What is legal deposit?
Legal deposit is a law that requires publishers to give copies of their publications to certain libraries. These libraries keep the materials safe for research and preserving history.
There are six legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland:
- National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
- Bodleian Library, Oxford
- Cambridge University Library
- Trinity College, Dublin
- National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
- The British Library, London
The Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries requests and receives publications on behalf of these five libraries. it will distribute one copy to each of the five legal deposit libraries, including the National Library of Scotland.
What does legal deposit mean for us?
Collecting through legal deposit is the reason for the depth and breadth of our collection of over 20 million printed and electronic publications. We are likely to have a book, pamphlet, journal, newspaper, magazine, report, article, or e-book on every topic you can think of.
Through legal deposit legislation, we also receive official publications from government bodies and can provide access to millions of archived UK domain websites. Legal deposit material can help with your research, your creative projects or your business, and stimulate new ideas.
Legal deposit legislation
The legislation governing UK legal deposit is the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003. This Act, and the reciprocal Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, allows the legal deposit libraries to receive a copy of any work published in the UK or Ireland. The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print) Regulations 2013 extended the legal deposit privilege to include electronic publications.
- Libraries working together (statement PDF) (79 KB; 1 page).
Although these Acts are relatively recent, legal deposit has existed in Scotland since 1710 when the privilege was first granted to the Advocates Library. In 1925 an Act of Parliament established the National Library of Scotland, and the Advocates Library collections were transferred to form the foundation of our collections.
Find out more
You can access the collection by joining the library for free and visiting us in Edinburgh or Glasgow. For more information consult our guide on legal deposit for library users.
If you are a publisher, find out more about what is covered by legal deposit and how to send us your publications in the guide for publishers.
If you have an enquiry about legal deposit, contact us via the website, phone, or letter. You can also email the Acquisitions Team on legal-deposit-enquiries@nls.uk.
Our electronic legal deposit collection is a shared effort with the other UK Legal Deposit Libraries. Our access to this content is via the British Library. Unfortunately, they are experiencing a major technology outage following a cyber-attack. This continues to affect their website, online systems and services, and includes electronic legal deposit.
Disruption may persist in the next few months as work continues to restore services. See the British Library blog for updates from them.
Access to Non-Print Legal Deposit map material remains available. Contact us with any questions or for more information on accessing specific material.