The Bodleian Libraries is one of the six libraries entitled under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act of 2003 to receive material published in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Legal deposit has existed in English law since 1662. It helps to ensure that the nation’s published output, and thereby its intellectual record and future published heritage, is collected systematically and preserved for future generations. Legal deposit material is made available to readers within the designated legal deposit libraries.
The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013 extended the right to collect, preserve and make accessible digital publications and websites that were created within the UK domain.
Our approach to legal deposit collecting is informed by the latest Joint Collecting Framework (PDF).
An executive summary of the framework (PDF) is also available.
The legal deposit libraries of the UK and Ireland are:
