates is a former bookseller who has become a well-known advocate for improvements in public-library service. He was the first U.K. bookseller to open an all-night bookstore with a cafe, sofas, and the comfortable style we now associate with bookstores around the world. In his current work, he strives to bring the same customer orientation to libraries.
In the 1980s most bookstores, except for those in the major university towns, were dingy; stocks were poor, and it was quite frightening to ask for a book if you weren't sure what you wanted. Across many countries, there was a movement to improve, to open the windows and turn on the lights. Tim Coates was at the forefront of that movement. In England he was managing director first of Sherratt & Hughes and then of Waterstone's bookshops and of the English book chain WHSmith in Europe.
Active on a wide stage, Tim worked closely with the Czech writers who brought about the downfall of the Communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia; back in the United Kingdom, he also earned notoriety for being among those who brought about the end, in 1997, of the British Net Book Agreement, a price-fixing agreement between publishers and booksellers that had determined the prices people paid for books since 1900.
Since 1999 Tim has pursued library improvement at the local and countrywide level by urging improved book ranges, longer hours, and more welcoming buildings. He is the author of "Who's in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service," a report which is used now in many countries to assess public-library services, and he is working on a training guide for library managers as well as an updated edition of his “Who’s in Charge” report. He is a consultant who provides guidance to local councils and to departments of government.
Tim is also a writer, published by Bloomsbury, and he publishes his own series of historic papers. His elder son, Sam, is political correspondent for the Times in London, and his younger son, Olly, is a cellist with an international solo career. Tim and his wife, Bridget Cave, live in London.
Posted by Karen Christensen at April 13, 2006 3:53 PM
Comments
Hello Tim
Forgive me for sending you this Guardian article this way, but I do not know your direct email address. Dave Lull just sent it to me and I thought you might be interested, assuming you haven't seen it already.
Best wishes
Maxine.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dave_lull@yahoo.com
Date: 16-May-2006 17:57
Subject: Guardian Unlimited Books: Rowling and Rushdie speak out for libraries
To: maxinelclarke@gmail.com
Dave Lull spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited Books site and thought you should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited Books site, go to http://books.guardian.co.uk
Rowling and Rushdie speak out for libraries
Richard Lea
Monday May 15 2006
The Guardian
JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Irvine Welsh and Jacqueline Wilson are among 150 authors who have pledged to help galvanize support for public libraries and combat their growing image problem.
The Love Libraries campaign published details today of all the authors and celebrities who have agreed to support the initiative by appearing in libraries or speaking about the contribution libraries make to public life.
Rowling compared libraries to the World-Between-The-Worlds from CS Lewis's Narnia books, "where visitors could enter a thousand different worlds by jumping into different pools". "When I got my eldest daughter a library card I felt as though I had bought her citizenship of that same fabulous world," she said.
Rushdie focused on the potential libraries have for disseminating ideas, saying "if knowledge is power, then the public library system gives that power to anyone who wants it."
However, it is a potential that is in danger of remaining largely untapped. A recent study conducted by government, libraries and publishers shows that 42% of adults haven't visited their local library in the past two years.
The popular philosopher Alain de Botton may have put his finger on a possible explanation. "It's in walking into a library that most people first get the sense of how little they know," he explained. "Surrounded by so many books, we are liable to feel how great our ignorance is, next to all the accumulated wisdom and insight of others." This "sense of inferiority" is "far from being uncomfortable", he continued, "because libraries invite us to share their riches with them. They hold up a ladder to us."
"Public perceptions are out of step with the major changes happening in libraries," said Miranda McKearney, director of The Reading Agency. "We are in danger of permanently losing the mainstream UK adult reading audience".
This would be something of a catastrophe according to Irvine Welsh, who called his local library his "real school". "I dread to think what would have happened to us without it," he added.
The Love Libraries campaign kicked off in March this year with a project to transform libraries in Newquay, Gravesend and Richmond into models of a possible 21st-century reading service.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
Posted by: Maxine Clarke at May 16, 2006 6:04 PM
I am gathering nominations from bloggers who talk about books or
writing, as a counterpoint to the recently released New York Times
list.
The voting will be open until the end of May (recently extended). I am looking for as wide a
participation as possible, so please pass this along to anyone you know
who might be interested.
Votes can be submitted to me via email or in the comments thread of this post on my blog:
http://mapletree7.blogspot.com/2006/05/alternative-list-explanation-and-faq.html
Please participate!
Posted by: mapletree7 at May 19, 2006 2:02 AM
Hello Dear Tim,
Tis a while since I was last in touch - thought I would let you know I am still " in the land of the living!"
Yes,, I do keep reading your blog. Mmmm, at times it fills me with delight, frustration, anger, amusement, but never dull.
You are doing a sterling job!
What has happened to Mr. Grimsdyke? Oh, the library cat, Perkins, has a double. Oh yes, he lives on one of the shelves in a quaint second hand bookshop in Castel-nau-Magnoc.
Px
Posted by: pegharker at August 21, 2007 9:12 PM
Hi Tim - lovely work. I agree with what you are doing. Keep it up. Long live libraries!
Ronan
Posted by: ronan o'malley at January 22, 2009 11:05 AM