The British Library is currently dealing with a major system outage and as a result there is no access to Electronic Legal Deposit content. This includes non-print legal deposit books, scores, journal articles and issues, and the UK Web Archive. Access to other BL services including EThOS and inter-library requests is also impacted
What is covered by electronic Legal Deposit?
Will there be a print copy available as well?
What is the lifespan of electronic Legal Deposit material?
When is deposited material made available?
What is covered by electronic Legal Deposit?
Access via SOLO: Ejournals, ebooks and other e-versions of traditional printed materials, standalone or "off line" electronic items such as CD ROMs.
Access via the UK Legal Deposit Web Archive: Websites published in the UK. This not only includes websites with a .uk, .Scotland, .Wales or .England web address but also other websites which are substantially published in the UK. However, it does NOT Include websites such as YouTube which consist solely of audio visual content.
Although the new legislation came into force in April 2013, this does not mean that the Bodleian Libraries have every ebook and every ejournal published since that date. In fact the Legal Deposit Act 2003 entitles the Bodleian Libraries and the other Legal Deposit Libraries to either a print OR an electronic copy of every item published in the UK but not to both. In practice this means that we will continue to receive printed items from many publishers for some years to come. Meanwhile other publishers have already started to deposit material with us electronically and we no longer receive their output in print.
Will there be a print copy available as well?
The Legal Deposit Act 2003 entitles the Bodleian Libraries and the other Legal Deposit Libraries to either a print OR an electronic copy of every item published in the UK but not to both. In practice this means that we will continue to receive printed items from many publishers for some years to come. Subject librarians may also choose to purchase a copy of the item in print.
What is the lifespan of electronic Legal Deposit material?
It is the aim of the Legal Deposit Libraries to preserve all printed and electronic Legal deposit collections and make them available in perpetuity. As time goes on and current technologies are superseded, content may have to be migrated to different formats to ensure that it remains accessible. Alternatively copies of relevant software will be retained to ensure continued access. To this end the British Library has a digital preservation department who specifically looks at the long-term preservation and access to digital content.
When is deposited content made available?
Under legal deposit, websites and deposited electronic publications are not accessible for at least seven days after they are deposited or harvested. After that, they may be made available to users of the Legal Deposit Libraries.