Serials - Vol. 5, No 3, November 1992 Legal Deposit in Euston Street Legal Deposit in Euston Street

for an odd package of five copies for Mr A. T Smail of 100 Euston Street in London - Library. Whether he was motivated by the with no subscription covering this standing aim to exercise censorship, archival order. Why, we may wonder? But some instincts, or simply the zeal of the collector, readers may recognize this as the address of is not known. Sir Thomas Bodley, retired the Agent for the five Copyright Libraries diplomat and scholar, first established the for which legal deposit may be required (in principle of free library deposit of addition to the first, mandatory deposit of a publications in England, under a 'perpetual copy of all printed works at the British covenant' of 1610 with the Stationers' Library). C~mpany.~This was 'the most powerful craft guild of printers and booksellers in Europe from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth ... It Several separate issues are historically and supervised entry into the trade, controlled semantically mingled under the term wages and working conditions, regulated 'copyright': freedom of speech; restriction copyright, and fixed retail prices for books', of the right to publish; and authors' moral with wardens authorized to seek out and rights in their own intellectual property. destroy illegal presses'. Publishers had to Under the same legal umbrella of the enter the titles of their books in the Copyright Act comes legal deposit, which Company's Entry Book, originally to nevertheless is fundamentally distinct from register cash received, but these entries came all of those, being concerned with the to constitute permission to print. By the archiving and bibliographical description of arrangement with Sir Thomas, copies went a national collection. from Stationers Hall to Oxford University Originally, authorities sought to control Library (now of course known as the the media (initially the printing press) by Bodleian). A decree of the Star Chamber in requiring the submission of one or two 1637 (exactly a century after Francis 1's copies of all printed works for permission happy thought) strengthened the Bodleian for public appearance. In conjunction with Agreement - but lapsed after three years. this censorship, privileges to print came to In 1662 the Press Licensing Act obliged be granted - the right to copy and publish printers to deposit at Stationers' Hall three was indeed the 'copy-right'. Later, with the copies of every new book or reprint with development alike of bibliography and additions: one copy each for the libraries of tolerance, and the shift from printers' Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and 'privilege' to authors' rights, the obligation one for the use of the Royal Library. These continued for publishers to provide copies copies had to be on the best and largest of their authors' books to a central paper used for the best edition of a work, depository, to establish a national imprint and deposition must precede sales.2 and collection. The copyright emphasis later changed, Legal deposit itself originated in 1537, protecting publishers' rights and privileges when King Francis I of France demanded a rather than creating effective censorship. copy of everything published for the Royal The first Copyright Act, in 1709-10, the

This articlefirsf appeared in Learned Publishing Vol. 4 No. 4, 1991, whose kind 1n lo reprint is grarefully acknowledged. Serials - Vol. 5, No 3, November 1992 Legal Deposit in Euston Street

'Statute of Queen Anne', assigned copyright recent Act of 1988. in new books to the authors instead of the The early history of the working publishers, and formalized the deposit copyright deposit needs further research. principle as a legal requirement, including Agents at first merely accepted material further the Scottish Advocates' Library in from Stationers Hall and passed it on; later Edinburgh. they also chased up material that had not The contents of the Royal Library of King been forthcoming. It became a full-time job George I1 were donated to the nation in only in 1911, held on behalf of the five 1757 (and opened to the public as the libraries that must claim their copies, British Museum Library in 1759), together collectively; the British Museum, deposit in with the previous Royal privilege of which has always been uniquely mandatory, compulsory legal deposit. This remains the was separate from the Copyright Agency, as only libra,ry which must automatically the British Library is now. At first only the receive a copy of all publications, not Agent was employed by the libraries, having first to request them. employing other staff himself; now the Trinity College, Dublin, next acquired the whole agency has a proper legal identity as privilege of supply upon request, in 1801 - part of Cambridge University Library, but and retains it still, though now outside the with the other four libraries taking equal UK. A reciprocal Irish Copyright Act shares in funding and in formulating requires Irish publishers to supply copies to policy. all five of the UK Libraries. Trinity College Through the 300 years following Sir Library serves the whole of Ireland as a Thomas Bodley's first agreement, by the deposit library, with the benefit of two various statutes passed, at one stage there centuries' collection; readers from North of were no less than eleven copyright libraries. the border regularly use its facilities, both in Now they are six. person and by correspondence. It co- operates fully