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Coates blasts UK library service as Bilbary launches in the US
23.03.12 | Lisa Campbell
Tim Coates, founder of online e-lending service Bilbary, has pledged to raise money to donate to library campaign groups after blasting the UK's library service as “not organised” enough to benefit from a share of income from his business.
Officially launching Bilbary in America today, Coates, a former Waterstones m.d, announced US libraries participating in his online e-book lending and selling service could earn a share of the income from e-book sales made from their websites through Bilbary, for the benefit of the libraries themselves and their patrons.
He said: “It is practical in America because state library services have the organisation to cope with it. It isn't practical in the UK because the library service is simply, in our view, not organised at all.”
Consequently, in the UK, Coates said Bilbary would "try to find a way to raise the same money" to help campaign groups across the country save libraries from closure. “Instead of spending it with the official library service, we will work with groups trying to operate and save individual libraries, like Kensal Rise,” Coates said.
Speaking in The Independent today, Coates said: “We'll put in as much as we can…We want to make a point. The library system in Britain is not working." He added: “We've seen appalling council management. Some have just washed their hands of the libraries and said the community can keep it running if they want to. We'll work with those campaigning to keep the libraries open.”
Bilbary will launch in the UK and Europe next month with 900,000 titles.
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The Independent article that this peice links to says
“A series of campaign groups have sprung up to support them and come up with alternative ways of running individual sites. These include sites in Brent and Lewisham, both in London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight.”
This is incorrect and I am writing to tell them so. We are not impressed at being misrepresented in Mr Coates' publicity drive for his new business venture.
Meanwhile we will continue to focus on our battle to maintain the national libraries network and ethics and to ask that politicians stop smashing it up in the name of passing political ideology.
We do not think that Mr Coates’ approach (based on the minimal detail there is) is the answer, and we question whose interests he is looking after, the public library service or his new business venture. The public library network may have its faults and yes, more joined up thinking and improvements and efficiencies can be made, but it is an incredibly efficient, economic and inclusive national network. We argue that breaking it up by cutting “individual sites” off so they are run outside of this network, by volunteers, is counter-productive, unsustainable, inequitable and a massive leap backwards. Libraries should not have to rely on either private enterprise or philanthropy. They should be properly supported and funded as a public service.
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
Hear! Hear! Shirley. We could not have put it better ourselves!
The Independent article this letter links to says
“A series of campaign groups have sprung up to support them and come up with alternative ways of running individual sites. These include sites in Brent and Lewisham, both in London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight.”
This is incorrect and I am writing to tell them so. We are not impressed at being misrepresented in Mr Coates' publicity drive for his new business venture.
Meanwhile we will continue to focus on our battle to maintain the national libraries network and ethics and to ask that politicians stop smashing it up in the name of passing political ideology.
The public library network may have its faults and yes, more joined up thinking and improvements and efficiencies can be made, but it is an incredibly efficient, economic and inclusive national network. We argue that breaking it up by cutting “individual sites” off so they are run outside of this network, by volunteers, is counter-productive, unsustainable, inequitable and a massive leap backwards
We believe that Libraries should not have to rely on either private enterprise or philanthropy. They should be properly supported and funded as a public service. We do not think that Mr Coates’ approach (based on the minimal detail there is) is the answer, and we question whose interests he is looking after, the public library service or his new business venture.
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
The point I made yesterday was that private money is not the answer to a national problem and that DCMS must be urged by all to protect the public library service. Whether the firm pledging money were Bilbary, Boots or Brake Brothers, I'd have written in a similar vein. But I did not make that clear. So I have asked The Bookseller to remove the comment.
It's not clear exactly how the UK libraries are disorganised and if this is specifically about ebooks. With ebooks, the problem in the UK is that Amazon won't allow Kindle ebooks to be offered in libraries.In the US they do. I would be interested to hear why, or if this is just something that will roll out to the UK in time.
At the moment the libraries can only lend out books on Kobo and we're making that arrangement, via OverDrive. It seems well organised, but very disappointing for the many people who bought Kindles for themselves, or for relatives, thinking they could borrow library books. I heard it's the number one complaint in libraries, and surely it's caused by Amazon rather than lack of organisation?
Adele
The Kindle could be enabled to read the Overdrive titles, Amazon restrict the formats that the Kindle is compatible with to increase purchases from their store. However the major issue is that choice to UK libraries is restricted by the reluctance of the majority of the UK publishers to allow libraries to loan eBooks.
Only two major UK publishers remain on Overdrive UK, Bloomsbury and Random House. They both though charge high prices to libraries for their titles (£25-£50).
You will be glad to know that the Kobo is not the only device that is compatible with the Overdrive service. A large number of suitable eReaders are listed at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/Default.aspx?type=ebook
Also, as far as I know, there is no national library service in the USA. So how its "easier" to talk to the myriad seperate USA libraries, I have no idea! Unless the American Library Association is co-ordinating an approach?
