Canada

This page considers legal (aka statutory) deposit schemes in Canada

It covers -

• print in Canada
• digital formats

It supplements discussion in the Intellectual Property and Publishing guides on this site.

     print in Canada

Legal deposit in Canada is covered by the Library & Archives of Canada Act of 2004 and the Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations, replacing the National Library Act (NLA) and National Library Book Deposit Regulations 1995 (LBDR).

Prior to 2007, when the regime was amended, Canadian publishers are required to provide the National Library of Canada with

• two copies of all books, pamphlets, serial publications, microforms, spoken word sound recordings, video-recordings, publications issued in physical format electronic publications such as CD-ROM, CD-I and floppy disks.
• one copy of musical sound recordings and multi-media kits.

Legal deposit did not apply if three or fewer copies are made.

As with national library legislation in other countries, the initial law applied primarily to books but has been extended to encompass serial publications, sound and video recordings, microforms and multimedia CD-ROMs.

In 1995 it was extended to other physical format electronic publications and in 2004 the Library & Archives of Canada Act expanded the definition of publication to include "any medium" and "in any form including printed material, on-line items or recordings".

As with Australia and New Zealand, the deposit regime is independent of copyright law. Deposition with the National Library does not involve registration for copyright protection.

     digital formats

In principle the Canadian legislation prior to 2004 covered online electronic documents as part of the broad definition of 'books'. In practice there was uncertainty about whether they qualify as being 'published'.

A national Electronic Publications Pilot Project (EPPP) was conducted in Canada during 1994 and 1995 to explore the deposit of online electronic publications. Based on recommendations from that project the National Library has continued to collect electronic publications on a voluntary deposit basis, with an emphasis on publications not available in any other format.

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