Pilot Programme for the Promotion of Local Publications and Reading Culture Notice of Programme Fee Allocation
The ‘Pilot Programme for the Promotion of Local Publications and Reading Culture’ (hereinafter referred to as the “Pilot Programme”) aims to support local authors and publications and to encourage the development and utilization of electronic platforms by the local publishing sector, as well as promote a quality reading culture in Hong Kong.
The Pilot Programme includes the launch of a new local book data database, providing digitized images of book cover, summaries/annotations and other such materials on locally published titles in the collection of the Hong Kong Public Libraries, and to link it to the online catalogue of the Hong Kong Public Libraries in order to display more comprehensive and detailed bibliographic information for the convenience of readers accessing library collections. The corresponding database and webpage were launched in April 2020, listing selected locally published titles. The Pilot Programme also provides promotional materials for local authors and publications, so that the library can promote meaningful reading recommendations, as well as supports the engagement of local authors to participate in major library promotion events as part of enhancing the reading culture.
The Hong Kong Reprographic Rights Licensing Society acts as the executive agency for the Pilot Programme. Through its collaboration with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, it is hoped that the publishing sector can deliver more of the bibliographic and promotional materials that will encourage members of the public to read more locally published books and enjoy a wider range of library services. So far, publishers participating in the Pilot Programme have provided some 67,000 bibliographic materials in the local book data database for readers’ reference.
The Pilot Programme will last for three years, from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2023, with funding from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Publishing organisations only need to provide bibliographic information for titles published in Hong Kong that are included in the collection of the Hong Kong Public Libraries, and every year during the period they can receive Programme Fee on a per title basis through the Programme.
According to the current distribution scheme, the fee amount/allocation will be divided into two categories according to public library loan rate in the year. Taking 2020 as an example, Category A: for more popular titles with annual loan tier record ranked 1st to 20,000th, HKD $190 per title per year. Category B: for less popular titles with annual loan tier record ranked 20,001st and after, HKD $50 per title per year. For each title, the payment share between the publishing organisation and the author is 50:50. Participating publishing organisations are responsible for distributing the Programme Fee received to the concerned authors.
Notice is hereby given that the initial allocation has already been issued to the participating publishing organisations. If any authors who have not received the corresponding Programme Fee, they should check the matter with their publishers at any time between the date of this announcement and August 30, 2021.
Publishing organisations that have not yet participated in the project are welcome to support the Pilot Programme to promote a quality reading culture in Hong Kong. For further details of the Pilot Programme, please visit www.hkrrls.org.hk, call 25166268, or email info@hkrrls.org.hk for enquiries.
The Hong Kong Reprographic Rights Licensing Society