Legal Deposit in the British Library
Publishers and distributors in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have a legal obligation to send one copy of each of their publications to the Legal Deposit Office of the British Library within one month of publication.
- Introduction
- Interim Arrangements for the Legal Deposit of Electronic Publications
- Voluntary deposit scheme for e-journals
- Definition of a Publisher
- Categories Exempt from Legal Deposit Regulations
- Addresses of the British Library Legal Deposit Offices
- Other Legal Deposit Libraries
- International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs)
- International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs)
Introduction
Publishers and distributors in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have a legal obligation to send one copy of each of their publications to the Legal Deposit Office of the British Library within one month of publication.
The right of the British Library to receive one copy of every publication distributed in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland is based on the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 and the Copyright and Related Act, 2000.
The principle that a national printed archive should be maintained by a legal requirement to deposit has been well established for almost four centuries and has great advantages for authors and publishers:
- Publications deposited with the British Library are made available to users in its various Reading Rooms, are preserved for the benefit of future generations, and become part of the national heritage.
- Publications are recorded in the online catalogue, and will remain an essential research tool for generations to come.
- Most of the books and new serial titles are listed in the British National Bibliography (BNB), which is used by librarians and the book trade for stock selection, is available in printed, CD-ROM and MARC Exchange formats, and has a world-wide distribution.
Interim arrangements for the Legal Deposit of electronic publications
The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 received Royal Assent on 30 October 2003 and began on 1 January 2004. The British Library, together with the other Legal Deposit Libraries, continues to review its processes for acquiring categories of material not covered by previous legislation, including offline (i.e. hand-held items such as CD-ROM) and online electronic publications. The deposit of print publications continues as before.
An independent Legal Deposit Advisory Panel was established by Government to advise the Secretary of State on implementation of the Act and held its first meeting in September 2005. Membership and details of progress can be read on the website of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Alongside the Panel, the Joint Committee on Legal Deposit (JCLD) provides a forum for publishers and the legal deposit libraries to discuss practical implications of the Act and its implementation. JCLD is jointly chaired by the British Library and the Digital Content Forum. You can see its Membership and Terms of Reference.
Selective archiving of UK websites (with permission) was started in 2005 under the UK Web Archiving Consortium. Pending the extension of the Legal Deposit mandate to cover websites, the British Library, JISC and the Wellcome Library continue to add further instances (snapshots taken at regular intervals), and new website titles, to the selective UK Web Archive - over 5,000 titles and 20,000 instances are freely available for searching at www.webarchive.org.uk. See the Links page within this site for other web archive collections.
The deposit of offline or hand-held electronic publications has been subject to a Voluntary Code of Practice 2000. In March 2007, the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel re-launched the voluntary scheme for the deposit of offline digital and microform publications with the UK Legal Deposit Libraries.
An explanatory letter (PDF format, 41KB) about the voluntary scheme from the chair of the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel and guidance notes for publishers (PDF format, 43KB) are available for information.
If you have any questions on the relaunched voluntary deposit scheme for offline electronic and microform publications please contact:
Andrew Davis
Legal Deposit & Digital Acquisitions Co-ordinator
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546535
Email: andrew.davis@bl.uk
We are also keen to encourage deposit of online or pure electronic items, which can be managed through our developing digital storage solution. If you are interested in the deposit of pure electronic content either by e-mail to LDO-Electronic@bl.uk or by FTP, please contact Andrew Davis as above.
Voluntary deposit scheme for e-journals
An e-journals pilot scheme to test the technical infrastructure, mechanisms and procedures relating to the deposit, ingest, storage and preservation of electronic journals was carried out by the British Library under the auspices of a JCLD working group on e-journals. Volunteer participants were sought through UK publisher trade organisations at the end of 2004 and 23 publishers agreed to deposit over 200 journal titles, offering a diversity of subjects and complexity of formats. No end-user access was provided under the pilot scheme, which ran for 12 months. A Report on the pilot (available to download and view in PDF format) details the findings, issues arising, achievements and recommendations.
Following the pilot scheme that ran during 2005-06, a voluntary scheme for the deposit of e-journals, developed by a joint JCLD and LDAP group, began in June 2007. Publishers have been contacted direct and via their trade associations by a letter explaining the scope and purpose of the scheme. Publishers of relevant material have been asked to deposit in accordance with specific technical criteria.
If you are a publisher of e-journals and are interested in depositing content, please contact:
Andrew Davis
Legal Deposit & Digital Acquisitions Co-ordinator
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546535
Email: andrew.davis@bl.uk
Access to print and hand-held electronic publications continues in the Reading Rooms of the Library as before. Our policy for access to voluntarily deposited online or pure electronic publications will be developed in conjunction with the five other UK and Ireland Legal Deposit Libraries and the UK publishing community through the Joint committee on Legal Deposit.
Definition of a publisher
Within the terms of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, 'publisher' is to be understood as anyone who issues or distributes publications to the public. Items published in the United Kingdom and in Ireland are liable for deposit, as are items originally published elsewhere but distributed in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. The requirement for deposit remains, irrespective of the place of publication or printing, the nature and size of the imprint, or the extent of its distribution.
Categories exempt from Legal Deposit regulations
Publishers are not required to deposit the following categories of material unless a written demand for them is made by the British Library:
- Internal reports
- Examination papers
- Local transport timetables
- Appointment diaries; wall and desk calendars; posters
Addresses of the British Library Legal Deposit Offices
All publications (except newspapers) should be sent to:
Legal Deposit Office
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BY
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546268 (monographs) / 546267 (serials)
Fax: +44 (0)1937-546176
Email: legal-deposit-books@bl.uk
Email: legal-deposit-serials@bl.uk
Newspapers should be sent to:
Newspapers LDO
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BY
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546409
Email: LDO.newspapers@bl.uk
Publishers and distributors of periodicals, journals and newspapers are reminded that one copy of every issue should be deposited.
Other Legal Deposit libraries
The deposit regulations of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, with slightly different conditions, apply also to the other five legal deposit libraries:
- Bodleian Library, Oxford
- University Library, Cambridge
- National Library of Scotland
- Library of Trinity College, Dublin
- National Library of Wales
The Agent for the Legal Deposit Libraries is responsible for acquiring legal deposit material for these libraries. Enquiries about deposit with these libraries should be addressed to:
Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries
161 Causewayside
Edinburgh
EH9 1PH
Tel: +44 (0)131 623 4680
Fax: +44 (0)131 623 4681
Email: publisher.enquiries@legaldeposit.org.uk
Publishers please note:
International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs)
An ISBN is a 13-digit code which identifies one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that title or edition. ISBNs are issued by:
UK International Standard Book Numbering Agency
3rd Floor
Midas House
62 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6LQ
Tel: +44 (0)870 777 8712
Fax: +44 (0)870777 8714
Email: isbn.agency@nielsen.com
Web: www.isbn.nielsenbookdata.co.uk
International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs)
An ISSN is an 8-digit code which identifies a serial publication, i.e. a publication issued in successive parts, having a common title, and intended to be continued indefinitely. ISSNs are issued by:
ISSN UK Centre
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546959
Fax: +44 (0)1937 546562
Email: issn-uk@bl.uk
