Balancing Interests: Reimagining Legal Deposit in Latvia’s Dynamic Publishing Field

Abstract

The current Legal Deposit Law of Latvia entered into force in mid-2006. While it can be considered relatively progressive for the time it was written, we at the National Library of Latvia are increasingly aware of how it no longer suffices in the ever-changing field of publishing, sometimes limiting our ability to acquire and preserve certain publications and other times creating unnecessary burden for publishers. Therefore, we will share the main points regarding the updates to the Law we are actively working to implement, especially regarding legal deposit regulations of digital publications, including production files, multi-media publications, publications by trade publishers, web-based content, etc. Inseparable from these developments is our ongoing work with the heterogenous publishing community, including in the form of feedback to the legal amendments proposed by us, which has led us to some takeaways we aspire to implement as part of an extensive communication campaign we are designing to target new publishers and groups of publishers that are typically more challenging to work with in particular to foster a more positive perception of the concept of the legal deposit system shifting the focus from legal duties to the idea of individual and common good