ASA advocates for DLR at ADA Conference

5.05.21

Last week ASA CEO Olivia Lanchester, and ASA Board Director Kirsty Murray attended the Australian Digital Alliance Copyright Forum, to speak about the case for digital lending right. They appeared alongside Australian Library and Information Association Director of Policy and Education Trish Hepworth, to advocate for a boost in the PLR/ELR budget and to call for the prioritisation of digital lending right now, especially given digital borrowing is on the rise and libraries are growing their digital collections.

Kirsty Murray says, "Public Lending Rights makes it possible for countless Australian authors to dedicate time to their writing. But over the years, the real value of PLR has dwindled. In recent tallies of my novels held in public libraries, up to 75% were held in ebook format only. I receive no lending rights for those titles. As public libraries increasingly replace print books with ebooks and audio books, the campaign to secure Digital Lending Rights for Australian authors has become urgent."

"It's simple. A lending rights payment should apply whether a book is borrowed from a library in print, ebook or audio format. In this way, the schemes are future proofed. We know that authors' incomes have declined and we know that funding for literature is dismal. Expanding the eligibility criteria for PLR/ELR and boosting the budget is how the Government can directly, efficiently and meaningfully invest in our writers and illustrators within an already successful system." Lanchester says.

You can read more about the ASA's Digital Lending Rights campaign here. We invite our members to join our campaign for DLR by contacting your local MP to request the expansion of the lending rights schemes now. You can find the details of your MP here, and download our template letter here.