These deposits become the source of the collection for the national library. Certainly, in the United States, as well as in many other countries, the copyright deposits make up the core of the national collection. National libraries, by serving as an archival repository for the print publications of their countries, become the central agency for the storage and sharing of knowledge, history, and culture. Copyright and legal deposit regulations that have served national interest in the print world must be revisited in the digital environment. We all recognize that when the library moves from the physical world of print on paper into the digital world of ones and zeros, many of the processes that have withstood the test of time are quickly called into question.
New issues emerge that become important when considering the legal deposit of digital materials.
Increasingly, materials are made available through license agreements and the library simply provides access to material that is held by the publisher or the author. It is difficult for the library to think about archiving material that it does not own, and, therefore, over which it has little control. Publishers have long relied on libraries to serve as the archival repository for their publications. In general, publishers have neither the technical expertise nor the business models for archiving their publications. Electronic publications are particularly troublesome for national libraries, because much of the electronic information will not automatically be submitted through the copyright deposit system.