A library administrator fears an error has occurred while filling out Public Lending Rights forms for author payments. Their records seem to show that someone borrowed a Jeffrey Archer book “False Impression”. An enquiry is under way.
Authors who have books in libraries get a payment based on how many times their book has been borrowed via the Public Lending Rights (PLR) system. This relies on libraries submitting information about borrowing. Last week Gail Braker was collating the loan records for the Cambridge Centre Library when the anomaly was spotted. It looked as if someone had borrowed a Jeffrey Archer book. “I didn’t know that we even had any Jeffrey Archer books. They are not very good so have not had any demand for them”.
This anomalous result has called into account the accuracy of their loan records that are used to create the Public Lending Rights returns that they generate. The software provider for the lending system is investigating to determine if there is a bug in the system.
As part of their welfare responsibilities the library has contacted the lender to clarify the situation and to offer guidance and counseling.
The administrators of the PLR system are not checking their records. “We know there are no returns for Archer. This has only happened once before in 1997 and we were alerted. That turned out to be a case of mistaken identity by the lender. He thought he was taking out a book by Geoffrey Archer and accidentally picked up the wrong book. He returned it the following day”.
Staff at the Cambridge Library suspect something similar has happened again.
books by Geoffrey Archer
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