Did you know that if you publish a work in Australia, you are legally required to deposit a copy of that work in the National Library of Australia? Well, now you do!
Legal deposit is a requirement under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, and until recently was just for hard copy publications. I’ve personally had a lot to do with legal deposit in my previous careers in records management and working for government organisations. Back then, I didn’t think much about legal deposit outside the necessity to lodge annual reports and similar publications into the National Library and my State Library for recordkeeping purposes.
Once I published my novel, I checked into legal deposit requirements and now you can deposit the ebook version for your legal deposit obligations, however, a hard copy version is preferable.
Okay, you say, sure, I have to do this because it’s the law… but is there anything in it for me?
Well, my friend, there certainly is.
Not only will your book be kept as a legal record, it is also recorded and archived in some serious databases, namely Trove and WorldCat. Trove is the National Library of Australia’s comprehensive online record – which is a highly credible resource which gives high rankings in search engines. The National Library also includes your book’s details in WorldCat, which is the world’s largest library catalogue.
You should also submit your book to your State Library. Once you do this, the copy will be made available in the State Library’s catalogue and people can borrow it and read it, and hopefully love it!
I dropped my copy off recently, and I’m hoping it will show up in the library catalogue soon, which will give me a little thrill 🙂
If you are lucky, the libraries may even request multiple copies of your book to stock their lending shelves!
Want to find out more about legal deposit, including how to deposit your books? Head over to the National Library of Australia website and get all the details. Happy depositing!