Legal deposit of digital materials

Abstract

Results of scientific research are nowadays as a rule published digitally. It is almost inconceivable that any scientist would not present the results of his or her work in digital form, even if it is in parallel to a physical copy delivered by a publisher. This is certainly the case for Science, Technology and Medicine, the research fields that produce over 80% of all scientific publications. Traditionally academic libraries have contributed to the keeping of the output of science through time. For deposit libraries - mostly the national libraries - the maintenance of the Record of Science is even a key task. The maintenance of collections by libraries is under pressure as more publications turn digitally. One reason is the change of policy of publishers who preferably do no longer sell but rather license their publications, offering them through sophisticated search and retrieval services. Another reason is that handling and maintaining digital publications requires new skills and a different infrastructure than for printed publications. And complicating matters even further is the fact that great research and development efforts are required, as no best practices on the issues are yet available.