About legal deposit

Canadian publishers and producers help Library and Archives Canada (LAC) build the national collection. Through the legal deposit program, LAC collects materials created in Canada and intended for sale or public distribution. We are then able to make the material available for the public to consult, and to preserve it for future generations.

About Canadian publishers and producers

Who is a Canadian publisher or producer

Canadian publishers or producers meet these requirements:

• make a publication or production available in Canada
• publish or produce from an official office of business within Canada (we encourage you to include the place of publication or production in your work)
• have at least 75% of their employees based in Canada
• are authorized to reproduce publications or productions and control the content

Types of Canadian publishers and producers

• producers of music, video and audiobooks
• trade and small press publishers
• academic and educational publishers
• Government of Canada departments and agencies
• associations, organizations
• self-publishers

Who is not a Canadian publisher or producer

Those who only distribute publications are not publishers or producers and are not subject to legal deposit.

What to deposit

Materials accepted through legal deposit

Canadian publishers and producers submit materials such as:

• books (monographs)
  • must be in a published format (with cover, title page, or bibliographic information; no photocopied or handwritten pages)
  • must have been edited (few typographical errors)
  • must be securely bound (no loose pages)
• serials (such as magazines, journals, newsletters)
• physical music and video recordings that have not been compressed using the ACE format
• audiobooks
• sheet music
• maps

Submit all physical formats that are created (for example paperback and hardcover, or CD and vinyl). When there are both digital and physical versions, submit both versions.

Other accepted material

Works by Canadians created outside of Canada are not subject to legal deposit. However, creators, publishers or producers may choose to donate published material to the collection.

Materials not usually accepted through legal deposit

We usually do not accept this material, but in some cases we may ask you to submit it:

• materials not intended for public sale or distribution
• photocopies or copies in formats that are not distributed to the public
• pre-publication manuscripts or materials not formally published; drafts, advanced reader copies or versions that are not final
• official publications of Canadian provincial, territorial and municipal governments
• parts of publications (abstracts, summaries, table of contents) without the complete text and individual articles that are part of larger publications
• materials missing essential attributes (such as a distinct title, a specific author or authoring body, a specific publication date)
• materials with little or no substantial text (such as colouring books, stationery, agendas, notebooks, forms, calendars, postcards, posters, alerts, bulletins, materials that are mainly hyperlinks)
• materials in poor physical condition or formats we cannot preserve long-term such as non-commercial grade CDs or DVDs
• newsletters and annual reports from local groups of local interest

See "Deposit on request" in the Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations for the complete list.

Authority for legal deposit

The Library and Archives of Canada Act is a federal law that legally empowers LAC to collect and preserve Canada's published heritage. The Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations provides details about material that is deposited.

Tax deductions

You may deduct the cost of labour and material used to produce the deposited copies as a business expense. The market value of the material is not deductible. Contact the Canada Revenue Agency for more details on the maximum deduction and for any exemptions.

Copyright

Depositing material with LAC does not mean that you have registered copyright. Contact the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for questions about copyright.

Use of personal information

Information we collect from you (including personal information such as a creator’s year of birth or nationality), may be made publicly available in our online catalogues. We record this information to properly credit creators, publishers and producers for their works, and to help people find these works.

Our cataloguing records meet internationally recognized standards of bibliographic description.