3 November 2003
Bill to Extend Legal Deposit to UK Non-Print Materials Receives Royal Assent
A Private Members Bill, introduced by Chris Mole MP in December 2002 has passed all its Parliamentary hurdles and became law today when it received Royal Assent, according to a press release from the British Library.
The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 extends previous legal deposit legislation passed nearly 100 years ago in 1911. The Act enshrines the principle that electronic or e-publications and other non-print materials will be deposited in the future under secondary legislation. It ensures that these publications can be saved as part of the published archive - and become an important resource for future generations of researchers and scholars.
The introduction of MP Chris Mole's Bill followed a campaign to bring the law up-to-date with the current world of publishing which was led by the British Library, on behalf of all the legal deposit libraries and in association with Government and the principal publisher trade bodies. The new Act is generic and provides for secondary legislation to be approved by Parliament that will ensure that non-print formats are included within the legal deposit system.
Since 1911 the six legal deposit libraries have been able to collect copies of all printed material published in the UK. However, an increasing volume of important material had begun to be published in electronic and other non-print formats. These fell outside the scope of the 1911 Act and were not therefore being comprehensively collected. A study last year forecast a massive increase in online publications, predicting a near quadrupling (from 52,000 to 193,000) in the number of electronic journal issues published in the UK between 2002 and 2005.
Chris Mole MP said, 'I am thrilled that we have managed to secure this historic change in Legal Deposit Law. This new legislation will now mean that a vital part of the nation's published heritage will be safe and accessible as an important resource for business and education users in the future.'
With the new Act, a piece of 'enabling legislation', it will be possible to establish a systematic arrangement for the collection and preservation of non-print publications. These will include CD-ROMs and non-commercial publications, and will include the selective harvesting of information from the 2.96 million websites with a .uk suffix, which currently exist. The generic nature of the new law means that new formats and information carriers can be included within legal deposit - through Regulations - as they emerge and become widely used.
The new legislation will build on the strengths of a voluntary scheme introduced in January 2000 which was designed to capture offline material for the National Published Archive before legislation was achieved. Administered by the Joint Committee on Voluntary Deposit (JCVD) - comprising representatives from the legal deposit libraries and four of the main publisher trade bodies - the scheme saved many non-print items.
Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library said, 'This is an historic piece of legislation and puts the UK among the first countries which will be collecting, by law, their electronic published output. This has been achieved by all interested parties working together successfully to clear all the major legislative hurdles. This would not have been possible without the expertise and dedication of Dr Clive Field, Director of Scholarship and Collections at the British Library and his team who workedso hard to achieve this splendid result.'
Dr Clive Field, Chair of the JCVD added: 'This was indeed a major collaborative result and I wish especially to thank Chris Mole MP, Lord Graham Tope (the Bill's sponsor in the House of Lords), Sir Anthony Kenny(chair of the original working party on this matter), colleagues in theDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport, the Digital Content Forum, JCVD andthe legal deposit libraries for their commitment and partnership in bringingthis measure to the statute book.'
Heritage Minister Andrew McIntosh said, "I am very pleased that my Department was able to support this initiative and welcome its passage intolaw. It ensures that the system of Legal Deposit will properly reflect thechanging shape of the publishing industry in the United Kingdom."
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