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Society of Authors chief executive Nicola Solomon [pictured] has raised concerns over a decrease in the estimated loans of Public Lending Right-registered books through the library service.
The PLR loan rate for 2014 is set to remain frozen at 6.2 pence.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has made the recommendation for the 6.2p rate in a consultation due to finish on December 18th. The rate is being set by the British Library Board, which took over the UK PLR office on October 1st.
The DCMS website stated that it had been possible to keep the rate the same because of “the additional savings and income applied to this year’s calculation, and in part due to a reduction in the estimated loans of books registered for PLR”.
Head of PLR Jim Parker said the rate had been helped by the fact that savings had been made in administration, due to the transfer of the PLR office to the British Library.
But Solomon has written to libraries minister Ed Vaizey expressing concern that the decrease in the loans of books registered for PLR is partially down to the growth in volunteer-run libraries.
In a letter sent yesterday (4th December), Solomon wrote: “We are sad to note the decrease in the estimated loans of books registered for PLR, caused, no doubt, by the cuts in library services and the exclusion of some volunteer-run libraries from the scheme. We urge the Government to include such libraries within the PLR scheme so that a true figure for library lending can be recorded.”
However Parker told The Bookseller that while volunteer-run libraries were a concern for the future, they were not currently affecting the PLR rate.
He said: “There is quite a lot happening in the public library sector. It hasn’t affected us yet because we collect data from a sample of libraries, and there are still enough local authority run libraries for us to get that data.
“The Society has flagged this up for the future.
“If we are going to have more independent volunteer-run libraries the government is going to have to look at the issue.”
In her letter Solomon also urged the Government to quickly issue a consultation on the extension of PLR to audiobooks and e-books, which was initially promised for autumn 2013.
PLR has run for 30 years and has made payments of £138m to 50,000 authors. In 2013, PLR will pay £6.4m to more than 23,000 authors.