[Prev Page] [Next Page
] [Contents]
The impact of electronic publishing on library services and resources in
the UK
4.7 Legal deposit/archiving
Legal deposit currently refers only to materials published on paper, and is
not applied to electronic publications, although non-statutory arrangements are
in place for sound and video products. If collection of the products of
scholarship and creative imagination is to be continued in an electronic
environment, additional means must be developed and installed. Several issues
need to be resolved, especially the following:
- The scope of the material to be deposited has to be defined in terms of
both form and content.
- Means of acquisition need to be established for different types of
published materials. For materially-distributed publications, the means of
acquisition should be essentially the same as those for conventional printed
works. For the non-material works, a mechanism would have to be developed,
appropriate to the nature of the distribution medium and the material
distributed. The major acquisition problem is that of specifying exactly what
should be deposited.
- Once deposited, a publication should be maintained in such a state that it
will be accessible in perpetuity. Practical means to achieve this need to be
determined.
The first step towards the resolution of the problems connected with legal
deposit would be the establishment of a national archive, as has been
recommended in the STM Report.
[Prev Page] [Next Page
] [Contents]
[UKOLN Home Page] [Papers and Reports] [British Library Papers and Reports
]