Legal Deposit Laws

The materials covered by law, issued in 2005, include printed, unpublished (such as research reports and archival material), audiovisual, and electronic documents on physical media. Numbers of copies to share run from six (for books) to fewer (for example for film or audio material). It lays out responsibilities regards preservation, description and use. The National library provides access to deposited material onsite and online, under the provisions of the national copyright law, which allows for educational and research access.

Legal deposit is a requirement under the Copyright Act 1968 that has enabled the National Library of Australia to collect Australian publications for more than 100 years. It ensures that a comprehensive collection of published material relating to Australia and its people is preserved for the community and future generations. The law was extended in 2016 to cover the online publishing landscape. This includes all Australian print and electronic books, journals, magazines, newsletters, reports, sheet music, maps, websites and public social media. Legal deposit applies to any Australian person, group or organisation that makes this material available to the public for sale or for free.

This law provides for the registration and delivery, free of charge, of any textual, graphic, audio, audio-visual and electronic, and moving image document in order to allow for it to be preserved, organized, made accessible to users, and disseminated in specifically designated centres. Digital works are also covered (although digital files not on physical media (such as DVDs) are not mentioned). For non-moving image works, five copies should be deposited. The National Archive and Library of Bolivia is the lead institution for all but moving image works, and also is responsible for managing the wider deposit libraries network. Other libraries can be designated as depositories if they fulfil certain standards around qualifications and resources. Depository Libraries are charged with receiving documents, ensuring their promotion, organisation and dissemination (access to them), identifying works which have not been properly deposited, ensuring information about legal deposit is up to date (including the national legal deposit register), and providing deposit certificates to publishers. The rules for providing access to legal deposit copies are not clear in the law.

The new Law for the Legal Deposit of Print and Other Works (adopted in 2001) stipulates mandatory deposit of copies of printed works; sound recordings, cine-film or electronic media; works in digital format; theses defended in Bulgaria and by Bulgarians abroad. These can be works produced within the country, ordered for production abroad and/or produced by Bulgarian citizens abroad. The Law provides for the preservation of complete collections of those documents as part of the national cultural heritage; for ensuring public access to deposited documents; and for the bibliographic registration of deposited documents and distribution of bibliographic information through the national bibliography. The National Library receives deposit copies of all print works and theses and is responsible for the publishing of bibliographic records about them in the national bibliography. It distributes part of the deposit copies to other libraries in the country. Institutions receiving deposit copies can allow registered users to use them only on their premises.

The Act Respecting Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (2006) sets the legal foundation for Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). It includes provisions for the legal deposit of publications, requiring Quebec publishers to submit two copies to BAnQ, ensuring the preservation of Quebec’s documentary heritage. Quebec publishers must also deposit with Library and Archives Canada (LAC). BAnQ collaborates with LAC to optimize the management of legal deposits, particularly in the context of digital publications. The Act also addresses the acquisition and preservation of private archives and government records and supports BAnQ’s role in making these materials accessible to the public.

The Library and Archives of Canada Act (2004) establishes the legal framework for Library and Archives Canada (LAC). The Act mandates the legal deposit of publications produced in Canada, requiring publishers to deposit two copies with LAC. This provision ensures that a comprehensive collection of Canada’s published heritage is preserved for future generations. LAC collaborates closely with Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) to optimize coverage, efficiency, metadata sharing, and publisher relations, particularly in adapting to the digital shift. Regulations define specific requirements for the deposit of print and non-print publications. LAC provides ISBN and ISSN agencies for Canada.

Regulated by Law 44 of 1993, Decreto (ordinance) 1080 of 2015, Decreto (ordinance) 358 of 2000 and Law 1379 of 2010. Deposit law applies to: editors, audiovisual and phonograms producers,  video recorders producers, and the authors of printed, audiovisual or phonograms work when they assumed the edition and distributions of its own works established in the country. By 2013 the National Library of Colombia- Selection and Acquisitions Division implemented the voluntary digital deposit through its web site and is harvesting the Colombian web.

According to law, documentary materials, published or produced in Costa Rica, and those published or produced abroad, related to Costa Rica or written by Costa Ricans, must be deposited in the National Library. In compliance with the regulations those materials are: Books, brochures, and all types of documents published or produced in printed or electronic format, new editions or all publications, and reprints with any change in content or presentation; Periodic or continuous publications: magazines, newspapers, yearbooks, reports, journals, newsletters, in printed or electronic form; Graduate and postgraduate thesis in electronic format; Folding and printed sheets for historical, cultural and educational dissemination; Sheet music; Photographs; Posters, cultural, historical, and educational postcards; Maps, atlases, marina, aeronautical and celestial maps; Audio documents (CD, audio etc.); Audio-visual documents (DVD, etc.); Calendars, almanacs with educational, cultural and historical topics; Documents produced  in electronic format for educational, cultural, historical purposes; and other materials. The National Library collects, preserves, and disseminates the Costa Rican documentary heritage. The Legal Deposit is the legal mechanism through which the National Library acquires the Costa Rican national documentary heritage, in order to organise it, to guarantee its preservation and conservation, and to facilitate access to information for current and future generations. The material is available both in person and online to all types of users, especially to researchers.

Materials covered include works published in the country, as well as those related to it or by Cuban authors that are published abroad. It covers books and other printed works, maps, printed musical works, sound recordings, graphic works, microfiches, digital publications on a hard medium) and videos. It is up to the person responsible for publication to send copies of works to the National Library of Cuba and to the Elvira Cape Library in the city of Santiago de Cuba as the second depository act. Copies should also be sent to the local public libraries. When works are published abroad, it is their distributor in Cuba who is responsible to sending copies to the library. The National Library is then responsible for maintaining the national bibliography. The documents are lent to the public in the library, in cases where there is only one the consultation is digital.

Cyprus does not have a stand-alone legal deposit law. Instead, there is a law creating the Cyprus Library, which gives the Library a responsibility to acquire and safeguard as large a share as possible of works published within Cyprus, as well as concerning Cyprus. It should also create the national bibliography, in practice on an annual basis. In parallel, the Press Law of 1989 includes obligations on publishers of printed books and journals only to deposit copies with the ministry, in order to create a Book Archive. The Press and Information Office (part of Ministry of Interior) is the one responsible for legal deposit, and in theory should give two (out of 3) copies to the Cyprus Library (National Library), although. Of the books received, one copy is reserved and the other is in circulation.

Legal deposit copy of non-periodical publications is governed by the Act No. 37/ 1995 Coll., on Non-periodical Publications, last amended in 2017. In principle, a publisher is obliged to submit two legal deposit copies to the National Library of the Czech Republic, one to the Moravian Library in Brno, one to the Olomouc Research Library, one regional legal deposit copy to the Municipal Library Prague and regional research library according to the location of the publishers´ office, and one copy of Braille publications to the K. E. Macan Library and Printing Office for the Blind. The law nonetheless does not cover e.g., audiovisual works, wall maps, or computer programmes.

Legal deposit of periodicals is governed by the Act No. 46/2000 Coll., on the rights and duties in issuing periodical press and amending some other laws (the Press Act), last amended in 2017. Pursuant to this law publishers are obliged to submit copies of printed periodicals to selected libraries. The law provides for a list of recipients, including the National Library, the Moravian Regional Library, the Parliamentary library, regional libraries, the Municipal Library in Prague, the National Museum Library, the Ministry of Culture CR, and the K. E. Macan Library and Printing Office for the Blind.