Extension of Legal Deposit: Recording Australia’s Online Cultural Heritage

Abstract

In 2007 the Government commenced a review into the feasibility of extending the legal deposit scheme to include audiovisual and electronic material – submissions closed in May, 2008. In this paper we examine the history and significance of legal deposit as well as the relationship between legal deposit and cultural and technological change. We focus on the importance of integrating electronic, and specifically online, materials into the national legal deposit system. The current Australian legal deposit scheme is discussed with reference to the 2007 review and subsequent submissions to the review. The relationship between legal deposit and the public domain is analysed, highlighting the ways in which effective deposit schemes can enhance the national public domain. The importance of a flexible and considered approach to developing an appropriate threshold for inclusion of online materials in an extended legal deposit scheme is discussed. Finally, we make some suggestions for ways of implementing an efficient and effective legal deposit scheme that can encompass online materials of cultural value.