Who’s in Charge?

Libri's first report Who's in Charge? was published on April 27th 2004. The report by Tim Coates is both an analysis of what is wrong with libraries today and a recipe for their renewal. The report was roundly attacked by many in the library community who do not seem to share either our belief in books, or the need to radically alter the way libraries operate so that they deliver the service the public wants, when and where they want it.

Public libraries, says Tim Coates, have failed to meet “the need for a broad range of books and reading material; the need for libraries to be open at times when users are able to visit; the need for the entire community to find libraries to be clean, welcoming places to visit and in which to study.”

Tim Coates’s new report – Who’s in Charge? – describes the sorry state of public libraries today using data from national sources and from the Hampshire library authority, and presents concrete proposals to rescue the service by making it relevant to the library users of today.

With a long record of success in the book trade - Paul Hamlyn called Tim “the best book-seller in England” – he was nevertheless for many years seen as the bad boy of publishing following his attacks on the – now abolished – price-fixing Net Book Agreement. Tim’s outspoken views on the decline of public libraries over the past five years have not endeared him to librarians. Who’s in charge? is likely to prove equally controversial with the library establishment.

Get the report here.