Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their
publications to a repository, usually a
library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and
periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19 (in Poland). Typically, the
national library is one of the repositories of these copies. In some countries there is also a legal deposit requirement placed on the government, and it is required to send copies of documents to publicly accessible libraries.
UNESCO published in 2000 recommendations for the construction of legal deposit legislation.
Legal deposit by country
Australia
In Australia, section 201 of
Copyright Act 1968 and other state Acts requires that a copy of every book published in Australia be deposited with the
National Library of Australia.
Brazil
Legal deposit legislation in Brazil (
Depósito legal - Lei n° 10.994), as of December 14, 2004, requires that two copies of every book or periodical published in the country be sent to the
National Library of Brazil (known as Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca do Rio de Janeiro, or Fundação Biblioteca Nacional), located in the city of
Rio de Janeiro.
Canada
In Canada, the Library and Archives of Canada Act (2004) specifies that up to two copies of any published material must be deposited with Library and Archives Canada. Materials deposited in the archives are catalogued; the catalogs are available as part of the
Library and Archives Canada website.
Finland
In Finland,
The Royal Academy of Turku was given right to receive a copy of all works published in Sweden in 1707. After Finland had been ceded by Sweden to Russia, this privilege was confirmed in 1809. In 1820, all Russian print presses began to send legal deposit copies to Finland.
Gaining its independence in 1917, Finland retained the principles of legal deposit. Helsinki University Library (the university had been transferred from Turku in 1827) remained the main deposit library. Additional copies began to be deposited in other libraries in Turku, Jyväskylä, and Viipuri (later Oulu). In 1984, the obligation to deposit was expanded to audiovisual materials; responsibility to preserve films was given to the National Audiovisual Archive.
A new act on depositing and preservation of cultural materials was given in 2007. The new act covers two new important types of cultural materials. The National Audiovisual Archive collects and preserves broadcasted materials, whereas the National Library of Finland (Helsinki University Library renamed) takes care of capturing and preserving Web contents.
France
In France, legal deposit was initiated by the
Montpellier ordinance of 1537, under which a copy of any published book had to be delivered to the king's library, for conservation purposes. During the following centuries, legal deposit was sometimes used to facilitate censorship and the obligation was thus removed briefly during the
French Revolution, under the argument that it violated
freedom of speech. The main depository is the
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Legal deposit is extremely developed and concerns not only printed material but also multimedia archives and even some web pages.
Iceland
In Iceland, four copies of any published, printed, material must be sent to the
National and University Library of Iceland, three of which will be kept there, and one of which will be kept at
Amtsbókasafnið á Akureyri in
Akureyri. If fewer than 50 copies are made only two are required.
India
The Delivery of Books Act 1954 enacted by the Indian parliament regulates the deposit of books published in India to the National Library, Kolkata and three other libraries namely,Connemara Public Library, Chennai; Central Library , Mumbai and the Delhi Public Library. The Act was amended in 1956 to include periodicals and newspapers. The Indian National Bibliography is complied on the receipt of books received under Delivery of Books Act at the National Library, Kolkata.
Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, the
Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 specifies that one copy of every book published is to be delivered to the
National Library of Ireland, the library of
NUI Maynooth,
Library of
Trinity College, Dublin , the library of the
University of Limerick, the library of
Dublin City University, and the
British Library. Four copies are to be delivered to the
National University of Ireland for distribution to its constituent universities. Further, on demand in writing within twelve months of publication a copy is to be delivered to the
Bodleian Library,
Cambridge University Library, the
National Library of Scotland and the
National Library of Wales.
Israel
In Israel, "The Books Law 2000 (5761)" requires two copies of each publication to be sent to the
National Library of Israel. At their request, the library of the
Knesset and the
Israel State Archive are entitled to receive one copy each.
The government authorities are required by the "Freedom of Information Act, 1999" to send an annual report of their actions to the public library of every town with 5,000 people or more.
Italy
In Italy, the law on legal deposit () requires a copy of each publication to be sent to both the
National Central Library of Florence and
National Central Library of Rome, as it has been since the institution of the
Kingdom of Italy (1861).
In addition, the
regions determine local regional and
provincial legal deposit libraries, which receive two more copies and often inherit that status from their pre-unification history. For instance, the
Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense is the
Lombardy legal deposit library since 1788 (when it covered the
Duchy of Milan), and the National Central Library of Florence since 1743 (for the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany).
