Legal deposit and its sustainability is a major problem that cannot be ignored in South Africa. This study investigated the problems and constraints experienced by publishers in KwaZulu-Natal in relation to legal filing.
LETTER OF INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUPERVISORS 80 APPENDIX 2: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE 81
SELF ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRE 82
Definition and purpose of legal deposit
The main purpose of legal deposit is to bring together, in the Official Deposit Library (ODL), a complete collection of at least one copy of every work published in a given country. Thus, legal deposit aims to collect, preserve and make available for the future the total amount of intellectual and cultural heritage of a nation (White, 1986:2).
Background of the study
During 1916, the Natal Society Library (then known as the Library of the Natal Society) in Pietermaritzburg was granted legal deposit status for the first time. By the 1950s, the purpose and functions of legal deposit in South Africa had not yet been clearly formulated.
Benefits of legal deposit
The situation changed in 1997 with the promulgation of the Duty Transfer Act and the formation of the Divination Tax Committee. According to Fouche and James (1999: 3), the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology was responsible for administering the devolution functions in South Africa by regulating the Devolution Act.
Research problem
Research purpose
Research objectives
To determine the difficulties faced by publishers in terms of compliance with the Legal Deposits Act (1997).
Research questions
Justification for the study
Scope and limitations of the study
The study focused on the period from 1997, the year when the Obligatory Copy Law was promulgated.
Definitions of terms used in the study
Under the 1997 Act, there are five statutory deposit sites in South Africa. For the purposes of this study, printed material refers to books, newspapers and magazines (South Africa. Legal Deposit Act, 1997).
Structure of the remainder of the study
These publishers are subject to compulsory copy law; that is, they are compelled by law to deposit published material in designated libraries for the purpose of collecting and preserving the material and ensuring its free access to the public (South Africa. Compulsory Copy Act, 1997). A review of the literature thus reveals possible recommendations that can be linked to the current study (Gay 1976: 23).
Four requirements for legal deposit
Some mandatory copy laws provide that the public has a right of access to a collection of mandatory copies. However, Manzoni points out that public access is central to the purpose of the copy obligation.
Legal deposit legislation
Such statements can previously be found in the law establishing the statutory deposit library. Some statutory deposit libraries charge fees or deny access to certain members of the public (Jasion, 1991: 4).
Which institutions must receive legal deposit?
The work and implementation of legal deposit legislation should be reconciled, in a balance that is appropriate for the situation of each country, and follow the requirements that Jasion (1991: 4) has identified.
Who bears the cost?
Material deposited
According to Smith, states will undoubtedly prioritize traditional media, books and periodicals, including government publications, among requests for a national collection. She can determine her further priorities based on what is available and what relates to her national culture.
Components of a comprehensive legal deposit law
A model deposit law must also take into account the needs of the national bibliography, taking into account the minimum requirements mentioned by the IFLA International Office for UBC, that is monographs and first, last and changed title editions of journals, and whatever other categories are determined can be at a future date through further study (Smith. That all countries take note of UBC and require deposit of at least monographs and first editions of periodicals, listing them in its national bibliography;.
Number of copies deposited
However, legal deposit is widely practiced by many countries and in some countries more than six copies are required. In fact, copies of important material are likely to be acquired by other libraries without the benefit of legal deposit.
Time limit
Briefly, it is suggested by Jasion that, as a general rule, a deposit law should not require more than two copies. It is suggested that delivery be required before publications are released for general distribution or sale (Jasion, 1991: 8).
Accompanying information
IFLANET (2002: 5) notes that, while in South Africa there is a 14-day delivery rule: that is, that the article must have been sent by post or sent by some other means within that period, it is recommended that the deposit be taken as soon as possible. However, it should be understood that due to the workload and the 14-day delivery period for deposit, there may not be enough time to fulfill legal deposit obligations on time (Jasion, 1991: 5).
