We live in a society that is constantly changing and evolving, and as such, on December 29, 2021, the Council of Ministers approved the preliminary draft bill amending Law 23/2011, of June 29, on legal deposit, to enable more effective preservation of national publications and optimize the management of preservation centers.
Before we begin, it is important to note that the Legal Deposit system is the regulation that requires copies of all types of published works—whether in physical or online format—to be submitted to the preservation centers of the Autonomous Communities and to the National Library of Spain. Both of these institutions are responsible for preserving Spain’s bibliographic and documentary heritage, as well as its digital heritage, including online publications, websites, and electronic books and journals.
The draft bill includes the following new provisions: First, publishers will be able to submit digital files prior to digitization, in addition to or in lieu of printed files, provided that the materials in question are books, newspapers, and/or magazines. This is intended to facilitate the preservation of and access to these documents, thereby avoiding the need to digitize these copies in the future.
In addition, the possibility of requesting prints on demand—a service that was previously unavailable—has been added, and both the Spanish Film Archive and the film archives of the autonomous communities are now recognized as centers for the preservation of Spain’s film heritage, with the objectives of recovering, researching, and preserving Spain’s film heritage, as well as promoting it.
Similarly, new types of documents are included, such as video games, commercial catalogs from bookstores, publishers, and auction houses, as well as bookmarks, among others. With regard to video games, it is worth noting that this represents a major change, since under the previous legislation they were classified as audiovisual documents, whereas now they will have their own section to ensure the deposit of the complete edition of this type of document.
Finally, among the amendments is the elimination of microforms—which are no longer published—as well as all types of advertising publications, which, as noted in the preliminary draft, lack heritage value. Additionally, the responsibility for high-level inspection—which, in accordance with the doctrine of the Constitutional Court, had previously fallen to the National Library of Spain— is also eliminated.
This text also incorporates the changes resulting from Royal Decree 635/2015, dated July 10, which regulates the legal deposit of online publications and facilitates the preservation of digital heritage.
Finally, it should be noted that this project was developed in collaboration with the autonomous communities, the Federation of Spanish Publishers’ Associations, the Spanish Video Game Association (AEVI), and the Spanish Reproduction Rights Center (CEDRO), with the aim of adapting to changes in the publishing sector, as well as enabling more effective compliance with the preservation of the national publishing heritage and the optimization of the management of preservation centers.
Authors: Mabel Klimt and Paula Bellés