Books are left on the shelf at multi-use public libraries

LIBRARIES are struggling because they are “trying to do too much” by becoming community centres that offer yoga classes and iPad sessions rather than focusing on books, the former managing director of Waterstones has said.

Tim Coates criticised the “hopeless” direction libraries in the UK had taken over the past 20 years, attributing their declining use to the industry’s obsession with “rigging them out” with the latest technology and trendy activities.

His comments come after recent research revealed that UK public and school library use is less than half of that in the US because “America stuck to just providing books,” he said.

Mr Coates, who was also the managing director of WH Smith, said: “The library profession has got too hung up on how important it is as a ‘social force’ and it is a terrible mistake.

“They are trying to do too much. They lost the skill at being able to do the one thing that people needed from them – to provide books. They have been told endlessly that children don’t read any more, they just watch television and they use the internet to find out anything that they want. So people within local governments started asking, why should we provide libraries?

“There’s a battle going on and it’s about what the libraries are for. They are not there to provide a service for the local council as a community centre. They are there to provide reading.”

Mr Coates polled 300 UK residents about their reading habits, with the figures showing that 87 per cent have “made use of a book” in the previous 12 months. However, the number of adults who had obtained their last book from a library stood at just 8 per cent for those aged 18 to 35, 10 per cent for 25 to 54-year-olds and 12 per cent for those aged over 54.

“Public and educational libraries play a very significant part in the provision of printed books to readers” in the US, the survey concluded.

“Twenty years ago, UK libraries insisted they were there to be community centres and started installing loads of computers and activities. But at that point millions of books from public libraries were removed,” Mr Coates said.

“They have these halo around their heads, saying they are all about education and community – but actually they are not doing the one job that people want them to do,” he added.