Digital Legal Deposit

• Documents are increasingly being published digitally, or created digitally for printing. Due to the fast changes in the technological world, we face a potential risk of losing our digital published heritage, unless we preserve the same.
• The purpose of this voluntary digital legal deposit scheme is to close this growing gap in anticipation of the changes in legislation, to include the legal deposit of digital and internet publications.
• Hence, NLB encourages Singapore publishers to support this objective of preserving our digital heritage.
• The scheme is voluntary and there is no legal obligation on Singapore publishers to comply with it.
• However, Singapore publishers are urged and encouraged to deposit their online, digital and internet publications based the guidelines below.

1. NLB's Collection Guidelines
   
   All digital content published/produced in Singapore and released for sale or public access will be collected comprehensively in all the published formats and languages, regardless of the content; preserved and made accessible for research in a manner consistent with their status as documentary heritage.
   
   Online resources (including websites or web pages) that are of social, political, cultural, scientific or economic significance or relevance to Singapore and/or created by a Singaporean author are collected and preserved as Digital Legal Deposits. Factors like authoritative content, research value, topicality or interest as an innovative or outstanding example of its type are criteria for inclusion.
   
   Turned-digital publications that are created through digitisation initiatives by NLB, usually for access purpose, should not constitute new additions to the DLD collection. Such digital publications are considered 'instances' of the original print publications from which they were derived. They can, however, be preserved as the digital masters, and be used as surrogates for the originals when they are no longer usable.
   
   
2. Benefits of Digital Deposit
   
   Preservation of Published Heritage and Your Assets
   
   Many publishers currently produce digital publications to meet the need for fast and cost-saving methods, for the production and distribution of information. If the digital materials are not managed properly, they may become un-usable in a matter of few years due to technological obsolescence or media decay.
   
   To ensure that access to these important assets and heritage materials are protected, NLB encourages publishers to start depositing the Singapore digital publications voluntarily with NLB. NLB will provide the framework and services to manage, care for and preserve the digital publications for future generations, as well as for your future use.
   
   Digital Preservation of Digital Publications
   
   Digital publication lends itself to ease of change and technical obsolescence. At the time of deposit by publishers, NLB will 'freeze' the digital content with time-stamps and checksums to allow verification that the content is the same as what has been submitted. Where there is a need to migrate the content to a newer approved format for continued access, a copy will be made in the new format and re-ingested into the digital preservation system.
   
   
3. What kind of digital publications can be deposited?
   
   Although publishers, under the NLB Act, are obligated to deposit offline digital publications, this voluntary digital legal deposit scheme has been extended to include both offline and online publications as an added convenience to publishers.
   
   Digital publications refer to both offline documents (documents stored or published in physical or handheld devices such as CDs and DVDs) and online documents (documents published on the Internet such as websites and blogs) published in Singapore.
   
   Examples include:
   

   • Any off-line or Internet equivalent of any document covered by Legal Deposit for printed materials (eg electronic journals, e-posters, e-newsletters, etc)
   • Websites, webpages, blogs
   • Feature or short films
   • E-books, talking books
   • Multimedia CD-ROMS
   • Resources on CD / DVD

   
   
4. Digital File Format
   
   To encourage the voluntary digital legal deposit, NLB will accept the digital content in the format it was and is published, or in any common publishing formats. Where necessary, NLB may reformat the publications to an approved preservation format for preservation purposes, only. The chosen preservation format would depend on the context and sustainability of the format. The deposited publication must be uncompressed, or be using lossless compression.
   
   
5. Access To Publication
   
   A copy of the deposited digital publication shall be the designated preservation master copy. This copy will be preserved digitally for future access and retrieval. Another copy is made available for onsite research and reference at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library (LKCRL). No printing is permitted by NLB.
   
   Where there is a print and digital version of a title, both the digital and print version will be made available for onsite reference, only.
   
   
6. Copyrights
   
   In line with NLB's statutory requirements, a copy of the digital publication will be made available at LKCRL for onsite reference. NLB will put in place a digital rights management system to implement various access and rights controls, to ensure protection of publishers' copyright interests when making the digital publications available for research.
   
   In addition, digital preservation necessitates the need to make multiple copies for various purposes, eg, for reformatting (transformation) or for migration purpose. In depositing with NLB, Publishers should agree to such requirements arising from the preservation activities undertaken by NLB to ensure long-term access to the content.
   
   
7. How to deposit?
   
   For voluntary deposits of digital and internet publications, you may submit online at www.nl.sg
   
   For journal publishers and publishers with annual publishing output of more than one hundred (100) items per year, please contact NLB for discussion on the deposit packages and arrangement for batch deposits.
   
   
8. Contact Details
   
   For more information, please contact the Legal Deposit Office at:
   

   Tel	:	6546 7271
   Fax	:	6546 7262
   Email	:	legaldep@nlb.gov.sg