Examining the Coverage of a National Deposit Library: A Case Study in the Netherlands

Abstract

In 1974, the Deposit of Dutch Publications was established as a department of the Koninklijke Bib-liotheek (KB), the National Library of the Nether-lands. Generally, the purpose of deposit libraries is to gather all publications as part of the national cultural heritage and preserve them for future generations. In many cases, the deposit collection serves as a last resort. Where else can one fi nd a complete collection of popular fi ction, school-books, comic books, popular magazines, daily newspapers and research reports, published in a specifi c country? In addition, the National Bibli-ography is compiled on the basis of the deposit collection. Lariviere (2000) describes the guide-lines for legal deposit legislation; Muir and Op-penheim (2001) present the current legal deposit arrangements in different countries.Unlike most other countries, there is no LegalDeposit Law in the Netherlands. However, the tasks of the National Library, including the de-posit function and national bibliography, are em-bedded in the Dutch law. The National Library requests all publishers to supply one copy of each of their publications to the Deposit of Dutch Pub-lications on a voluntary basis. Based on a formal agreement with the National Library, the Dutch Publishers Association urges its members to de-liver all publications free-of-charge. The Dutch Deposit also gathers publications from non-com-mercial publishers, such as companies, associa-tions, governmental and other institutions or even private persons. Publishers will automatically be