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No. 56, July 2006 Special topic: Legal deposit system

Introduction

The National Library Board (NLB) is the sole authorized repository for Singapore publications provided under the legal deposit requirements.  From as early as 1835, the legal deposit law in the form of the Printers and Publishers Ordinance and later the Printers and Publishers Act in 1970 came into force.  Its purpose then was "to regulate the printing and publishing of books and to provide for the preservation of copies of books".

In 1995 when the National Library Board was established, the Printers and Publishers' Act was repealed.  It was replaced by Part II, Section 10 of the National Library Board Act 5 of 1995 which represent the legal deposit legislation.

In the development of a collection of published cultural and intellectual heritage of Singapore, NLB has relied mainly on statutory obligation and services such as legal deposit, ISBN and ISSN and bibliographic control services via the Singapore Integrated Library Automation Services (SILAS).

Scope of Legal Deposit

Under the NLB Act of 1995, two copies of all print and non-print library materials that are "produced and released in Singapore for sale or public distribution" must be deposited with NLB.  The purpose of legal deposit is to preserve the published national literary heritage and make them accessible to present and future generations.

Library materials to be deposited are identified in the Act as:

1. Any printed book, periodical, newspaper, pamphlet, musical score, map, chart, plan, picture, photograph, print and any other printed matter
2. Any film (including a microfilm and a microfiche), negative, tape, disc, sound track and any other device in which one or more visual images, sounds or other data are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced from it

Materials that are exempted from legal deposit include all print and non-print materials that are of a private or confidential nature, e.g. legal document, printed form, trade circular, label, in-house training materials or course notes.

The Legal Deposit requirement applies to every individual and organization such as commercial publishers, corporations, government departments and agencies, educational and academic institutions, associations, societies, clubs, and religious bodies who publish their materials in Singapore and make them available for sale or public distribution.

Titles deposited are catalogued and compiled in the Singapore National Bibliography (SNB), which is produced in CD-ROM format twice a year.

Status of the Legal Deposit Collection

As at Dec 2005, the legal deposit collection comprises a total of 860,000 items in all formats and in the country's four official languages. The bulk of the deposited materials comprises mainly of monographs and serials.  Locally published audio-visual items have been deposited with NLB since September 1995.

A review of this collection showed that improvements to raise awareness of legal deposit requirements to publishers could be made. In addition, emerging new formats that are not covered by the legal deposit legislation will be considered in the future.

Task Force on Legal Deposit of Materials

A Task Force on Legal Deposit of Materials was set up in July 2004 to review NLB's legal deposit policy and functions and explore collaboration possibilities with local institutions and agencies to develop a more comprehensive national collection of locally published materials.

Recommendations of the Task Force

Based on its study of legal deposit practices of National Libraries around the world and research, several recommendations were made in its report submitted to NLB in May 2005. These are:

1. To create a new legal deposit framework to incorporate a decentralised approach and distributed collection points for legal deposit
2. To adopt an interim measure to collect electronic publication through a voluntary deposit scheme prior to changes in its legislation
3. To define the preservation policy and create a centralized legal deposit database for access
4. To review the existing organisational structure to accommodate the legal deposit function more effectively and efficiently
5. To increase the awareness of the Legal Deposit legislation and function
6. To develop the Singapore documentary heritage collection

In response to these recommendations, NLB has actively taken steps to review and implement them in phases in the overall context of its Library 2010 strategy and in the context of the changes and development in the publishing and digital environment.

Status of Implementation

New legal deposit framework

In a one-to-one collaborative approach, NLB has sought agreement with the Singapore Stock Exchange to provide copies of all annual reports of listed companies to NLB. The Registrar of Newspapers and Printing, Media Development Authority Singapore, has agreed to provide NLB with a list of the applications for the publishing of periodicals which would be used to track and ensure the deposit of all issues of local periodicals.

Since April 2006, publishers are able to deposit their publications at any of the NLB network of 23 libraries. This is to facilitate and encourage the deposit of publications, especially by ad hoc publishers.  A prototype of decentralized collection of legal deposit materials by an external organisation has also commenced at the National Arts Council Singapore.

Deposit of online electronic resources

As a follow-up to the recommendations of the Task Force, NLB has met up with various government agencies, private organisations and commercial publishers to discuss the voluntary deposit scheme for electronic publications.  And to reinforce its importance, a proposal for the revision of the Act to include the deposit of all publications in all formats including online materials has been drafted and submitted for approval. Funding for an IT infrastructure for housing digital information including legal deposit materials has been approved under the Library 2010 initiatives.

Preservation and access to the legal deposit collection

To implement this recommendation, NLB has started work on providing a URL for access to the legal deposit collection and refine its preservation policies.

Under its preservation programme, Singapore materials published before 1970 have been microfilmed. In addition, the provision of the right to create surrogate copies of legal deposit materials for access and for preservation purposes has been included in the proposed revision to the NLB Act.

Organization structure

Since the completion of the Task Force report, NLB has reorganized the relevant departments to ensure optimization of resources to execute its legal deposit function efficiently.

Creating awareness of legal deposit

With the advent of new technology and formats, there is a growing trend towards self-publishing and many in this new group of ad hoc publishers are unaware of their legal deposit obligations.

On 3 April 2006, a series of quarterly sharing sessions with publishers, entitled "Publishing and Legal Deposit" was launched to create greater awareness of legal deposit, ISBN and ISSN and to motivate them to deposit their publications with NLB.  Through such sessions, publishers would also be informed of NLB's plans in collecting online electronic publications. They have been invited to participate in the voluntary deposit scheme.

Concurrently, online information on NLB web page has been updated regularly to include Frequently Asked Questions, and application forms in the Chinese language.  Brochures have also been revised and produced in the 4 official languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil) for mass distribution.

Currently the Singapore National Bibliography (SNB) is available on the web to all SILAS members. NLB has started planning to open up the SNB to make it available to a wider audience. 

Singapore Documentary Heritage Collection

In order to develop a comprehensive Singapore Documentary Heritage Collection, NLB has initiated 2 online projects, Singapore Pages and the Singapore Pictures to preserve and promote access to old and rare materials on Singapore as well as unpublished literary works by Singapore writers.

Other activities to implement the Task Force's recommendations included:

1. the launch of the Singapore Literary Pioneers Gallery showcasing the published  and unpublished works of local literary pioneers in the 4 official languages
2. cooperation and sharing of digitization efforts of Southeast Asian rare materials with institutions, agencies and libraries
3. cooperation in acquisition and sharing of documentary heritage resources among the heritage agencies in Singapore

Conclusion

In carrying out the statutory function of legal deposit, NLB faces many challenges. Beside awareness of legal deposit obligations by publishers, the other main challenge is the advent of the World Wide Web and the proliferation of online electronic publications which have changed the scope of materials to be deposited drastically. Like other depository libraries worldwide, NLB is examining the feasibility of collecting and preserving a comprehensive legal deposit collection for future generations.