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Legal Deposit Copies of Hamburg publications
Since 1696, an ordinance (later, a law) has made it mandatory for Hamburg publishers and printers to provide the library with one copy of each of their publications as so-called legal deposit copies. Although the majority of the holdings of Hamburg legal deposit copies were destroyed by fire in July 1943 after the library was bombed, many of these could be replaced after the World War.
According to the Hamburg law governing the provision of legal deposit copies (PEG) of 1988, not only printed works but also audio carriers must be delivered, and since the amendment of 8 September 2009, digital publications as well. The associated procedural order (Verfahrensanordnung) for the implementation of the law regulates the details of delivery. Official publications, e.g. of the Hamburg Parliament, all authorities and other public institutions are generally collected in electronic form in accordance with the Order on the delivery of official printed publications to public libraries from 2008 (Anordnung über die Abgabe amtlicher Druckschriften an öffentliche Bibliotheken).
The library makes this literature available for use and archives it permanently. Printed works within the meaning of the law governing legal deposit copies include all texts, topographic maps, local maps, atlases, recorded works and sound carriers that are produced in order to be published and distributed. It also includes pictorial works, if they are associated with an explanatory text. Digital publications within the meaning of the law include all written, picture and sound representations that are presented in public networks on storage media or in non-physical form.
As legal deposit copies, all types of literature are collected, both the products of publishers and so-called “grey literature” distributed outside the retail book market. The collection includes the following, among other things:
- academic literature from publishing houses, universities, research institutions, authorities, museums, scientific and academic societies, and individuals as independent publishers
- all types of press publications: daily and weekly newspapers, professional journals and general-interest magazines, illustrated magazines, programme guides, local newspapers, advertising journals and district newspapers
- fiction, paperback novels, comics, children's literature, guidebooks, travel guides, museum catalogues, topographical maps and city maps
- publications by Hamburg clubs, associations, parties, societies, commercial enterprises, interest groups and individuals
- official publications.
The State Library's legal deposit collection thereby reflects a central aspect of Hamburg's cultural creations and many facets of the cultural, political and economic life of the city.
Please send your deposit copies (1 copy per publication) to:
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky
- Pflichtexemplarstelle -
Von-Melle-Park 3
20146 Hamburg
For details on the delivery of online publications (e.g. e-books) and the configuration of the delivery modalities, please contact the colleagues at the depository: pflicht@sub.uni-hamburg.de
Innovation from June 2025 for publisher monographs:
From June 2025, the automated delivery procedure (particularly suitable for larger data volumes) for publisher monographs has gone live. This is operated by the SUB in cooperation with the Bibliotheksservice-Zentrum Baden-Württemberg (BSZ) and also includes digital long-term archiving.
In the automated hotfolder procedure, an SFTP account is set up for the delivering publisher to which the digital publications including metadata are transferred - based on the procedures of the German National Library (DNB).
The procedure will be extended to e-journals in the course of the year. Delivery via a web form is also currently in preparation.
Contact:
E-Mail:
csyvpug(at)fho.hav-unzohet.qr
Telefon:
+49 40/42838-2238
Telefax:
+49 40/42838-3352