Guide for publishers

As a publisher you have a statutory obligation to deposit a copy of every work published in the UK or Ireland with the British Library, and as requested by the other legal deposit libraries, which includes the National Library of Scotland.

Legal deposit is covered by the following legislation:

• Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003
• Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print) Regulations 2013
• Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (Ireland)

Legal deposit brings a number of benefits for publishers, for example:

• Deposited publications are preserved for the benefit of current researchers and future generations, becoming part of the nation's intellectual record and published heritage. As a publisher this means that your content will be securely preserved for the future while also being made accessible to readers in the legal deposit libraries' reading rooms
• Legal deposit publications are recorded in the legal deposit libraries' online catalogues and promoted via their online discovery services, highlighting these publications to a worldwide audience
• Most of the books and new serial titles deposited will be listed in the British National Bibliography (BNB) which is used by librarians and the book trade for stock selection
• The massive volume and varied range of publications sent to the libraries under legal deposit provides a unique source of inspiration and source material for new books which will eventually achieve publication, supporting a cycle of knowledge.

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 applies to anyone who publishes in the UK. The Act defines publishing as 'the issue of copies of the work to the public', which means that any work made publicly available, whether for sale or distributed free of charge, will need to be deposited.

Publicly available works are liable for deposit whether or not they have ISBNs or ISSNs.

Legal deposit covers both print and electronic publications, including the following where they are publicly available:

• Books
• Pamphlets, posters, leaflets and flyers
• Maps
• Sheet music and scores
• Journals
• Newspapers
• CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs
• Microfilm
• Websites
• Online works, including those protected by a login facility
• New editions of publications, which may contain amendments or additional content.

The following categories of material are not covered by legal deposit:

• Works consisting solely of sound or film
• Intranets
• Emails
• Restricted personal data

Unless you have already entered into a confirmed agreement to deposit in electronic format with the British Library or one of the legal deposit libraries, you must deposit your publication(s) in print format.

The deposited copy must be 'of the same quality as the largest number of copies which, at the time of delivery, have been produced for publication in the United Kingdom'.

If your publications are only made available in electronic format and do not exist as print copies, see our section on how to deposit electronic publications.

If you are unsure, please contact us.

You must send us the deposited copy within one month of the day of publication or the day on which the request is received, whichever is later.

Please send five copies of your print publication to the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries at the following address:

Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries
Unit 21 Marnin Way
Edinburgh
EH12 9GD

Tel: 0131 334 2833
Email: publisher.enquiries@legaldeposit.org.uk

The Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries will distribute one copy to each of the five legal deposit libraries, including the National Library of Scotland.

Publishers who currently send single copies of their titles direct to the National Library of Scotland should continue to do so.

Publishers must send one copy separately to the British Library at the following address:

Legal Deposit Office
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BY

Tel: 01937 546268 (books) or 01937 546267 (serials)
Email: legal-deposit-books@bl.uk or legal-deposit-serials@bl.uk

Unless you have already entered into a confirmed agreement to deposit in electronic format with the British Library or one of the legal deposit libraries, you must deposit your publication(s) in print format.

If any of your publications are only produced in electronic format then the electronic version should be deposited. You only need to deposit one electronic copy of each publication to meet the requirements of all the legal deposit libraries, including the British Library.

All deposited electronic files are securely stored, preserved, catalogued and made accessible to registered readers within the legal deposit libraries. Only a single reader on the premises of a legal deposit library can consult a deposited work at any one time. Downloading of electronic legal deposit publications — for example, to save onto a memory stick — is not permitted.

Publishers based in Scotland are asked to contact us about electronic legal deposit at the National Library of Scotland. Electronic publications deposited with the National Library of Scotland are also made available at the five other legal deposit libraries.

In line with the legislation, access to electronic legal deposit publications is restricted to computers at the Library. Where possible, we ask Scottish publishers to agree that we can provide offsite access to their publications, as this will allow us to ensure that the content is more widely available and reaches a broader audience. 

UK publishers based outside Scotland should contact the British Library to arrange deposit of their electronic publications: visit the British Library website for details. Electronic publications deposited with the British Library are also made available at the five other legal deposit libraries.

If you publish 50 or fewer electronic items per year you can deposit these via the British Library's Publisher Submission Portal (requires registration).

If you publish more than 50 electronic items per year and are based outside of Scotland, contact the British Library at LDO-Electronic@bl.uk to discuss options for deposit.

If you are a Scottish publisher of web content, please contact us so that we can ensure your web content is collected.

If you have an enquiry about legal deposit, contact:

Acquisitions Team — Legal Deposit
National Library of Scotland
92 Cowgate
Edinburgh
EH1 1JN

Tel: 0131 623 3936
Email: legal-deposit-enquiries@nls.uk

If you have a question about photocopying or reproducing copyright material, or about access to items in the Library's collections, please contact the enquiries team — phone 0131 623 3700 ext 3820 or email: enquiries@nls.uk.