Written questions, answers and statements

Public Libraries: Electronic Publishing

Show full question

Question for Department for Education

UIN 202660, tabled on 26 June 2014

Question

Mr Gregory Campbell
Democratic Unionist Party
East Londonderry
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to make e-books available from public libraries.

Answer

Mr Edward Vaizey
Conservative
Wantage
Commons

Answered on

22 July 2014

I have been asked to answer this question on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have changed the law so that the Public Lending Right (PLR) is now extended to e-books for on-site lending. This legislation came into force on 1 July. Due to current EU copyright law it is not possible to extend PLR to remote lending at this time, however the Government will revisit the issue as part of a continuous review of e-lending, and are in contact with the EU Commission on this matter.

The Society of Chief Librarians and the Publishers Association are currently conducting a 12 month pilot into e-lending in public libraries, working closely with four local authorities in England to carry out research into the impact of e-book lending in public libraries on authors, publishers and the library service, in order to identify a suitable and sustainable model for all stakeholders. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are in contact with the major stakeholders of this pilot, and will follow up with its findings, which are due in March 2015.

Answered by

Department for Education
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.