The Law and the British Library

Every author in the UK is required by law to send a copy of their published work to the British Library, in a system known as Legal Deposit.

This obligation dates back to the 1600s when, in 1610, the founder of the Bodleian Library, Sir Thomas Bodley, agreed with the Stationer’s Company to supply him with every book published under royal licence.

In 1662, the Royal Library and Cambridge University gained similar privileges and the Licensing of the Press Act came into being, mostly for censorship and control, to ensure religious and cultural persuasions could be contained.

The 1911 Copyright Act ensured that the Legal Deposit became UK law, with an emphasis on the preservation of literary heritage as opposed to censorship.

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 was updated to include digital publications as well as print, and then further regulations in 2013 enabled the British Library to include web content, ebooks and online journals in its archives.

As a self-published author, the reasoning behind the process is that your work is archived forever, so that future generations can access it. Your book will become part of the UK’s literary and intellectual legacy for scholars, researchers and readers to find in British Library Reading Rooms.

Not a bad way to be remembered.

The address is:

Legal Deposit Office

The British Library

Boston Spa

Wetherby

West Yorkshire

LS23 7BY

United Kingdom.

You must send a book of the same quality that you would produce for sale or distribution within the UK, and it should be done within a month of publication.

It is also useful to send a simple cover letter with your details. Here is an example of what I wrote:

Once your book has been registered, other libraries may request copies, too. This is instigated by the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries (ALDL) and you will be asked for five more copies.

This may be because:

• Your book is deemed to be of national interest and contributes meaningfully to the cultural, academic or literary record of the UK or Ireland.

• It is listed with an ISBN and distributed publicly.

• Your book appears in a catalogue visible to ALDL, for instance, in trade databases, bibliographies or online listings.

• Your work is classed as a new serial or periodical.

• Your work is part of a niche or specialist field that attracts attention from university libraries because of its academic research, regional interest or themes.

  
  

If the ALDL would like copies of your work, then they will write to you or email you. You are only obliged to send them if requested, unlike the British Library, which must receive one copy by law.

The address for the ALDL is:

Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries,

21 Marnin Way

Edinburgh

EH12 9GD

They will then organise distribution to:

1.     The National Library of Scotland

2.     The Bodleian Library of Oxford University

3.     Cambridge University Library

4.     National Library of Wales

5.     The Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Here is what the request letter looks like:

Don’t panic if it is only now that you realise you haven’t registered your book with the British Library. There are no automatic fines and no legal action, but it is still something you should attend to. You may receive a formal request from them anyway, if they have come across your unregistered work by some other means.

Remember, your book will not be catalogued or preserved in the national record until it’s received, and so scholars, libraries and future readers will not be able to access it.

Regardless of how many sales you make, this is the chance for your work to go down in history, so don’t let the opportunity pass you by.