Presentation by Ian Cooke and Andrew Davis on legal deposit at the British Library. Given at the Crossref/British Library publisher workshop on February 5 2019.

1. Legal Deposit
Ian Cooke & Andrew Davis
05 February 2019

2. www.bl.uk
What is Legal Deposit?
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Legal deposit requires publishers to
provide a copy of every work they
publish in the UK to the British Library
Copies may also be requested by the 5
other Legal Deposit Libraries
It's existed in English law since 1662
Since 2013, legal deposit regulations
have expanded to include digital as
well as print publications

3. www.bl.uk
Why do we have Legal Deposit?
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Legal deposit ensures the nation's
published output is:
● collected systematically
● preserved for the use of future
generations
● available for readers within legal
deposit libraries
The Legal Deposit and You, written and drawn
by Olivia Hicks

4. www.bl.uk
Why do we have Legal Deposit?
Publications are recorded in online
catalogues and made discoverable as
part of national collections
Books and new Serial titles recorded
in British National Bibliography
Preservation for publications over
long term
Deposited works provide inspiration
and knowledge for new works
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The Legal Deposit and You, written and drawn
by Olivia Hicks

5. Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003
• Responding to “digital black hole”
• Established principle that Legal Deposit could extend to ‘works
published in media other than print’
• Addressed copyright restrictions on collecting digital content
• Excluded sound recordings and film
• Extended protections of Legal Deposit to digital works

6. The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works)
Regulations 2013
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111533703
• Applies to the published work
• Print is the default option – where it exists
• Electronic deposit is one copy shared by all Libraries
• Where electronic is the only published format, delivery is by web
harvester or alternative arrangement agreed with publisher

7. www.bl.uk
Key purpose of the regulations
• To ensure a national collection of non-print publications;
• To enable an efficient system in which material is archived and
preserved in the legal deposit libraries;
• To govern how the deposited copies may be used, balancing the
needs of libraries and researchers with the interests of publishers
and rights holders;
• To facilitate long-term preservation, so that the material may
continue to be accessed in future; and
• To ensure long-term viability by requiring both legal deposit
libraries and publishers to share the responsibility for archiving
without imposing an unreasonable burden on any institution

8. www.bl.uk
Access Restrictions
Premises controlled by Legal
Deposit Libraries
Computer terminals controlled by
Legal Deposit Libraries
Only one access at a time (per
Library) to “same relevant material”
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British Library Reading Room, photo by Paul Grundy

9. www.bl.uk
We take great care of everything deposited…
• Well defined security policies open to audit
• Shared infrastructure is protected against
unauthorised access and other security risks
• Controlled access to each library’s network
• All IT and security audits are reported to the
relevant Governance body

10. www.bl.uk
UK Web Archive
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Millions of web pages
Billions of files
c 500 TB compressed data
Full-text indexing
> 100 curated collections
www.webarchive.org.uk

11. www.bl.uk
Digital Maps
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Annual ‘snapshot’ of
Ordnance Survey large-scale
data (running for 20 years)
New sources of information
Legal Deposit Map viewer

12. www.bl.uk
Publisher Submission Portal
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For “small” publishers (50 or
fewer items per year)
> 800 publishers registered
30,000 books submitted

13. www.bl.uk
Transition from Print to Digital Deposit
Negotiated transition between publishers and Legal Deposit Libraries
Agree standardisation for file formats and metadata
1 digital copy deposited for use across all Legal Deposit Libraries
Automated work flows
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14. www.bl.uk
Transition from Print to Digital: Successes
More content received = More preserved
4 million journal articles received and accessible since 2013
400,000 books received and accessible since 2013
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15. www.bl.uk
Work for 2019
Identify more digital-only publications and
publishers
“Emerging Formats” – how do we collect and
make available complex digital publications?
Infrastructure upgrade for
Digital Asset Management and Preservation
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16. www.bl.uk
Useful contacts…
Print book deposit legal-deposit-books@bl.uk
publisher.enquiries@legaldeposit.org.uk
Electronic book deposit LDO-Electronic@bl.uk
www.bl.uk/legal-deposit
Contact details
Andrew.Davis@bl.uk
01937 546535
ian.cooke@bl.uk
020 7412 7567

18. www.bl.uk
Thank you
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