• Index of this issue

No. 98, August 2021

Law No. 13 of 2018 (better known as the Deposit Law) is a law that regulates the obligation for publishers or producers of recorded works to submit their work in the form of printed or recorded works to the National Library (Perpusnas RI) and provincial libraries. This Law is a substitute for the previous Law, Law No. 4 of 1990, after approximately 27 years of effect. Law No. 13 of 2018 is recognized as a more complete and comprehensive than Law No. 4 of 1990. Law No. 13 of 2018 expands the definition and scope of recorded works by including digital works as part of recorded works. Based on this Law, publishers or producers of recorded works (individuals, private institutions, and/or government institutions) must submit 2 copies of printed works and 1 copy of recorded works (analog and digital form) to Perpusnas RI and 1 copy of printed works and 1 copy of recorded works (analog and digital form) shall be submitted to the provincial library.

Problems in the Implementation of the Deposit Law

The problem faced in implementing the Deposit Law, especially during the implementation of Law No. 4 of 1990, is the lack of awareness and knowledge of publishers and producers of recorded works about the obligation to submit their works. Publishers and producers of recorded works entrusted the submission of their works to Perpusnas RI rather than to provincial libraries for various reasons. From the provincial library side, provincial libraries are not active enough in socializing the Deposit Law. The results of the field survey of publishing studies in Indonesia 2015-2020, show that the human resources for regional deposits indicate a very limited number of human resources and ICT capabilities in the field of bibliographic data processing are still lacking. This is due to the rotation policy enforced by the local government so that human resources who have library competence must be forced to leave the library, besides human resources entering retirement and the local government not preparing replacements for retired human resources.

Submission of Digital Works

According to Government Regulation No. 55 of 2021, the submission of digital works to the Perpusnas RI and the Provincial Libraries can only be done through direct submission by uploading through the system or application provided by Perpusnas RI and/or provincial libraries according to domicile; or interoperability.

To facilitate the submission of digital works (digital books, digital serial publications, digital music, digital films), Perpusnas RI created a system and application called e-Deposit. e-Deposit is a system used to organize, manage, store, preserve and access digital works. The e-Deposit process includes the collection process (collecting/meta-aggregator), processing, archival storage, preservation, and access. This system is supported by several security systems, such as user authentication, user logs, content encryption, watermarks, and data backup/restore. E-Deposit is integrated with other applications/systems such as the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) application, the International Standard Music Number (ISMN) application and the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) application. Through this integration, it allows Perpusnas RI to monitor and evaluate the submission of digital works. This system can be accessed at https://edeposit.perpusnas.go.id by publishers or producers of records and other users who want to see a collection of digital works. Through the e-Deposit application, publishers or record producers can send digital works under 500MB in size directly. Even though e-Deposit has been running for more than 3 years, this system has not yet fully gained trust from the publishers or producers of record works, especially regarding the security of the e-Deposit system. There is a concern that their digital works will be easily hijacked by other parties (copyright infringement) if submitted to the Perpusnas RI.

< Figure 1. E-Deposit Website >

Perpusnas RI also collects digital works through the interoperability method. Interoperability is a method that enables the integration and exchange of data between systems through an Application Programming Interface (API). In this way, the Perpusnas RI automatically retrieve digital works from the storage of other institutions' systems. In general, this method is used to collect serial digital works, especially e-journals. A successful example of this method is the interoperability carried out by Perpusnas RI with the Garba Rujukan Digital (Garuda) application owned by the Ministry of Research and Technology/the National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia. In the first years of implementing interoperability, Perpusnas RI managed to harvest around 1,000,000 articles from Garuda. Users can see all interoperability results at https://interoperabilitas2019.perpusnas.go.id.

In the future, Perpusnas RI will conduct interoperability with other parties, especially major publishers and other government institutions that produce large numbers of digital works such as the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) and so on. Universities must also be a priority for Perpusnas RI in carrying out interoperability because this institution produces many publications in digital form. Another form of digital work that has the potential to be collected through interoperability is e-papers. Every year the number of e-papers in Indonesia continues to grow along with the shift of printed newspapers to electronic newspapers (e-papers and news websites/portals).

< Figure 2. Interoperability Website >

However, these two methods until now (2021) have only been implemented at the Perpusnas RI level. Perpusnas RI has not yet decided whether the two collection methods can be adopted by provincial libraries or remain centralized in Perpusnas RI. The main obstacle that causes this problem is the readiness of provincial libraries in implementing e-deposit and interoperability. This readiness is related to the availability of information technology infrastructure and human resources (librarians) who will carry out the collection process to services. At the technical level, it is necessary to be appointed the authority for verification and validation of digital works received between Perpusnas RI and provincial libraries.

Provincial Libraries as Database Backup Centers for Digital Works

One of the roles and functions of provincial libraries in implementing legal deposit is to make the provincial library the center for database backup of digital works. Digital works that are collected through the e-deposit system and interoperability are spread to all provincial libraries according to the area of the publisher/producer of the recorded work. This method is also an effort to protect the database of digital works from catastrophic damage or loss. If one day Perpusnas RI loses data on digital works, Perpusnas RI can request/retrieve it from the provincial library database. Likewise, if the provincial library loses data on digital recorded works, the provincial library can request/retrieve it from the Perpusnas RI database.

Digital Record Submission Scheme

Based on Law No. 13 of 2018, digital works must also be submitted to the provincial library. However, until now (2021), the mechanism for submitting digital works from publishers or producers of digital works to the provincial libraries has not been determined. There are several schemes that can be done in submitting digital works through e-deposit and interoperability, e.g.: