Legal deposit: local issues in a national context

Abstract

Describes a research project aiming to develop models to facilitate co‐operative initiatives and partnership arrangements which will improve the identification and collection of local publications under legal deposit and the coverage of these publications in the BNB. Underlines the importance of locally‐held collections and outlines the concept of “the national published archive”. Argues the need for a review of, and changes to, legal deposit, highlighting the need for greater co‐operation between the legal deposit libraries and others, whilst noting existing co‐operation. Maintains that the success of any distributed national published archive will depend upon a co‐operative approach, between the legal deposit libraries themselves and other information providers at local and regional levels. Above all, any new arrangements must be sustainable – able to withstand, for instance, future local or regional reorganisations of the kind recently experienced, and properly funded.