I'll Give Money to Save Libraries, ex-Waterstones Boss Pledges

A British entrepreneur has pledged to support libraries facing the axe with profits from his ebook company, as he criticised the mismanagement of a system that "is not working".

Tim Coates, a former managing director of Waterstones, launched the Bilbary ebook site in America this week as a rival to Amazon and Apple's ebook retail operations. It will go live in Britain next month.

While setting up the company, he has continued to campaign for an overhaul of how libraries are managed.