
In this regard, the bibliographic
agency liaises with the publishers,
authors and other stakeholders in
the book trade to ensure that
int e rna tion al s t and a rds of
publishing are maintained to
enhance effective bibliographic
control practices. (p. 91)
It is vital at this point to consider the issue of
legal deposit provision and obligation. It is
important to mention that depository can be
statutory-when it has an enabling law,
voluntary where it is not compelled by law
or mixed where it combines both statutory
and voluntary critiques. By definition,
therefore, legal deposit is a statutory
enactment that compels creators of
intellectual property or output to deposit a
specified number of their works with a
designated depository centre or institution.
In this case, the depository is both
mandatory and obligatory. Provisions for
legal deposit can be in a stand-alone legal
framework or incorporated as a part of a
larger legal framework. In Nigeria, the
latter is the case. The legal depository
provision is contained in Section 4 of the
National Library Act of 1970.
A brief critical review of this law is
appropriate here. Firstly, the law requires
publishers to deposit three copies of the
published works with the National Library
of Nigeria for permanent preservation.
Secondly, the delivery of the copies must be
done within three months at the depositors'
expense. Thirdly, the quality of the copies to
be delivered must be perfect copies of the
whole books, bound, sewed or stitched
together and in the best paper possible.
Fourthly, federal and state governments'
officers responsible for government
publications are obligated to deliver 25 and
10 copies respectively, to the National
Library.
Fifthly, failure to comply with the law by a
publisher attracts a fine not exceeding
N100.000. The big question here is whether
this amount can compensate for the legal
fees and time committed to the legal
proceedings leading to the conviction of the
defaulters. Sixthly, the categories of works
to be delivered to the National Library
include all literary works such as books,
pamphlets, sheets of music, maps, charts,
plans, tables and companions. Others are
dramatic works, collective works such as
encyclopedias, dictionaries, yearbooks,
similar works, newspapers, magazines and
similar periodicals. Also required to be
deposited are works written in distinct parts
by different authors or in which a part or
parts of works of different authors is or are
incorporated and every part or division of
such a work; and all forms in which
documentary or oral records are published.
It is important to point out that the law did
not envisage the rapid paradigm shift which
digital technology has brought to the nature
and format of electronic or digital
publications. What happens to publications
that are in the electronic frontiers? These
and other reasons are the compelling
necessities for a review of the Nigerian
legal depository provisions in particular,
and the National Library of Nigeria Law in
general. Such a review must identify the
critical stakeholders in the maintenance of
international publishing standards and the
implementation of the legal deposit laws
and the provisions therein.
Volume 14 | Article 3 | May, 2021
31
Justina N. Ekere, Charles O. Omekwu, Eucharia Ken-Agbiriogu
Authors' Awareness of International Publishing Standards and Legal Deposit Obligations