The SULB as a legal deposit library

 

 

The Saarland University and State Library is mandated by law to accept one copy of every work published in Saarland as a legal deposit and to index these works and make them publicly available.

The term ‘legal deposit’ is also used to designated the single copy of a work that by law has to be submitted to a library free of charge.

All published materials, irrespective of whether they were issued by a publishing house, a government agency or body, an association or federation, a company or a private individual, are subject to the legal deposit requirement.

The obligation to submit a legal deposit applies equally to commercial and non-commercial publishers.

The purpose of legal deposit is to ensure that all of the documents and materials published in a region are systematically collected in a single, publicly owned repository and are preserved as cultural artefacts and research objects for current and future generations.

Some publishers are unaware of the legal deposit requirement. If we identify missing publications, we will contact the publisher.

If you have noticed that materials published in Saarland are not currently in the SULB collection, please get in touch. Although publishers are required to submit legal deposits to the SULB, please note that the library is not obliged to accept all submissions.

Legal deposit legislation

Legal deposit in Saarland is mandated through the Saarland Media Act (see the Saarland Official Gazette Part I, No. 36 of 10 December 2015, Article 14 as published in the official announcements portal of Saarland).

It requires publishers in Saarland to deposit one copy of each of their publications to the Saarland University and State Library. The SULB shall archive these materials, index them in its catalogues and make them available for use.

The Act requires the deposition of all texts, images (both with and without text), maps, local/town/city plans and atlases, microform publications, audiovisual materials, sound storage media and image storage media that are produced by printing or any other means of reproduction for the purpose of dissemination.

Following an amendment to the Act in 2015, the legal deposit obligation has been extended beyond print media and audiovisual and digital media on data storage devices to include digital content in non-physical form (online publications).

The Legal Deposit Regulation (Pflichtexemplarverordnung)

In 2016, the state government of Saarland issued an implementing regulation (see the Saarland Official Gazette Part I, No. 45 of 24 November 2016, as published in the official announcements portal of Saarland) in which it provides details of the material collection process.

The Regulation sets out detailed provisions about the submission of the legal deposit, the integrity and condition of the work submitted, the deposition deadline and any remuneration for the work deposited.