About legal deposit legislation
The Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 will commence on 1 March 2005 and will provide for the long-term preservation of, and access to, the Northern Territory’s documentary heritage. The purpose of regulating legal deposit is to encourage compliance. This is a cooperative and consensual approach to ensuring a complete record of the Northern Territory’s documentary heritage. BR>
Under the new legislation Territorians will find it easier to research all aspects of Territory life and culture through a more comprehensive record of the Northern Territory’s social and cultural history. All other Australian jurisdictions have similar statutory requirements that require publications to be deposited with the appropriate state library. The Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004, will ensure best practice standards are met by the Northern Territory.

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What does the legislation cover?
Only published documents or those available to the public on request need to be deposited with the Northern Territory Library (NTL). The legislation covers publications in any form 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.

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Related policy & legislation
Items deposited under the Act will be subject to the Northern Territory Library Collection Development Policy, for eventual lodgement in the Northern Territory Collection.

The new legislation will complement the Information Act 2002 which provides access to government documents published in the Northern Territory.

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How will the legislation affect me?
If you publish a document, you will need to provide a copy to the Northern Territory Library. In the case of Internet publications, you will need to provide a web address.

The document or web address needs to be provided within two months of publication unless other arrangements have been made.

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What publications are exempt?
The legislation specifically exempts culturally sensitive information and certain dynamically generated spatial information. A publisher may choose to deposit any culturally sensitive information for preservation and safekeeping. The Northern Territory Library will ensure that any restrictions to access to specific publications are observed.

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Where will the material be stored?
Material will be stored with the Northern Territory Library.

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Where should I send copies of publications?
Copies of legal deposit publications, marked LEGAL DEPOSIT, should be sent to:

LEGAL DEPOSIT
PO BOX 42
DARWIN NT 0801

or delivered to:

Northern Territory Library
Corner of Witte and Albatross Street
Winnellie NT 0820

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Where should I send web addresses of Internet publications?

You can post the information to the address above or email it to: NTL.Deposit@nt.gov.au

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Want to know more?
Contact the Legal Deposit Officer on (08) 8999 7177.
Read the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004.

Printable version of this document (pdf 69Kb)

Publicity brochure (pdf 334Kb)