Legal deposit: preserving our published heritage

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

In order to ensure that the UK’s published output is conserved for the use of future generations a copy of every UK print publication must be given to the British Library by its publishers. This system is called legal deposit and has been a part of English law since 1662, helping to capture and archive our intellectual record.

A work is considered to have been published when copies of it are issued to the public. A wide range of materials are published by our community at Reading: from books and journals, to magazines and information pamphlets; all of these are covered by the legal deposit legislation.

What materials are covered by legal deposit?

In the case of printed publications these include a book (pamphlet, magazine or newspaper), a sheet of letterpress or music, a map, plan, chart or table. Individual journal articles are deposited as part of the journal/periodical which they are contained within.

Online materials are also covered by the legislation; however legal deposit Libraries will harvest these materials themselves. In the situation where something is published both in print and online, then a printed copy still needs to be deposited.

Is anything exempt?

Publishers are not required to deposit the following categories of material: internal reports, examination papers, appointment diaries, wall and desk calendars, and posters.

What do I need to do?

When you publish something, it is your responsibility to comply with legal deposit and send one copy to the British Library within one month of publication.

For more information please see the IMPS pages and the British Library legal deposit pages