EVERYTHING FOREVER
Books, magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, maps and websites that originate in the UK and Ireland are preserved in their millions under legal deposit - a statutory obligation for publishers that ensures that at least one copy is deposited in six leading libraries in the nations, including Cambridge University Library.
Ten years ago, the six legal deposit libraries of the UK and Ireland gained the right to receive a copy of every UK electronic publication, on the same basis as they have received print publications for several centuries.
In April this year, together with the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, the Bodleian Libraries, and the Library of Trinity College Dublin, Cambridge University Libraries (CUL) are celebrating a decade of collecting and preserving digital and online publishing that captures the contemporary experience of living in the UK and Ireland.
This collaborative collecting happens on an incredible scale - in the ten years since the introduction of electronic legal deposit, it has enabled CUL alone to receive digital versions of around 750,000 books and more than 240,000 journals.
Across the six Libraries, the collection of digital and online publishing enabled by electronic legal deposit regulations is exceptional...
Together we have collected more than ten million journal articles and nearly 800,000 books.
We make available 3 TB of digital mapping, including annual snapshots of Ordnance Survey large-scale mapping of Britain.
Electronic legal deposit includes government and official publications from the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, publications from charities and campaigning organisations, sheet music, academic journals, local histories, and outputs from private presses through to the largest publishers in the UK.
We also take regular snapshots of UK websites - often the only surviving copy of millions of pages of web content, as information shared publicly on the web is rapidly changed, deleted and replaced. This provides an essential resource for researchers now and in the future, helping people to understand current events and the recent past by preserving digital material before it is lost.
The commitment to electronic legal deposit has also provided The UK Web Archive, established in 2004, with increased capacity to collect the UK’s online heritage.
The UK Web Archive covers every aspect of local and national life, and has been used by researchers to explore topics as diverse as the evolution of the digital economy in the UK and changes in word meanings over time.
With the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Libraries and Edinburgh University Library, CUL has been working to create a collection within the UK Web Archive to preserve online communication about health during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At this ten year landmark, we’re celebrating our partnership with the other five Legal Deposit Libraries. Together we are building an unparalleled record of our intellectual and cultural heritage, available to current and future generations of researchers, now and forever.
“Legal Deposit is one of the great strengths of Cambridge University Libraries, providing a depth and richness to our collections that underpins our status as a national research library. In a world where many research libraries are focusing their collection development effort on acquiring very similar sets of digital content for academic users, the breadth and variety of Legal Deposit is a unique quality. It is a privilege to work with the fellow Legal Deposit Libraries and with publishers in the UK and Ireland to preserve the nations’ printed and digital output.”
If the Legal Deposit Collections at Cambridge University Libraries are central to your work, why not help us develop the service? The Legal Deposit Libraries are creating a User Forum to represent the interests of all existing and potential users of UK Legal Deposit (print and non-print).
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to share your voice as a user, highlight different user needs and perspectives, communicate these to the Legal Deposit libraries and influence the design and development of the service.
Find details about the aims and scope of the Forum, and the benefits of becoming a member, in this Legal Deposit User Forum Guide created by the Library at Trinity College Dublin.
If you would like to register your interest, please e-mail LDUserForum@nls.uk before 28 April, and a representative from Cambridge University Libraries will get in touch to discuss it further.
Shorthand design and additional text by Hannah Haines in partnership with the UK and Ireland Legal Deposit Libraries and the British Library Communications and Press teams.
Images by Alice Boagey @AliceTheCamera for CUL unless otherwise credited.
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Discover more about collecting under legal deposit
Tall Tales
Learn more about legal deposit print collections at Cambridge University Libraries - and the secrets of the UL tower - by revisiting our 2018 exhibition.
Archive of Tomorrow
Discover how CUL, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Libraries and Edinburgh University Library are collaborating on a project funded by the Wellcome Trust to curate a collection of 3,000 websites on ‘Health and Misinformation’ for the UK Web Archive
Rethinking how and what we collect
Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums at the University of Oxford, explores why we have a responsibility to collect as broadly as possible
Legal deposit for the island of Ireland
From archiving the Easter Rising to providing access to banned books - the Library of Trinity College Dublin reflects on how legal deposit has made an impact
Digital collecting in a changing publishing landscape
Ian Cooke, Head of Contemporary British and Irish Published Collections at the British Library, considers the challenges of digital collecting when technology is changing so rapidly
Not forgetting the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society
Nicola Bingham, Lead Curator, Web Archiving at the British Library, reveals some of the most esoteric elements of daily life captured by the UK Web Archive
Everything Forever Press release
The British Library hosts the 06 April 2023 press release on behalf of the UK and Ireland Legal deposit libraries
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