Publications Office of the EU
EU Legal Deposit - Librarian's corner
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EU Legal Deposit

Legal deposit is a well-established means of collecting and preserving the published output of a country, with the purpose of making this output accessible, for current and future generations.

The EU Legal Deposit scheme applies to the published output of the EU institutions. It covers ‘any material authored or made public either by or upon the order of an EU institution or its official representative as part of their service and intended for distribution to a public external to the EU institutions’.

The objective of the EU Legal Deposit scheme is to capture, make accessible and preserve EU publications and websites in a systematic and persistent way. In the coming years, it will also cover audio-visual materials and press releases, and will aim to capture new and emerging material types, such as social media content or datasets.

The overall objective of the scheme, and the broad lines of its implementation, are set out in a foundation document supported by annexes covering modes of applicability and a list of material types. The annexes are living documents, to be modified and adapted as the scheme evolves.

If your library’s mission is to collect a complete published output of a territory or language, you may be interested in including publications of the EU institutions in your collection. If you need more information, please contact us:
EU-LEGAL-DEPOSIT@publications.europa.eu