with the UK Deposit Libraries The present law in a number of joint initiatives in the areas of shared cataloguing and record provision, One copy of all printed publications acquisitions, inter-library lending and (including maps and music sheets) must be preservation. sent to the British Library within a month The National Library of Wales was of the date of publication (the new BL Legal founded in 1909, and included in the 1911 Deposit Office is at Boston Spa). However, Copyright Act. The rights of the Welsh the other five libraries (Bodleian, Library were at first restricted to material Cambridge, Scotland, Dublin, Wales - relating to Wales or the Welsh Language, always listed in that historical order of with regard to expensive or limited editions, acquisition of the privilege) are in a but these restrictions were removed in 1987, different position. The onus is on them to giving Wales the same entitlement as the request copies they wish from the publisher other libraries. within twelve months, and the publisher The Advocates' Library transferred all must then comply, supplying up to five but its legal collections, with its privilege, to further free copies, according to which the National Library of Scotland when this was founded in 1925. The British Museum libraries require them, within a month. Such transferred its privilege to the British requesting is now part of the work of the Library, established in 1973. Otherwise, the Copyright Agent. The publisher has the 1911 Copyright Act legal deposit provisions option, of course, of supplying copies direct remain valid still, having continued under to each copyright library, or in a single bulk the 1956 Act and not been changed by the delivery to the Copyright Agency. Serials - Vol. 5, No 3, November 1992 Legal Deposit in Euston Street

publishers' delivery services, parcel post, private hands, and sacks of letter post - The Agency is a collective, acting on behalf some twelve sacks daily of this last. of all five libraries (excluding the British The daily intake of items is no longer Library itself), and funded by them equally. counted: unnecessary work in a now An Advisory Committee is formed from the streamlined operation, as the libraries count five institutions and their copyright the contents of their consignments on sections, and determines finances and policy arrival, receiving about 60,000 monograph - such as how to deal with the rare, titles each per year. The scale of the recalcitrant publishers who refuse to deliver enterprise today is apparent not merely from on request. Together the Copyright the statistics but from looking around. Libraries form a national archive for Incoming bundles of books and serials reference, and the five Agency Libraries are are recorded on computer and separated reviewing their acquisitions policies, into containers according to destination. especially for serials, jointly with the British Oxford and Cambridge collect their quotas Library. Strangely, perhaps, to publishers weekly by van; contract carriers deliver to resenting the freeloading, the libraries may Edinburgh and Aberystwyth; a shipping see the acquisition and storage of all serial firm to Dublin. A waste baler has been publications as a burden as well as a acquired to deal with the vast mass of privilege. The Libraries participate in the discarded wrapping material, collected British Library's inter-library lending fortnightly. The loading bay I saw was filled system as libraries of last resort. by a consignment for Dublin consisting of 100 boxes: almost a month's accumulation. How are the libraries to expand to accomodate such large and regular The Agency occupies the ground floor of a increases? Modern means of storage, such plain building in Euston Street, with a as compact-shelving, offsite storage, notice board alongside, 'No waiting - microfilming, etc., are being used to good vehicles unloading all day'. Euston Street is effect. a small thoroughfare, parallel to part of Massive Agency records over many years Euston Road, running west from Euston have accumulated in historically changing Station. The Agency address is not 100 forms: paper files, metal trays, and now on Euston Road, though often so written - as computers. Mr Smail observes, Euston Road is on the Monopoly Board, a major road, and after typing '100 Euston -', 'Road' seems naturally to follow. In fact, St Pancras The full extent of published material Library occupies 100 Euston Road; there is available can be gauged from the British some mixing of mail delivery between the Library's intake of published material two institutions. And in a year or two the without claims. Of this possible total, the British Library is to move to 96 Euston Copyright Agency receives 60% without Road.. . action proving necessary. Seventy percent of Behind the unassuming facade of the the monograph material deposited with Mr Agency lies a busy combined Smail arrives unprompted; large publishers office/warehouse, with staff of fourteen, tend to despatch their deposit copies as a basement below, loading bay adjacent, and routine procedure at the same time as review piles of books and journals all around. Here copies. are delivered around 300,000 monographs Specifically claiming the remaining 30% per year, as well as countless serials, by is harder work, greatly helped now by Serials - Vol. 5, No 3, November 1992 Legal Deposit in Euston Street computerization. Three sources of ownership, but do not bestow the right. The information as to new publications are used. Copyright Act is merely the