may 2009 plr e-newsletter

PLR's 30th Anniversary Edition

As many of you will already know PLR is celebrating – it is 30 years since the Act that gave authors the right to receive a payment when their books were borrowed from public libraries was passed.

The campaign of the Writers Action Group finally led to the passing of the Public Lending Right Act 1979.

Maureen Duffy

Maureen Duffy, one of the leaders of that group, was one of the first authors who registered with PLR. A total of just over 6,800 authors registered with us in that first year and, as word has spread, that figure has increased to 41,730 today. Maureen still greatly values the system she fought so hard for over many years.

“So when the PLR report comes through the letterbox….. we know that, however small the sum, someone loves us and we can write another paragraph.”

The world has changed very much since 1979 and so has PLR.

In 1979, the computers that we now rely upon for almost every aspect of our lives were in their infancy. Although PLR used the most modern computer systems available at the time, the administrative work involved in registering authors and books and collecting loans data was very labour intensive.

At the beginning there were 19 full time staff administering the Scheme including 5 in the IT team – we now operate with the equivalent of 9 full time posts and our IT department now has only 2 members.

Kelly, one of our Registration Officers, is also celebrating her 30th birthday this year and is the face of PLR today.

30th June reminder image

Books must be registered by 30 June 2009 in order to be credited with loans recorded since 1 July 2008.

Online applications must be submitted by midnight on 30 June to be included in the year end calculations. Postal applications must also be received by no later than 30 June.

You can apply to register your published titles online or via an application form.

Application forms are available to download on our website. Alternatively you can request a form to be posted to you.

PLR takes advantage of modern technology wherever possible. To reflect authors’ needs and the increasing reliance on computers, we launched our improved online service in May 2007. This has proved to be very popular, with 70% of new authors now applying online and 70% of all book registrations processed electronically.

Collection of loans data has also been simplified and now arrives electronically rather than via magnetic tapes sent monthly to our office. As a result we have been able to increase the size of our sample so that it is even more representative of total UK library borrowings. Our first loans data equated to 0.9% of total library loans, in the last PLR year we sampled 23%. Kelly feels that PLR must continue to develop if it is to stay relevant.

"The world continues to change at an ever increasing rate and PLR strives to develop along with it. As technology develops who knows what the world and PLR will be like in another 30 years?"

That’s all for now – the next e-newsletter is due in December 2009.

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