Public Lending Remuneration

The closing date for author registrations for PLR year 2011 has passed.

The closing date for registering additional books for PLR year 2011 has passed.  

Authors and books registered from now will be included for PLR year 2012.

If you wish to update/correct any personal details that have changed since you initially registered for Irish PLR, please complete and fill in our secure online form

Alternatively, you can update your address  in writing. 

We can also accept changes of address over the telephone subject to verification being provided. 

Please note that for security reasons, we are unable to accept changes to address via e-mail.

Irish children are the champion borrowers from public libraries, with eight children’s authors making it into the top ten ‘most-borrowed-from-the-library’ list for 2010.

Roderick Hunt, author of over 300 titles in the Oxford Reading Tree series, is Irish children’s top choice for the second successive year with over 115,000 library loans.

Daisy Meadows, creator of the Rainbow Magic series, was the second most-borrowed author, coming in just ahead of Francesca Simon of Horrid Henry fame. Reacting to the popularity of Daisy Meadows, Megan Larkin, publisher of the series, said:

‘We are delighted to hear that Rainbow Magic is so popular in Irish public libraries. The popularity of libraries among school-age readers shows their vital importance to society.’

Classic stories continue to delight today’s children with authors such as Enid Blyton, Roger Hargreaves and Roald Dahl making it into the top ten, alongside the ever popular Julia Donaldson and Jacqueline Wilson.

Prolific US author James Patterson is the most popular adult fiction author with almost 65,000 library loans.  Hailed by the New York Times Magazine as having ‘transformed book publishing’, his books have sold an estimated 220 million copies worldwide.

Darren Shan is the most popular Irish author for the second year running, at number fifteen, while eighteen Irish authors feature in the top 100.

The Official Driver Theory Test continues to be the nation’s most borrowed book, clinching top spot for the second year.

In second position is Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn, which claimed the 2009 Costa Novel Award. The judges described Brooklyn as ‘Poised, quiet and incrementally shattering – we all loved this book and can’t praise it highly enough.’

Reacting to the news, Mr Tóibín remarked:

‘I think the public libraries in Ireland are a great national resource; the people who work in them are dedicated and provide a wonderful service.’

Fiction continues to dominate the title list and books by Irish authors are very popular. Six of the ten most popular adult fiction books are by Irish authors: Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín; The boy in the striped pyjamas, by John Boyne; Once in a lifetime by Cathy Kelly; The return journey, by Maeve Binchy; The secret scripture, by Sebastian Barry, and Let the great world spin, by Colum McCann.

The ‘most-borrowed-from-the-library’ lists are compiled by the Library Council from information supplied to the Public Lending Remuneration (PLR) Scheme by public libraries.

The figures are released following the second Bord Gáis Energy READISCOVER Your Local Library campaign, during which hundreds of events took place in public libraries throughout Ireland.

10,011 authors resident in thirty-two countries were registered for Irish PLR in 2010. €319,558.75 was paid out to 4,639 authors in respect of their total library loans. Four authors received the maximum payment of €3,000, and the rate-per-loan was 8.88 cent.

Commenting on the second year of PLR, Senator Mark Dearey, Chairman of The Library Council, stated that the Council was delighted to manage the PLR scheme and thanked the country’s public library services for their co-operation in providing the loans data.

PLR is funded by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Information about PLR is available at www.plr.ie.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Brendan Teeling, Assistant Director,  Library Council:
Tel: 087 6184734; 01 6761167; email: bteeling@librarycouncil.ie.

Eva McEneaney, Executive Librarian, PLR Office,  Library Council: 
Tel: 01 6761167; email: emceneaney@librarycouncil.ie.

Notes for Editors

Under the Public Lending Remuneration (PLR) scheme, payment is made to authors, illustrators, etc. whose books are borrowed from one of the country’s 352 public libraries.

PLR is managed by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna (the Library Council) and funded by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. 

There are over 14 million visits to Irish public libraries each year, resulting in 14 million loans of books.

Most Borrowed Authors and Titles 2010   

Most Borrowed Titles 2010 (Adult and Children Combined)

Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Titles 2010

Most Borrowed Children’s Fiction Titles 2010

Most Borrowed Fiction by Irish Authors 2010 (Adult and Children Combined)

Most Borrowed Non-Fiction Titles 2010

Most Borrowed Authors 2010 (Adult and Children Combined)

Most Borrowed  Authors 2010 (Adult Fiction)

Most Borrowed Children’s Authors 2010

Most Borrowed Irish Authors 2010 (Adult and Children Combined)

Detailed lists of the most Borrowed Authors and Titles 2010 can be accessed on the PLR website at www.plr.ie

The PLR Registrar is satisfied for the information in this release to be made widely accessible, provided that PLR’s role in compiling the information is acknowledged.