Monaco
In Monaco four copies of locally produced books, computer software and media must be deposited in the
Bibliothèque Louis Notari. If fewer than 100 copies were produced only two copies are required.
New Zealand
The legal deposit was initiated in 1903 in New Zealand, and requires that copies of all printed documents, offline documents (e.g. DVDs), internet publications and websites are sent to the
National Library of New Zealand within 20 working days of publication. This process is given legal force by Part 4 of the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003. If more that 100 copies are printed in total, 2 copies must be provided, otherwise 1. If the price of 1 copy is greater than $1,000 NZD, only 1 copy is required.
Poland
Since 1780 the
Republican Library has been entitled to a copy of all works published in Poland. In modern times the issue is regulated by a Decree of the Minister of Culture and Arts of March 6, 1997. The
National Library of Poland and the
Jagiellonian Library receive two copies of all publications, one of which is to be stored indefinitely. In addition to that, there are 15 other libraries to receive legal deposits to be stored for
no less than 50 years:
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Library,
University of Łódź Library,
Nicolaus Copernicus University Library,
Adam Mickiewicz University Library,
Warsaw University Library,
University of Wrocław Library,
Silesian Library,
City of Warsaw Library,
Pomeranian Library in Szczecin,
University of Gdańsk Library,
Catholic University of Lublin Library,
University of Opole Library and
Podlachian Library in Białystok. The
National Film Library (
Filmoteka Narodowa) is to receive all film productions, while the
Sejm Library receives a copy of all legal documents.
Russia
In Russia the
Russian State Library (Moscow), the
National Library of Russia (
St Petersburg), the
Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (
St Petersburg), as well as the libraries of the
Moscow State University, the
President of the Russian Federation, and the two Houses of the
Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation are entitled to a copy of every book published.
Singapore
In Singapore, the
National Library Board Act requires all publishers in Singapore to deposit two copies of every publication to the
National Library Board at their own expense within four weeks from the publication date.
South Africa
In South Africa the
Legal Deposit Act, 1997 requires publishers to provide five copies of every book published, if the
print run consists of 100 or more copies. These copies must be deposited in the
National Library of South Africa (NLSA) in
Cape Town, the NLSA in
Pretoria, the
Mangaung Library Services in
Bloemfontein, the
Msunduzi Municipal Library in
Pietermaritzburg, and the Library of
Parliament in Cape Town. If the print run is less than 100 copies, then only one copy is required, to be deposited in the NLSA in Cape Town. If it is less than 20 copies, then no deposit is required.
For films, videos and sound recordings, the requirements are the same, except that the National Film, Video and Sound Archives (NFVSA) receives a deposit copy instead of the Library of Parliament, and if only one copy is required it is deposited in the NFVSA rather than the NLSA.
Spain
In Spain, since 1701 the law requires legal deposits of every publication and patent to be made in the
Biblioteca Nacional de España, Spain's National Library, at the time of publication and at the publisher's own expense. Any book and patent so deposited can be consulted in the National Library, which holds at least two copies of each paper or book published.
Sweden
Since 1661, the
Swedish Royal Library has been entitled to a copy of all works published in Sweden. Since 1698 all works must also be sent to the
Lund University Library.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the
Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 restates the
Copyright Act 1911, that one copy of every book (which includes pamphlets, magazines and newspapers) published there must be sent to the
British Library; five other libraries (the
Bodleian Library at the
University of Oxford,
Cambridge University Library, the
National Library of Scotland, the
Library of
Trinity College, Dublin and the
National Library of Wales) are entitled to request a free copy within one year of publication.
United States
In the United States, any copyrighted work that is
published must be submitted in two copies to the
United States Copyright Office at the
Library of Congress. This
mandatory deposit is not required to possess copyright of unpublished works, but a
copyright registration can give an author enhanced remedies in case of a copyright violation. The Library of Congress does not retain all works.
A legal requirement also rests on the US government. Over 1,250 Federal depository libraries must receive a copy of all of the publications of the Government Printing Office.
References
Further reading
Jules Larivière, Guidelines for legal deposit legislation (A revised, enlarged and updated edition), Paris, UNESCO, 2000.
Category:Types of library
Category:Copyright law
Category:Library law
