Issue 120

Many thanks to the hundreds of school library staff members who participated in Educational Lending Right (ELR) 2021–22; the SCIS team is very grateful for your ongoing commitment to the creation of Australian books.

The school library survey is conducted by Education Services Australia (ESA) on behalf of the Australian Government’s Office for the Arts. The purpose of the survey is to determine an estimate of the number of copies of books in Australian school libraries. The Office for the Arts then combines the school scores with university and TAFE estimates to determine how much money will be paid to eligible authors and publishers to provide recompense for revenue lost because their books are available for free in school libraries.

Many readers are ELR veterans who know that the survey software takes only minutes to run.

At SCIS, we’re delighted at the number of responses we receive from schools just days after invitations have been sent. We’re also aware that some library staff defer their participation because their time is limited.

To encourage library staff participation in the survey, we asked creative consultancy Leon Design to prepare a promotional flyer and poster. Leon Design decided to tap into the ‘… same collective spirit of citizen scientist campaigns like the “Aussie Backyard Bird Count”, and promote the “Great Aussie Book Count”’. You can download an example of the flyer from the SCIS website, or obtain an electronic copy of the poster, flyer or bookmark by emailing [email protected].