Legal deposit

Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary repository of these copies. In some countries there is also a legal deposit requirement placed on the government, and it is required to send copies of documents to publicly accessible libraries. The legislation covering the requirement varies from country to country, but is often enshrined in copyright law. Until the late 20th century, legal deposit covered only printed and sometimes audio-visual materials, but in the 21st century, most countries have had to extend their legislation to cover digital documents as well. In 2000, UNESCO published a new and enlarged edition of Jean Lunn's 1981 Guidelines for Legal Deposit Legislation, which addresses the issue of electronic formats in its recommendations for the construction of legal deposit legislation. National edeposit and Copyright Act 1968 In Australia, section 201 of the Copyright Act 1968 and other state acts requires that a copy of all materials published in Australia be deposited with the National Library of Australia. State laws require books and a wide range of other materials published in each state to be deposited in the applicable state library. New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia also require books published in those states to be deposited in the library of the state parliament. New South Wales law also requires books published in that state to be deposited in the University of Sydney library. The relevant legislation governing deposit of items to state and territory libraries are: the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT); the Libraries Act 1988 (Qld), the Libraries Act 1984 (Tas), Section 35 of the Libraries Act 1982 (SA), the Libraries Act 1939 (NSW), Section 49 of the Libraries Act 1988 (Vic), and the Legal Deposit Act 2012 (WA) The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has no local legislation , but publishers "are encouraged to lodge a copy of their publications with the ACT Heritage Library for ongoing preservation and access".