When I was visiting libraries who want to buy our books via OverDrive they showed me the OverDrive system and the fact that Kindle versions were available in the US. So a US library could subscribe to OverDrive and lend out Kindle ebooks. Amazon permit it in the US but not in the UK.
It's a pity the major publishers pulled out of OverDrive and that the remaining ones charge such high prices. We will be involved, and in fact I find that having our ebooks with a library leads to more sales. The libraries only lend out to one person at a time, and ebooks are such an impulse buy that people tend to look online and buy a copy rather than waiting once they start trying to get a book.
This has been our experience with another service and I think being with the UK public libraries would be similar.
The Independent article that this peice links to says
“A series of campaign groups have sprung up to support them and come up with alternative ways of running individual sites. These include sites in Brent and Lewisham, both in London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight.”
This is incorrect and I am writing to tell them so. We are not impressed at being misrepresented in Mr Coates' publicity drive for his new business venture.
Meanwhile we will continue to focus on our battle to maintain the national libraries network and ethics and to ask that politicians stop smashing it up in the name of passing political ideology.
We do not think that Mr Coates’ approach (based on the minimal detail there is) is the answer, and we question whose interests he is looking after, the public library service or his new business venture. The public library network may have its faults and yes, more joined up thinking and improvements and efficiencies can be made, but it is an incredibly efficient, economic and inclusive national network. We argue that breaking it up by cutting “individual sites” off so they are run outside of this network, by volunteers, is counter-productive, unsustainable, inequitable and a massive leap backwards. Libraries should not have to rely on either private enterprise or philanthropy. They should be properly supported and funded as a public service.
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
Hear! Hear! Shirley. We could not have put it better ourselves!
The Independent article this letter links to says
“A series of campaign groups have sprung up to support them and come up with alternative ways of running individual sites. These include sites in Brent and Lewisham, both in London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight.”
This is incorrect and I am writing to tell them so. We are not impressed at being misrepresented in Mr Coates' publicity drive for his new business venture.
Meanwhile we will continue to focus on our battle to maintain the national libraries network and ethics and to ask that politicians stop smashing it up in the name of passing political ideology.
The public library network may have its faults and yes, more joined up thinking and improvements and efficiencies can be made, but it is an incredibly efficient, economic and inclusive national network. We argue that breaking it up by cutting “individual sites” off so they are run outside of this network, by volunteers, is counter-productive, unsustainable, inequitable and a massive leap backwards
We believe that Libraries should not have to rely on either private enterprise or philanthropy. They should be properly supported and funded as a public service. We do not think that Mr Coates’ approach (based on the minimal detail there is) is the answer, and we question whose interests he is looking after, the public library service or his new business venture.
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
The point I made yesterday was that private money is not the answer to a national problem and that DCMS must be urged by all to protect the public library service. Whether the firm pledging money were Bilbary, Boots or Brake Brothers, I'd have written in a similar vein. But I did not make that clear. So I have asked The Bookseller to remove the comment.
It's not clear exactly how the UK libraries are disorganised and if this is specifically about ebooks. With ebooks, the problem in the UK is that Amazon won't allow Kindle ebooks to be offered in libraries.In the US they do. I would be interested to hear why, or if this is just something that will roll out to the UK in time.
At the moment the libraries can only lend out books on Kobo and we're making that arrangement, via OverDrive. It seems well organised, but very disappointing for the many people who bought Kindles for themselves, or for relatives, thinking they could borrow library books. I heard it's the number one complaint in libraries, and surely it's caused by Amazon rather than lack of organisation?
Adele
The Kindle could be enabled to read the Overdrive titles, Amazon restrict the formats that the Kindle is compatible with to increase purchases from their store. However the major issue is that choice to UK libraries is restricted by the reluctance of the majority of the UK publishers to allow libraries to loan eBooks.
Only two major UK publishers remain on Overdrive UK, Bloomsbury and Random House. They both though charge high prices to libraries for their titles (£25-£50).
You will be glad to know that the Kobo is not the only device that is compatible with the Overdrive service. A large number of suitable eReaders are listed at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/Default.aspx?type=ebook
Also, as far as I know, there is no national library service in the USA. So how its "easier" to talk to the myriad seperate USA libraries, I have no idea! Unless the American Library Association is co-ordinating an approach?
When I was visiting libraries who want to buy our books via OverDrive they showed me the OverDrive system and the fact that Kindle versions were available in the US. So a US library could subscribe to OverDrive and lend out Kindle ebooks. Amazon permit it in the US but not in the UK.
It's a pity the major publishers pulled out of OverDrive and that the remaining ones charge such high prices. We will be involved, and in fact I find that having our ebooks with a library leads to more sales. The libraries only lend out to one person at a time, and ebooks are such an impulse buy that people tend to look online and buy a copy rather than waiting once they start trying to get a book.
This has been our experience with another service and I think being with the UK public libraries would be similar.