Issue 101

Many of you will by now be familiar with the Educational Lending Right (ELR), a cultural program funded by the Australian Government. ELR provides annual payments to eligible members of the writing and publishing industry. The Department of Communications and the Arts invites eligible publishers and book creators — including authors, editors, illustrators, translators, and compilers — to register for payment under the Lending Right schemes.

SCIS manages the ELR school library survey, which compiles an estimate of book holdings in Australian school libraries. This is then used as the basis for payment.

The word ‘survey’ here may be misleading. There are no questions to answer or forms to fill in; rather, it is an automated book count that, after a few clicks within your library management system, pulls the relevant information from your library. No lending information is collected.

We previously prioritised schools that had not yet participated, but, given the longevity of the ELR program, this became difficult with time. We now know that schools that previously participated are more likely to continue to respond favourably, well aware of the ease of participation. Thank you to all school staff who have supported the ELR survey. Book creator registrations for ELR 2017 are now closed, and we are in the early stages of preparing to invite 750 schools to participate in Term 4.

If your school is selected to participate in this year’s ELR survey, please consider accepting. The survey processes have become increasingly simpler, with most schools able to activate the automated survey in two minutes — an easy and efficient way to support Australia’s publishing and writing communities.