Department for Culture Media and Sport
By law, a copy of every UK print publication must be deposited in the British Library by its publishers. This system is called legal deposit.
There are five other legal depost libraries which can request a print publication to be deposited with them:
Many publications are now only released electronically. At the moment there is no legal requirement for non-print works to be deposited. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 created a framework that makes it possible for secondary legislation to be introduced to allow for this.
This independent panel advises the Secretary of State on legal deposit issues, including which non-print publications should be considered for inclusion in legal depost.
In 2006 the Panel commissioned a study of electronic publications that may be included in legal deposit:
The Panel is currently considering its response to the report.