New E-Lending Arrangement: Dutch E-Books from Dutch Publishers Will Be Available Sooner via National Library of Netherlands Online Library

From the National Library of Netherlands:

Dutch e-books from Dutch publishers will now be available to library members as quickly as possible, within one year at the most. These terms are included in an agreement made by six parties from the book sector and the Minister of Education, Culture & Science, Ingrid Van Engelshoven. Authors, translators and illustrators will also be given more certainty about remuneration when their e-books are borrowed. This has not always been the case.
The agreements mean that more titles, more up-to-date titles and more titles for younger readers will become available online. At present, 21,000 of a total of around 35,000 titles are available as e-books in the online library. This figure is expected to rise to 27,000 e-books by the end of next year.
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From now on, authors, translators and illustrators will be paid per loan transaction. The profits will be shared 50/50 between the publisher and the author, translator or illustrator. Van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture & Science (OCW), has allocated a budget of up to €3 million in 2021 for the implementation of the agreement. A large proportion of this sum will benefit the makers directly.
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The new arrangements in the e-lending agreement will come into force on 1 January 2019. Seven parties have endorsed the agreement: the Ministry of Education, Culture & Science, the National Library of the Netherlands (KB), the Netherlands Association of Public Libraries (VOB), the Groep Algemene Uitgevers (GAU), the Auteursbond, Stichting Lira and Stichting Pictoright.

Read the Complete Announcement

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