This white paper reports on the findings of the Digital Library Futures project (2017-2019), which investigates the impact of Non-Print Legal Deposit (NPLD) on academic legal deposit libraries and their users in the United Kingdom. It argues that discussions of NPLD have paid too little attention to user behaviour and requirements, and that it is necessary to adopt an ongoing user-focused evaluation framework to inform NPLD planning and implementation.
Core research was carried out at the University of Glasgow, the University of Edinburgh, the University of East Anglia, and University College London. We are grateful to our project partners, Cambridge University Library and Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and to the British Library, for their assistance and support.
The research that informs this white paper was supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council under grant number AH/POO5845 between June 2017 and May 2019