Enforcement of legal deposit
- Inertia and ignorance
- High costs of depositing
- Publications in legal depositories diminishing value of remaining copies
- Other issues of concern relating to legal deposit
Behrens suggests that legal filing should be legislated so that it is applicable to all publishers. Most legal deposit legislation requires publishers to deliver their publications to legal depositories at the cost of delivery paid by the publisher.
Summary
The traditional role of legal deposit has been to focus on paper-based material and therefore its expansion to electronic publication requires more attention. Legal Deposit must satisfy the needs of both types of users by providing the information in a relevant format to the users.
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
Introduction
Choice of method
According to Powell Survey, research is better suited to study, investigate and analyze relationships between a geographically dispersed population. In terms of the current study, the survey was considered suitable for the study of publishers who were geographically spread across the KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Data collection technique
- The self administered questionnaire
Population
- Study population
A potential problem with a small population size is the possibility of a low response rate when using mailed questionnaires. This was considered a very good response rate considering what has been mentioned by Newell that a small population usually generates a low response rate.
Instrumentation
- Structure of questionnaire
- Format of questions
- Pre-testing the questionnaire
- Administering the questionnaire
Babbie supports Bless in that open-ended questions require respondents to answer the question themselves. The questionnaire (see Appendix 3), together with a cover letter from the supervisors (see Appendix 1) and a letter from the researcher (see Appendix 2), was sent to the publisher population on 2 November 2003.
Data analysis
Cover letters solicited publishers' participation and also explained the purpose of the study and how it could benefit the publishing community in South Africa. Publishers were requested to return the questionnaire to the researcher no later than November 20, 2003 in the enclosed self-stamped and addressed envelope.
Evaluation of applied method
- Validity
- Reliability
Efforts were also made to ensure that the questions asked were closely related to the objectives of the study. In terms of the current study, it can be argued, given the very good response rate achieved, that the results can be generalized to print publishers in KwaZulu-Natal.
Summary
The researcher believes that there is no indication that the same results would not be obtained if the research were repeated.
Introduction
Presentation of Results The results are presented below
- Demographic Information
- Names of publishers
- Number of years in existence
- Type of material published
- Publishers that deposit in legal deposit libraries
- Publishers' awareness of Legal Deposit Act requirements
- Legal deposit serving its intended purposes
- Instances of non-compliance with legal deposit
- Instances where legal deposit compliance is considered unnecessary
- Problems experienced by publishers in terms of complying with the Legal Deposit Act
- Specific problems
- Cost of complying with legal deposit regulations per annum
- Complying with the 14-day period for depositing material
- Awareness of applying for exemption from legal deposit requirements
- Applying for an exemption
- Number of legal deposit libraries
- Extent of agreement with two main principles of legal deposit
- Membership of Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA)
- Publishers receiving PASA notification
- Copyright contravention of legal deposit
- South Africa's legal deposit playing an archival role
- Awareness of the existence of the Legal Deposit Committee
- Publishers representation on the Legal Deposit Committee
- Listing in the South African National Bibliography (SANB)
- Additional aspects related to legal deposit
An open question (question 8) was asked about whether publishers had problems with respect to the Law on Legal Deposits. Of the 35 publishers surveyed, they answered 'no' to the question; so they did not consider the number of legal deposit libraries excessive.
Summary
Thirty publishers had no additional comments other than the questions asked about the topic. In addition, two of these issuers committed to contacting their companies to determine their position and understanding of the legal deposit concept.
Response Rate
In this chapter, the findings of the study are considered in light of the research problem and the literature reviewed. The order of the following discussion will, with a few exceptions, largely reflect the order in which the questions were asked.
Demographic Information
The most published materials were reference books, textbooks and children's books mentioned by 37%, 34% and 31% of the respondents respectively.
Awareness of requirements of legal deposit
Compliance
- Compliance with the Legal Deposit Act
- Instances of non-compliance
- Instances where compliance is considered unnecessary
This time, too, most publishers emphasized that they had never had cases of non-observance of the mandatory copy. Some publishers stated that they took this into account, even though they felt that their publications did not have much value for a must-copy.
