Legal Deposit

Depository Library

One of the main roles of national libraries is to collect exhaustively all material that is published in the country, preserve it for the future and make is accessible for anyone that wishes to use it for information and research.

Legal deposit has many benefits for publishers and authors. Deposited publications can be read inside the National Library and will be preserved for future generations. Works become part of the nation's heritage, providing inspiration for new books and other publications.

Receiving Library

Legislation and regulations concerning legal deposits

According to legislation on Legal Deposits for Libraries no. 79/2001, amended by law no. 148/2005, § 24, four copies of every work published in the Faroe Islands or for the Faroe Islands should be delivered to the National Library. According to Ministry of Culture executive order no. 4/2012, addition to printed items and sound recordings, material produced on some new media is also subject to legal deposits, such as electronic works, works published on the Internet, movies, as well as microform material and transparencies.

What should be delivered?

The National Library of the Faroe Islands receives:

Works on paper
Microforms and transparencies
Sound recordings
Compound publications
Digital publications
Works published on a general computer network

The library is responsible for the process of legal deposits. Its responsibility includes keeping contacts with the depositors and make sure that deposits are satisfactory and in line with the legislation. It should also notify the depositors in question if things are not in order.

The library must also provide information about legal deposits and publicize the services to the public.

Preservation and use

The library must provide the users with access to the material received through legal deposits, according to more detailed rules created by the library. The library has the duty to preserve each item as well as possible, guarantee its safety and upkeep.

Cataloguing

The library must catalogue the material that is received through legal deposits. These catalogues are the key to the deposited material, and in fact to other material owned by the libraries.

Works on paper

Works published on paper can be printed, duplicated or multiplied through other means. Here the main categories are listed with examples:

Books, including children's books, textbooks, exercise books and musical scores.

Journals, series and newspapers, i.e., all works that are in numerical order or with dates, including daily newspapers, local papers, political magazines, school magazines, cartoons, papers from institutions and societies (e.g. staff newsletters), journals, yearbooks, annual reports and annual financial statements.

Reports and statements; including scientific and scholarly reports, reports and statements of committees and institutions.

Maps, plans, posters; including geological maps, sea charts, road maps and travel maps; also, relief maps and globes.

Pamphlets such as offprints, brochures, travel brochures, time tables, guidelines, advertisements, manufacturing descriptions, sales catalogues, price lists, poems, funeral print, single sheets, theatre programs, exhibit catalogues, musical programs, post cards, Christmas cards, pictures, drawings, playing cards, diaries, pocket books, Ex libris and calendars (edited and with text).

Works on paper shall be delivered in four copies.

New editions are included in legal deposits, as well as reprints (when it is specified in the new work that it is a reprint, or when a new print includes changes in the work, such as in cover, binding or type of paper).

When a work is produced both as a hard copy and a paperback, four copies should be delivered of each form.

Attachments, such as CDs, maps or videos should also be deposited and handed in at the same time as the main work.

The duties of legal deposits rests with the producer, i.e. the individual that delivers the final production, such as a printing office, a copying office, or a book-binding office when the works are produced in this country. If it is not clear who the producer is or if delivery fails, the receiving institution can request that the publisher deliver the copies of the material.

In the case of material that is produced abroad, the duty for legal deposits rests with the publisher.

A special note should be made that material produced by governmental institutions, such as schools, hospitals, social welfare agencies or research institution should also be delivered.

Exceptions from legal deposits
Exceptions from legal deposits are printed currency, such as bank notes, securities and stamps, as well as a variety of small prints, such as forms, packaging labels, stationary, business cards, envelopes and calendars without text.

Microforms and transparencies

Four copies and the responsibility for delivery rest with the publisher.

Sound recordings

A sound recording is any kind of media which holds records of speech or music, such as musical records, musical cassettes, CDs or audiobook.

Published sound recordings shall be delivered in four copies and the legal deposit duties rest with the publisher.

Compound publications

Compound publications are works published in different forms but are distributed as one work. This can be attachments to a printed work, such as CDs, sound recordings or videos. It can also be works with different combination such as a series of slides with sounds.

Four copies of this compound material should be delivered and the responsibility rests with the publisher.

Digital works

These are digital works, published on a CD-ROM or other media for use on computers. This can be many types of material, i.e., written text, speech, music or other sounds, films, computer graphics, computer games, visual arts, photographs, etc., as well as a combination of these forms, i.e. multimedia material.

Four copies of this material should be delivered and the responsibility rests with the publisher.

Works published on a general computer network

These are works, webpages or other works, that are published or made accessible to the public on the Faroese part of the World-Wide Web, i.e. on the Faroese domain .fo or material which is published on other domains in the Faroese language.

The library should make a copy of this material and preserve it. The publishers of works in digital form on a general computer network, shall provide the library with access to the work, provide the library with a password or other information which is necessary for this purpose.

The library shall have an extensive cooperation on the execution and arrangements of this harvesting, in particular with the operators of the largest domains.

Films

In the legislation on Legal Deposits, the film means any kind of moving picture material, independent of the technique or methods used for the production. This definition includes all types of filmmaking, such as moving pictures, short films, documentaries, educational films, cartoons, advertising films and previews for coming films.

Four copies shall be deposited of published Faroese moving pictures that are produced on film.

As far as Faroese films are concerned the depository duties are with the producer, but as far as foreign films are concerned the duty for deposit rests with the distributor.

Due dates

Material that the National Library receives, shall be delivered as soon as possible after publication.

Delivery status

Works that are subject to legal deposits shall be delivered in a final form, and in the form, which is meant for the users. Items shall be complete and faultless. Along with the main works, all the material, which is produced as an attachment, shall be delivered, such as cases, boxes or holders, dustcovers or other wrappings, brochures or equivalent.

Registry of deposits

Along with each delivery of legal deposits, a registry shall be included. The registry should be listed: books, journals, newspapers and annual reports. It is not necessary to list all small print, or posters. It is enough to include on this list the word brochures or posters, if that is the case.

If the delivery includes compound material, or attachments, this should be specifically indicated.

The receiving library issues forms for delivery and gives more detailed guidelines about their use.

Costs

Sometimes the question arises on who should carry the costs of legal deposits. The legislation on Legal Deposits indicates clearly the answer to this question. The depositor also carries the cost of legal deposits, unless it is a question of works on paper. Then it is the responsibility of the publisher.

Is this a part of legal deposits?

Overview

Yes	No
Book, children's books, textbooks, audiobooks	Printed currency
Journals, yearbooks, annual reports, newsletters, television listings, glossy magazines	Banknotes
Newspapers, local papers, political magazines, school magazines, cartoons	Securities
Scientific reports, committee reports and reports from institutions	Stamps
Maps, geological maps, sea-charts, road maps, relief maps, globes	Packaging, envelopes, stationary
Posters	Forms, tickets
Small print, such as brochures, advertisements, price lists, theatre programs, exhibit catalogues, musical programs, Christmas cards, playing cards	Calendars (without text)
Published pictures and drawings	Business cards, labels
Diaries, pocketbooks, calendars	Lithographs
Microforms (microfilms, microfiche)	Books printed for foreign markets, distributed abroad
Transparencies	Minutes of meeting (unpublished)
Sound recordings, such as CDs, cassettes, records	Documents from businesses, institutions
Digital works, such as computer games, multimedia works
Faroese webpages and other documents from the World-wide Web
Moving picture, such as movies, short films, documentaries, educational films, cartoons, advertising films