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May 13, 2006
Publishers and public libraries
Maxine asked last night "Why don't publishers support your campaign for the improvement of public libraries?"
The answer is because they are sensible, rational, commercial folk who are not allowed to waste money. For them, in publishing terms, the UK public library service has for a long long time been a completely lost cause.
When you see that the head of Ealing library service says, effectively, from a publisher's point of view: "The way to make libraries attractive to people is to reduce the emphasis on books- by a lot" then you can see why publishers take the view that they do.
When one hears the chief librarian for Hampshire repeat with emphasis on the radio that It is just as important and stimulating for people to watch the film of Pride and Prejudice as it is for them to read the book, then in one's mind one sees the book publishers pick their coats and bags and leave the discussion. It isn't a publisher's job to persuade these people what libraries are for. They can only shrug their shoulders in disbelief and move on to more useful ways of spending their time.
In fact publishers are beginning to take up my cause (verbally), but it is only out of pity for me, and in response to my hectoring and that won't last long unless we get some results quickly.
Posted by Tim Coates at May 13, 2006 8:59 AM