Voluntary deposit of electronic publications: a learning experience

ABSTRACT During the second half of 2002, Electronic Publishing Services (EPS) carried out a study on the likely cost impact of extending legal deposit to non‐print publications. This article is not a summary of the report, which is publicly accessible on the Web, but focuses on a number of interesting phenomena and issues that EPS encountered in the course of the study. Statistics collected confirm the rise of email for serials and the demise of CD‐ROM, yet original material in e‐book format remains scarce. The voluntary deposit scheme for non‐print publications in the UK has been a successful experiment, though not necessarily exactly as originally planned. New legislation may be enacted in 2003.