What Is Legal Deposit

Legal deposit is the rule that requires publishers to give copies of their works to designated libraries. England established it by statute in 1911, entitling the British Library, the Bodleian, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, Trinity College Dublin, and the National Library of Wales to a copy of everything published in the United Kingdom.

The Swedish decree of 1661 is among the oldest, feeding the National Library in Stockholm. France applies deposit to the BnF, Germany to its national library, and Japan to the Diet Library.

In the United States, copyright registration at the Library of Congress works similarly, with copies of the best edition of many works. The result is national memory collected systematically, millions of items a year..