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
- Tweets 8,220
- Following 335
- Followers 375
- Likes 1,458
338 Photos and videos
It’s taken me too many years of a lifetime to understand that there is big difference between being angry ( which mostly one can’t help) and letting other people see that one is angry - which generally one must avoid and is almost always very unhelpful
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Jun 14
There is a fundamental flaw in all 'public library sector' thinking. It is to believe that libraries exist to support government policy (national or local). They don't. They exist to support individual people (and fail to do that). @fionatwycross @DcmsLibraries @libsconnected
Jun 14
@fionatwycross said yesterday that she intends to launch a public library strategy
I count 12 new strategies in the past 20 years
They never address the 3 most important issues
1. What the public want libraries for
2. Why they don't use them
3. Why councils won't pay for them
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Jun 14
These two musical collections were written during the Covid lockdown. They are both settings of beautiful old poems: Christmas carols, and about the Yorkshire Moors. They are available free as scores for choirs and brass bands youtube.com/watch?v=NdQ1C5Cr… youtube.com/watch?v=3xRtMWff…
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Tim Coates retweeted
Jun 14
The whole public library story is much more complicated. Sadly, they have lost contact with the public and their reading. It's very hard to see the way to begin to put things right and has been for a long time. They are not an entity in control of what they do.
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Jun 13
Goathland is a lovely wild village on the Yorkshire Moors. A beautiful church, a waterfall, two fine hotels, an excellent shop, a delicious cafe and lots of sheep on the green. It is as old as can be, but is now famous for 'Heartbeat' and 'Harry Potter'
youtube.com/watch?v=glTRx0Rq…
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Tim Coates retweeted
Jun 11
In any market survey of reading - certainly in the UK and US - and probably in most other countries, Jane Austen is the top 20 authors - mostly in the top 10. Charlotte Bronte is also very high in the lists
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Jun 11
I have discovered The Gondal Saga ....... how wonderful!
Jun 11
That wind is from the North, I know it well;
No other breeze could have so wild a swell.
When thou, a young enthusiast,
As wild and free as they,
O'er rocks and glens and snowy heights
Didst often love to stray.
(Anne Bronte)
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Jun 11
The Moors and the Sea (which includes a setting of The North Wind by Anne Bronte) .... words and scores, freely available to anyone (tim)
youtube.com/watch?v=3xRtMWff…
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Jun 11
That wind is from the North, I know it well;
No other breeze could have so wild a swell.
When thou, a young enthusiast,
As wild and free as they,
O'er rocks and glens and snowy heights
Didst often love to stray.
(Anne Bronte)
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Tim Coates retweeted
Jun 10
In this sequence, the piece called 'Scarborough Castle' is a setting of a wonderful poem about the North Wind, by Anne Bronte . I can send score and words to anyone. (tim) youtube.com/watch?v=3xRtMWff…
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Jun 8
From @libsconnected
"Strategy for Library Volunteer Engagement" | Libraries Connected
On their website
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Jun 7
Hoping that choirs in Aldeburgh have a good year
Aldeburgh - A Song of the sea youtube.com/watch?v=ft0sPaop…
Six new Christmas carols youtube.com/watch?v=NdQ1C5Cr…
Scores available to anyone .....
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Tim Coates retweeted
Jun 6
Goathland - youtube.com/watch?v=glTRx0Rq…
Whitby - youtube.com/watch?v=jumZ4K7S…
The Moors and the Sea - youtube.com/watch?v=3xRtMWff…
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Jun 5
What an utterly terrible display of books - who on earth thought this was worth a photograph ?
It's #DiscoverYourLibrary Day! We're lucky to have so many brilliant libraries across North Herefordshire providing free access to books, eBooks, audiobooks and loads more resources, so definitely drop in if you can! Many thanks to Leominster Library for hosting me today📚✏️
ALT Ellie smiling with a library card in Leominster Library
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Tim Coates retweeted
It's #DiscoverYourLibrary Day! We're lucky to have so many brilliant libraries across North Herefordshire providing free access to books, eBooks, audiobooks and loads more resources, so definitely drop in if you can! Many thanks to Leominster Library for hosting me today📚✏️
ALT Ellie smiling with a library card in Leominster Library
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Jun 5
General point to public library operators. I think it's fair to say, now, that all the zillions that were spent on applying "RFID" labels to books, and installing machines to read them, were a complete waste of time -and the money. They are not 'the future' and never were.
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Tim Coates retweeted
Jun 4
The UK publishing industry is a tremendous asset to the country . A lot of that £7.4bn is export sales and goes to educational and research establishments around the world.
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Jun 2
I was going over some of the discussions about UK public libraries -and why after so many years- they only get worse. My conclusion this time, is that no one anywhere has ever found the way to influence local councils. Not Government, not local people, not press - no one.
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Jun 2
I think people don't realise that - for all the noise and fuss about local elections and parties - it isn't elected councillors who run councils. It is a group of senior, highly paid, 'officers' who talk across councils, and confer. It is they who decide what happens.
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