Legal deposit serving its intended purpose
The examples pointed out by the publishers are provided by Jasion (1991: 8), who argues that each country's legal deposit legislation should be comprehensive and clearly indicate what material is subject to legal deposit and what material is not.
Extent of agreement with principles of legal deposit
Problems experienced
- Problems as per the open-ended question
- Problems as per closed questions
- Cost of compliance
In this study, it appears that the publishers who mentioned the cost of deposited material were not aware that they could be compensated by the government if they applied for it. It seems that these publishers were also not aware of the existence of government compensation and the possibility of exemption from duty submission for publishers who apply for this in advance before the deposit.
Fourteen day deposit period
Jasion (1991: 8) argues that, in general, the costs should be borne by the publisher, but only in exceptional cases should a publisher be able to apply for partial relief from the government. Jasion (1991: 8) argues that the earlier it is deposited, the better it will meet the expectations of users who expect national libraries to have a copy of the article and a quick listing in the national bibliography.
Awareness of applying for exemption
Instances of applying for an exemption
Number of legal deposit libraries
Jasion (1991: 3) says that the number of mandatory copies is decided by the national government. Overall, the majority of publishers in this study did not feel that the number of libraries with a compulsory copy was excessive.
Membership of Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA)
In most cases, the number of libraries with statutory deposits depends on the circumstances within each individual country, including the size of the country and the type of statutory deposit legislation.
Copyright contravention
Three publishers stated that libraries should make the public aware of copyright law by requiring a copy. Two publishers felt that copyright was not taken seriously in the country.
In-house archival system
Two of these publishers stated that while they were fully supportive of the copyright law, they believed that copyright infringement in the form of photocopying should not be completely prohibited because the majority of students who photocopy are students who do not normally photocopy for resale. , but because they cannot afford to buy the material. In this study, the majority of publishers were not satisfied with copyright infringement and therefore it will require steps to be taken to eradicate the problem.
Legal deposit playing an archival role
Four (11.4%) publishers stated that they do not need to have an internal archiving system indicating the duplication of a task already taken care of by the legal deposit libraries. These publishers pointed out that natural disasters will not hit all legal deposit libraries at the same time, since they are located in different geographical areas.
Awareness of Legal Deposit Committee
Representation on Legal Deposit Committee
Awareness of listing in South African National Bibliography (SANB)
Awareness of a positive impact on the sales of the SANB listed material
Additional aspects related to legal deposit
Summary
Introduction
Revisiting the objectives of the study
Brief summary of the study
- Publishers compliance with legal deposit
- Books/ print materials that are published
- Reasons why publishers fail to deposit
- Lack of knowledge
- Too much published material to allow time to deposit
- Copyright contravention
- The problems publishers face in terms of complying with legal deposit legislation The problems and constraints were investigated by both open and closed questions
- Problems as per open-ended questions
- Problems as per closed questions
In terms of cost compliance, 12 publishers indicated that legal deposit compliance was expensive. Lack of knowledge on matters of handover was again evident, as seven publishers pointed out their lack of awareness of the committee's existence.
Recommendations
It is recommended that the Government, the Legal Deposit Committee and PASA schedule meetings to discuss these issues in an effort to find amicable solutions for all stakeholders. It is recommended that all stakeholders involved in statutory deposit in the province hold formal meetings where they can review changes and make proposals to the Statutory Deposit Committee on changes they believe are important to monitor the practice more effectively.
Further research
The researcher also recommends that the reformulation of the regulations related to the legal deposit can be discussed within the mentioned forums, especially the regulation regarding the 14-day deposit period. Report of the South African Legal Deposits Committee Appendix B by members delegated to visit overseas countries.
LETTER OF INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUPERVISORS
LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER
SELF ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRE Questionnaire
If so, you will receive notification from your PASA representative about changes to the Legal Deposit Act. If so, do you think publishers are adequately represented on the Legal Deposit Committee?
