Electronic Legal Deposit: In brief

eLD items can easily be identified by the flag 'Online access is restricted to library computers in any of the Bodleian Libraries'.

Electronic Legal Deposit items are materials which Oxford has received under Legal Deposit legislation which entitles the Bodleian Libraries to a copy of every item published in the UK. These materials are subject to a number of restrictions under UK Law including:

• You can only access electronic Legal Deposit on public computers in any of the Bodleian Libraries (unless the item contains the statement that it is public sector information and is therefore freely available under the Open Government Licence)
• Only one person at a time can view each item, and there is no time limit set (within a day) for how long an item can be consulted. However, you will be timed out after 5 minutes of inactivity. Once an item has been closed down (or has timed out) it will become available to another reader. 
• There is no restrictions to the number of electronic Legal Deposit items you can view in a day.
• Digital copying is not permitted under current legislation. You cannot copy and paste, take a screenshot, download or scan material. 

​More information

• How do I choose between different versions of an item?
• How do I find an alternative copy to an eLD article?
• If I search by journal title how do I find an article?
• How do I search for other articles in the same issue of a journal?
• Will there be a print copy available as well?
• How can I make printouts of eLD material? 
• Who should I contact if I have a question or problem relating to eLD?

Video transcript

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