Accessing the Level of Legal Deposit Law Compliance: Implications on Access to Nigeria's published Heritage

Abstract

Legal deposit is a statutory mandate on publishers and creators of intellectual products to deposit designated copies to the National Library of Nigeria.  This mandate is backed up by law and therefore binding on all producers of intellectual output. Complying with legal deposit law is of benefit to the author, the publisher, the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) and the nation at large. In spite of these benefits, some empirical studies on legal deposit has shown some low level of compliance amongst the state actors.

This paper highlights the benefits associated with legal deposit law compliance, while reviewing the results of some empirical studies on legal deposit in Nigeria. It also examines the implications of legal deposit compliance on access to Nigeria's published heritage, and suggested some way forward.