Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister of Internal Affairs

Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says changes to the Public Lending Right [PLR] scheme will help benefit both the National Library and authors who have books available in New Zealand libraries.

“I am amending the regulations so that eligible authors will no longer have to reapply every year to be included in the scheme, reducing the administrative burden on both authors and the National Library as well as preventing authors from missing out because they did not reapply in time” says Ms van Velden.

The Public Lending Right scheme provides payments for New Zealand authors as compensation for having their books available for use in New Zealand libraries and is administered by the National Library. Funds are divided among registered authors who meet certain eligibility criteria, based on the number of copies of books they have in libraries.

“I am also bringing forward the period in which authors can challenge the number of books they have in libraries, reducing the pressure on the National Library to finalise the results and process payments to authors before the end of the calendar year.”

“New Zealand has a rich literary landscape and many talented authors who have copies of their books available in local libraries for our communities to access. I hope that these small changes will simplify the process for authors receiving compensation through the Public Lending Right scheme.”

NOTES:

• The PLR Advisory Group were consulted on the proposed changes and were supportive of the changes
• The PLR scheme has a capped annual funding pool of $2.4 million dollars
• The number of copies of books is identified by an annual survey.
• Authors currently have a month (November) to challenge the survey results. Funds are distributed at the end of December each year.

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