Legal Deposit
Legal Deposit keeps our contemporary collections up-to-date and growing. It is a requirement of the Legal Deposit Act (2004) that material published in the Northern Territory is deposited with Library & Archives NT.
What is Legal Deposit?
Legal Deposit is a legislative requirement to ensure that Australia’s national, state and territory libraries are able to keep a comprehensive collection of everything published in the country. The collection of items under Legal Deposit ensures that future researchers will have access to a comprehensive record of the Northern Territory's social and cultural history.
In the Northern Territory, the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 requires that all publications and recordings produced in the Northern Territory are donated to the Library & Archives NT within two months of publication.
What’s covered by Legal Deposit?
Legal Deposit covers materials published in the Northern Territory including:
- books, newspapers, magazines, periodicals, reports, newsletters, calendars, directories, handbooks, guides, sheet music, maps and pamphlets
- information recorded or stored by means of a recording device, computer or electronic device, or any other device e.g. audio-cassettes, video cassettes, films, multimedia kits, computer magnetic tape, computer optical disks, floppy discs, compact discs, CDROMs, DVDs, websites and PDF files.
An exemption exists for materials that are culturally sensitive. These materials may still be deposited with us for preservation and safekeeping, at the discretion of the donor. In such cases, Library & Archives NT will make sure any desired restrictions on access are observed.
Library & Archives NT actively archives websites published in the Northern Territory or created by Northern Territory based organisations.
How to deposit physical publications
Physical publications and recordings can be posted to the Legal Deposit team.
Deposit of Digital Publications.
Library & Archives NT stores digital legal deposit material and makes it available for searching and, where permitted viewing and download.
Library & Archives NT is a partner in the National edeposit (NED) service.
The NED service simplifies your Legal Deposit obligations for digital publications. Material deposited with Library & Archives NT or with NED is shared. Through a single service, you are able to make a single deposit fulfil National and Northern Territory digital Legal Deposit responsibilities.
- Publishers are only required to deposit at either NED or Library & Archives NT.
- Digital publications deposited must be free of technological protection measures or digital rights management. This is mandated in the legal deposit legislation and is required to enable the ongoing preservation of the publications.
Publications deposited by Northern Territory publishers in NED will be copied to Library & Archives NT and publications deposited with Library & Archives NT will be copied to NED.
How do I deposit electronic publications? | |
|---|---|
| Publishers who have previously deposited with NED | Deposit with the NED portal. |
| New publishers (Other than NTG Agencies) | Deposit with the NED portal. |
| Northern Territory Government Agencies | Deposit with the Northern Territory Library who will transfer your publications to the NED Repository. |
| All other publishers | Deposit with the Northern Territory Library. You will be contacted by the Library with a transition plan to the NED service. |
Do I need to deposit both a physical and digital copy of my publication?
The Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 allows Library & Archives NT to collect both the digital and print version of any given publication. We collect digital versions of all publications where available. The print version is also collected for significant monographs or if the publication is only available in print.
| Publication Type | Published Digital Only | Published Digital + Print Digital | Published Digital + Print | Published Print Only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community, school and society newsletters | YES | YES | NO | YES |
| NTG Agency Publications | YES | YES | NO | YES |
| NTG Agency Periodicals | YES | YES | NO | YES |
| Society Publications (less than 15 pages) | YES | YES | NO | YES |
| Society Publications (more than 15 pages) | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Commercial and Academic Publications | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Born Digital Formats (eg photographs, recordings) | YES |
Searching for Legal Deposit Material.
Northern Territory physical legal deposit material, and increasingly digital legal deposit material can be searched through our catalogue.
Northern Territory digital legal deposit material can be searched and accessed through Territory Stories.
All material deposited to the national NED service can be searched in our catalogue and accessed if permission has been granted by the publisher.
Websites harvested through the web harvesting service can be searched and accessed through TROVE.
Contact us for guidance on your specific circumstances.
| Enquiries and deposits: |
|---|
| Post: GPO BOX 42, Darwin 0801 |
| Telephone: 08 8922 0887 |
| Contact us by email. |
| Contact us by the Ask LANT Portal. |