Legal Deposit

Legal deposit is a statutory provision which obliges publishers to deposit copies of their publications in libraries
in the region in which they are published. Under the Copyright Act 1968 and various state Acts, a copy of any
work published in Australia must be deposited with the National Library of Australia and the deposit libraries in your home state or territory. In New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, legislation also applies to certain additional libraries and a copy must also be deposited with these libraries. Legal deposit of the material is the sole responsibility of the publisher. Legal deposit extends not only to commercial publishers but also to private individuals, clubs, churches, associations, societies and organisations.

Common definitions:

• Publication is a work reproductions of which have been made available (whether by sale or freely) to the public.

• Publications without ISBN are considered “private” and might be excluded from the obligation.

• Publications without ISBN are considered “private” and might be excluded from the obligation.

• The best complete copy of a published work is expected to be deposited. For example, if both a hardback and
paperback edition is published, one copy of the hardback edition must be deposited.

• A copy of a second or later edition must be deposited if there are changes or additions to the preceding edition,
such as to text or to illustrations. If a book is reprinted with a change to the title or to any part of the content, or it has a different publisher, it is considered to be a new edition.

Benefits of Legal Deposit:

• works of authors and publishers survive for the use of future generations
• records for legal deposit publications are available through Trove (a shared online national bibliographic
database at trove.nla.gov.au)
• commercial and self-published works receive wide exposure
• libraries can access and order bibliographic records for published works
• selected titles are included in online indexing databases such as APAIS (Australian Public Affairs Information
Service).

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The National Library’s catalogue and Trove are available at nla.gov.au. Further information about Legal Deposit can be found on the National Library‘s website.

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The National Library provides the Cataloguing-in-Publication (CiP) service free of charge to publishers to
provide a catalogue record for a book before it is published.
Cataloguing in Publication
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
T 02 6262 1458
F 02 6273 4492
www.nla.gov.au/cip

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As a part of our Services for self-publishers, we can take care of legal deposits on behalf of our customers.

Addresses for Legal Deposit of Printed Publications

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australai

Tasmania

Northern Territory

(*) The ACT does not currently have legal deposit legislation.
Publishers are encouraged to lodge a copy of their publications with the ACT Heritage Library for ongoing preservation and access.

(**) It is recommended to check, prior to sending the books, with these libraries whether they actually accept the deposits