Legal Deposit (Copyright Libraries)
On this page:
- What is Legal Deposit?
- Legal Deposit and Trinity College Library Dublin
- Legal Deposit and Irish Publishers
- Legal Deposit Contact Details
What is Legal Deposit?
Legal deposit is an obligation on publishers and distributors to place their publications with designated libraries, to establish and maintain an archival record of a nation's published output. This has great advantages for authors, publishers, researchers and the general public.
Through legal deposit, publications are:
- Made available to readers
- Preserved for the benefit of future generations
- Become part of the national heritage
Institutions which benefit from legal deposit are sometimes known as "copyright libraries".
Legal Deposit and Trinity College Library Dublin
Legal deposit has been established in Trinity College Dublin since 1801, accounting for much of the Library's collection of five million volumes.
Trinity College Library Dublin benefits from legal deposit legislation of both Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Irish publishers and distributors are required to deliver a copy of each of their works to Trinity College Library Dublin under the terms of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.
UK publishers and distributors are obliged to deposit a copy of each of their works in the British Library, and on request in the five other specified libraries including Trinity College Library Dublin, under the terms of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 (UK).
Legal Deposit and Irish Publishers
Irish publishers and distributors are obliged by law to deposit 13 copies of a book or journal with specified legal deposit libraries in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
For the purposes of the Act:
- A publisher is anyone who issues or distributes publications to the public, irrespective of:
- Size of the publishing operation
- Number of copies of a published edition
- Price of individual copies
- Items originally published elsewhere but distributed in the Republic of Ireland are also included
- A "book" includes all printed publications such as:
- newspapers
- journals
- magazines
- pamphlets
- sheet music
- maps
- Under Section 198(11) of the Act the electronic version of a publication may be claimed in addition to the print copy
These requirements are covered in Section 198 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.
Section 198(1) states “the publisher of any book published in the state, shall, within one month after publication, deliver, at his or her own expense, a copy of the book to each of the following…”
- Trinity College Dublin
- The British Library
- The National Library of Ireland
- Dublin City University
- NUI Galway
- NUI Maynooth
- UCD
- University College Cork
- University of Limerick
In addition, Irish publishers and distributors are required, on request, to deposit publications with:
- The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
- Cambridge University Library
- The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
- The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
The Irish Copyright Agency (c/o Trinity College Library Dublin) provides a local address for Irish publishers and distributors to send works intended for onward despatch to the legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom (other than the British Library).
Legal Deposit Contact Details
Irish publishers and distributors should send copies of their publications to:
Trinity College Library Dublin
Accessions Department
Trinity College Library Dublin
College Street
Dublin 2
Tel: +353 1 8961021
Fax: +353 1 8963774
E-mail: libraryaccessions@tcd.ie
National Library of Ireland
Legal Deposit Section
National Library of Ireland
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
Other Irish Legal Deposit Libraries
Copies for the other six Irish libraries should be sent to the Acquisitions Department of the libraries of the individual universities:
UK Legal Deposit Libraries
UK Non-Print Legal Deposit Regulations laid before the British Houses of Parliament
On 28 January, the Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013 were laid before the British Parliament. The regulations seek to ensure that the UK Legal Deposit Libraries (LDLs) can provide a national archive of the UK’s non-print published material, such as websites, blogs, e-journals and e-books in a way that does not prejudice publishers’ commercial interests and that respects copyright ownership.
In doing so, they address the important challenge of preserving the British nation’s digital heritage for future generations. Researchers of the future will be able to study and analyse a comprehensive source of material within LDLs which accurately reflects UK society today.
UK Legal Deposit Libraries and publishers have worked collaboratively, through the Joint Committee on Legal Deposit, to establish the principle and content of the regulations. They will be implemented in April this year, at which point the archiving of the UK’s digital heritage by LDLs can begin in earnest.
Deposit Guidelines
Irish publishers and distributors should deliver the four copies of print publications (only) intended for the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Cambridge University Library; the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales, to:
Irish Copyright Agency
c/o Trinity College Library Dublin
College Street
Dublin 2
Tel: +353 1 8961021
Fax: +353 1 8963774
E-mail: irlegdep@tcd.ie
The copy intended for Trinity College Library Dublin may be included in the same parcel.
Alternatively send four copies directly to the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries in the United Kingdom at:
Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries
161 Causewayside
Edinburgh
EH9 1PH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 131 6234680
Fax: +44 845 6234681
E-mail: publisher.enquiries@legaldeposit.org.uk
The British Library
Publications (with the exception of newspapers) destined for the British Library should be sent directly to:
The Legal Deposit Office
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BY
United Kingdom
Books - Tel: +44 1937 546268
E-mail: legal-deposit-books@bl.uk
Serials - Tel: +44 1937 546267
E-mail: legal-deposit-serials@bl.uk
General Fax: +44 937 546273
Newspapers destined for the British Library should be sent to:
The Newspaper Legal Deposit Office
The British Library
Unit 3
120 Colindale Avenue
London
NW9 5LF
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 74127382
Fax: +44 20 74127390
E-mail: legal-deposit-colindale@bl.uk