Legal deposit

Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19 (in Poland). Typically, the national library is one of the repositories of these copies. In some countries there is also a legal deposit requirement placed on the government, and it is required to send copies of documents to publicly accessible libraries.

In the year 2000, UNESCO published recommendations for the construction of legal deposit legislation.

In Australia, section 201 of Copyright Act 1968 and other state Acts requires that a copy of all printed materials published in Australia be deposited with the National Library of Australia. State laws require books and a wide range of other materials published in each state to be deposited in the applicable State Library. New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia also require books published in those states to be deposited in the library of the state Parliament. New South Wales law also requires books published in that state to be deposited in the University of Sydney Library.

Legal deposit legislation in Brazil ("Depósito legal"), federal laws number 10994 and 12192, requires that one copy of every book, music or periodical published in the country be sent to the National Library of Brazil (known as Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca do Rio de Janeiro, or Fundação Biblioteca Nacional), located in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

In Canada, the Library and Archives of Canada Act (2004) specifies that up to two copies of any published material must be deposited with Library and Archives Canada. Materials deposited in the archives are catalogued; the catalogs are available as part of the Library and Archives Canada website. The province of Quebec also requires deposit of two copies of any document be deposited to Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec within 7 days of its publication.

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