An exciting new collaboration between libraries, authors and researchers

The University of Melbourne This project is being led by Associate Professor Rebecca Giblin of the Melbourne Law School, with Dr Paul Crosby (Macquarie University), Professor Imke Reimers (Northeastern University) and Dr Airlie Lawson (University of Melbourne).

Too much of Australia’s literary heritage is out of print. Our research team is working with the Australian Society of Authors and Australian public libraries on a collaborative project to breathe new life into important out-of-print Australian books—by digitising them, licensing them into public libraries for digital lending and making them available for sale as ebooks. Our funding will fully cover digitisation and proofreading costs and authors will receive royalties from libraries on loans as well as royalties on any retail sales. Libraries around Australia will promote the titles to their readers, raising awareness of these valuable books to new generations.

As part of this work, we will be conducting research that seeks to understand better the value of out-of-print books, library promotion activities and the relationship between library lending and sales.

More about the project here