National Library of Australia

National Library of Australia edeposit overview

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit NLA Publishing Website

Legal Deposit

Legal deposit is a requirement under the Copyright Act 1968 that has enabled the National Library of Australia to collect Australian publications for more than 100 years. It ensures that a comprehensive collection of published material relating to Australia and its people is preserved for the community and future generations.

Benefits of legal deposit

Legal deposit supports preservation, contributing to the long-term survival of a nation’s documentary heritage.

It enables legal deposit libraries to provide access to a complete collection of the nation’s published heritage.

Ultimately, legal deposit is fundamental to freedom of information and to the perpetuation of an informed citizenry.

Electronic publications

On 17 February 2016, the legal deposit provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 were extended to cover the online publishing landscape. This includes all Australian print and electronic books, journals, magazines, newsletters, reports, sheet music, maps, websites and public social media. Legal deposit applies to any Australian person, group or organisation that makes this material available to the public for sale or for free.

Electronic publications and geographic location

Online publishing is not constrained by geographic location, and material by Australians or about Australia can be published anywhere in the world. The Act enables any material in which copyright subsists under the Copyright Act 1968 to be requested by the Director-General or delegate to be deposited with the National Library. This includes works by Australian residents that are supplied via hosting or online publishing services outside Australia and works by non-Australian residents that meet the Library’s national collecting objectives.

National edeposit (NED)

Launching in August 2019, NED is an online service for the deposit, archiving, management, discovery and delivery of published electronic material across Australia. A central role of Australia’s national, state and territory libraries is to collect, describe, preserve, store and make available the nation’s publications. The legal deposit legislative framework obliges publishers to deposit both print and electronic publications to ensure a comprehensive collection of Australia’s publishing output is maintained in Australian libraries.

Benefits of NED

NED is a collaboration between Australia’s national library and our eight state and territory libraries.

Publishers/authors deposit once and fulfill their electronic legal deposit obligations. NED does the rest.

NED reduces duplication of systems and collections across the country, while providing access to more publications for more library users.

NED preserves the digital documentary heritage of Australia for the future.

NED preserves the collection to international standards.

NED provides greater, long-term access to the ever-growing collection of Australian digital publications, through member library’s library systems OR freely on the internet via Trove, depending on access conditions.

NED reduces duplication for both publishers and libraries and improves efficiency of collecting activities and systems across Australia.

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit NLA Publishing Website