Wilson tops PLR league

For the second year running, Jacqueline Wilson has topped the league of most borrowed authors from British libraries. According to figures released by the PLR children's author Wilson's books were borrowed over 2 million times from public libraries in 2003-4.

The annual PLR payment remains a crucial source of income for many writers and other rights holders whose earnings, on average, are far less than the minimum wage. For 2003-4 the payments made by PLR to authors rose to a record 5.26p per loan (from 4.85 pence in 2002-3).

PLR celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2004. In 1979 an Act of Parliament established the right for authors to receive remuneration for the public’s use of their work through public libraries.