Books, journals, newspapers, music, posters, brochures and other material published in Iceland are material that the National and University Library of Iceland is to collect and preserve. This is one of the Library’s principal responsibilities and is called legal deposit. Legal deposit ensures that the culture of the present day is preserved as the cultural heritage of the future and remains accessible to all for study and research for all time to come.
To support this responsibility, Iceland has the Legal Deposit Act, No. 20/2002 (in Icelandic: Lög um skylduskil til safna). It requires publishers, printers and other producers to deliver to the Library a specified number of copies of all published material for preservation, whatever the format. The number of copies to be delivered depends on the size of the edition.
All published material, whether in print or in digital/electronic form, for example audiobooks and e-books, music, films and websites, is subject to legal deposit. The Act also covers material produced abroad for Icelandic publishers or authors.
In this way the works live on as part of the cultural heritage of the Icelandic nation and reflect the variety of culture at any given time.
Would you like to check whether your material has reached the Library through legal deposit? Look the title up at lbs.leitir.is or send us a query at skylduskil (at) landsbokasafn.is.
Rafhlaðan
Digital repository
Electronic deposit
Deposit electronic material
Act No. 20/2002
On legal deposit to libraries (in Icelandic)
Regulation
On legal deposit to libraries, No. 982/2003 (in Icelandic)
Printed material
The Library receives legal deposit copies of works published in print. Such works must be delivered in a specified number of copies. The duty to deposit rests with the producer or the publisher, depending on the case.
Electronic material
The Library collects all material published in electronic form; it is preserved in Rafhlaðan, the Library’s digital repository.
Sound recordings and moving pictures
The Library’s Audio-visual Collection preserves sound recordings such as music and audiobooks that come to the Library through legal deposit. The National Film Archive of Iceland receives legal deposit copies of films.