vehicle for legal First, data is exchanged with the British deposit requirements; the two issues do not Library, including C.I.P. (cataloguing in go hand in hand. publication) and the British National Bibliography; indeed, the six libraries Cui bono? together have started a shared cataloguing project in advance of BNB. Trade lists of Complaints are sometimes heard from publications - now often on CD-ROM - publishers resenting the obligation to supply are also used as source lists; and each of the up to six copies of their product, and bear five libraries informs Mr Smail of new the cost of despatch, an 'involuntary gift to publications of particular relevance to their the nation', as Paul Asser described it.' The own collecting policies. Choice of what to Whitford Committee of 1977 considered it claim can be difficult; there can be no . hard 'that the cost should fall exclusively on certainty as to what will hold interest in the the authors and their publishers'; yet, 'the future, and the strength of a library may principle that a national archive of eventually prove to lie in its secondary published literature should be maintained by material rather than its core. a legislative requirement for deposit has not There are some exemptions from legal been challenged'.' The International deposit regulations. Subsequent editions Committee of the International Publishers and revisions of a work need fresh Association, and the General Assembly of deposition only if they include major STM (International Group of Scientific, changes. Information that is published only Technical and Medical Publishers) both for members of a society, with restricted accepted and endorsed in October 1989 the access, is exempt from legal deposit law: eight-point Policy Statement on Legal publication constitutes 'the act of issuing or Deposit reproduced in the January 1990 distributing to the public'. Some local issue of Learned Publishing. material may be difficult to detect - Mr Smail points out that the full costs of comprehensive coverage cannot be claimed. compliance with legal deposit requirements Serials, particularly, are only selectively are tax-deductable from profits (for requested and held by the libraries. At one unprofitable publications, the position is time they might be sent in automatically by indeed harder). The publishers win the the publishers for some to be rejected and advantage of entry to their publications into returned. Now, Mr Smail circulates among the British National Bibliography and any the libraries a monthly list, from which each shared cataloguing, as well as the valuable library specifies its requirements; he then exposure of recent acquisitions on library claims the copies from the publishers, to a shelves to booksellers as well as potential maximum of five accordingly. purchasers - scholars, students, and enthusiasts. The system spares the Copyright publishers having to archive their own publications; these all remain available in The subsistence of copyright does not in the copyright libraries, if required, for fact depend upon copyright deposit, but is a example, for reprinting. Having had their quite separate issue. It derives from the legal deposit copies accepted may give actual production of the work, and this smaller publishers a sense of official must be proved to establish copyright recognition and pride in archive-worthiness. ownership. Legal deposit of a copy of the Finally, access in the libraries completes the work, and production of a receipt for this, cycle of knowledge whereby fresh writings may be accepted as proof of copyright are produced in the light of earlier Serials - Vol. 5, No 3, November 1992 Legal Deposit in Euston Street published work: authors need access to the true zeal of a collector. Our legal deposit publications to enable them to produce system today, we can avow, is in enthusiastic further texts. In the words of T. S. Elliot, as well as highly efficient hands. 'Some one said: "The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much Acknowledgment more than they did". Precisely, and they are It is a pleasure to thank Mr A. T. Smail for that which we know.5 his patient and detailed explanation of the work of the Copyright Libraries Agency. The Agents References Mr A. T. ('Tom') Smail is only the third 1. Asser, Paul Nijhoff. The Gutenberg Copyright Agent since 1922. His Bible was published in the USA. Learned predecessors were Mr. F. G. Osborne, who Publishing 3 (1) Jan. 1990, 1-9. came to the Agency in 1901 and became 2. Bell, Richard. Legal Deposit in Britain. Agent in 1922; and Mr G. W. Copp, who Law Librarian 8 (1/2) April/August joined the Agency in 1925 and was Agent 1977, 5-8,22-60. from 1953 to 1977. Mr Smail came in as 3. Robertson, Michael. The Stationers' Agent in 1977 from the National Library of Company archive, 1554-1984 (review Scotland, having worked there, then for a article). Microform Review 3 (2) 1990, while with Customs and Excise, and then 85-7. returned to the Scottish Library for a 4. The standard work on the subject is further spell. Photographs of his two R. C. Barrington Partridge, The History predecessors proudly adorn Mr Smail's of the legal deposit of books throughout office wall. Such a tradition of length of the British Empire. Library Association, I service argues high job satisfaction as well 1938. as diligence in office. Tom Smail knows 5. Elliot, T. S. Tradition and the individual every detail of the work, its history, talent. The Sacred Wood. Methuen, principles and present operation, and shows I 1920. 47-59.