Details of the 100 most borrowed titles for PLR Year 2010 can be found here.

The most borrowed lists of titles and authors are based on all the books loaned by public libraries, so that includes authors who are registered with PLR as well as others who are not registered or who are not eligible to register.

Most Borrowed Authors 2010

Children’s Books Top Library Loans’s Charts

For further information please contact the PLR Office 

The PLR Registrar is satisfied for the information in this release to be made widely accessible, provided that PLR’s role in compiling the information is acknowledged.

Details of the 100 most borrowed authors for PLR Year 2010 can be found here.

The most borrowed lists of titles and authors are based on all the books loaned by public libraries, so that includes authors who are registered with PLR as well as others who are not registered or who are not eligible to register.

The PLR Registrar is satisfied for the information in this release to be made widely accessible, provided that PLR’s role in compiling the information is acknowledged.

Children’s Books Top Library Loans’ Charts

Most Borrowed Titles in 2010

For further information please contact the PLR Office

Seven children’s writers are among the Top Ten Most Borrowed Authors in UK libraries, according to the latest annual data released on February 18th by Public Lending Right (PLR).

They are Daisy Meadows,  the brand behind the ‘Rainbow Magic’ series; former champion lender Jacqueline Wilson; Francesca Simon, author of the ‘Horrid Henry’ series; Mick Inkpen; Julia Donaldson; Lauren Child, and ‘Horrible Histories’ author, Terry Deary.

The prominence of children’s authors in UK libraries follows the pattern in Irish libraries, as shown by the Irish PLR figures from 2009.

‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’  by John Boyne is the most borrowed title in Northern Ireland.

The ‘most borrowed statistics’ are compiled by the PLR Office from data provided by library services around the country. Following a review of our method of calculation, the Top 10 National List of Most Borrowed Titles and Authors is now based on a larger number of titles.

The lists are compiled using the Top 250 titles from each of the public library authorities. The data below are from January 2011.

Most Borrowed Titles in January 2011

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
3. The official theory test – Road safety Authority
4. Minding Frankie – Maeve Binchy
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Jeff Kinney
6. Homecoming – Cathy Kelly
7. The last straw – Jeff Kinney
8. Room- Emma Donoghue
9. Dog days – Jeff Kinney
10. The help – Kathryn Stockett

For the third successive month, J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ assumes the Number 1 spot on our list of Top Titles loaned in January 2011.

‘Room’, the international bestseller and award winning novel by Emma Donghue is the story of a five-year-old called Jack and a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child. ‘Room’ remains at Number 8 for the second successive month in the list of Top Titles.

The ‘most borrowed statistics’ are compiled by the PLR Office from data provided by library services around the country. The Top 10 National List of Most Borrowed Titles and Authors below is compiled using the Top 100 titles from each of the public library authorities. The data below are from November 2010.

Most Borrowed Titles in November 2010

1.   Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
2.   Official Driver Theory Test – Prometric Ireland Ltd
3.   The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
4.   The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown
5.   Horrid Henry’s Christmas Cracker – Francesca Simon
6.   Horrid Henry and the Bogey Babysitter – Francesca Simon
7.   Ghost Light – Joseph O’Connor
8.   Horrid Henry’s Stinkbomb – Francesca Simon
9.   Horrid Henry gets rich quick – Francesca Simon
10.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

November’s data of Most Borrowed Titles sees the ‘Official Driver Theory Test’ knocked off top spot down to number two in favour of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ while Stieg Larsson’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is placed third in our monthly Top ten.  

Francesca Simon is accountable for four out of ten titles, with her seasonal offering, ‘Horrid Henry’s Christmas Cracker’ well placed at number five while Irish authors are represented by Joseph O’Connor’s latest offering, ‘Ghost Light’, which appears in seventh spot.

Most Borrowed Authors in November 2010

1.  Francesca Simon
2.  J.K. Rowling
3.  Roald Dahl
4.  Jacqueline Wilson
5.  Roger Hargreaves
 6. James Patterson
 7. Jeff Kinney
 8. Stieg Larsson
 9. Daisy Meadows
 10. Judi Curtin

The data for Most Borrowed Authors in November 2010 shows only a slight variance from the previous month as the Top 10 authors remain the same, with only their positions in the list altered to any degree.

J.K. Rowling moves from number eight to number two thanks to the success of her ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ with Roald Dahl also making impressive headway as he moves from number 6 to number 3.

The only Irish author represented is London-born but Irish reared Judi Curtin, who occupies 10^th place on the list due largely to the popularity of her ‘Alice and Megan’ series of children’s titles.