Issue 106

Consider those copies of Old Tom or Looking for Alibrandi that are sitting on your library’s shelves. What stories do these books have to tell? How many readers have held these books while absorbing their words — whether in the library, in the classroom, or in their homes?

Each time a library book is borrowed, authors and book creators miss an opportunity to receive a royalty payment; for a tattered, much-loved library book, its creator may have only received a one-off payment of around 75 cents. Fortunately, in Australia, we are lucky to have Commonwealth Government-funded Lending Right programs that see eligible book creators and publishers recompensed for having their work held in libraries.

In Term 4, Australian schools will be invited to participate in the annual Educational Lending Right (ELR) School Library Survey.

SCIS manages this survey on behalf of the Department of Communications and the Arts in order to determine estimated holdings of particular titles in Australian school libraries. This information, combined with the results from TAFE and university libraries, is then used as the basis for Educational Lending Right payments to registered book creators.

How does the survey work?

Selected schools are asked to complete a quick survey within their library management system (LMS). This is not a traditional ‘survey’ — rather, it is an automated report that contains a count of your library’s book holdings. SCIS works closely with library system vendors to ensure that the survey runs efficiently, with minimum effort and time required from school library staff.

How are schools invited?

Schools are randomly selected as a representative sample of all Australian schools, across all states, territories and jurisdictions. Schools must have enrolments of over 100 and must be using an LMS compatible with ELR survey software.

Do I need to participate?

For statistical validity, ELR requires participation from at least 300 schools. For this reason, participation from selected schools is highly valued.

Please keep an eye out in Term 4 to see if your school has been invited and, if you have, consider sparing five minutes to support our wonderful book creators.