History of the Finnish Legal Deposit Legislation

The first legal deposit statutes in Finland were related to the supervision and censorship of publishing. Nowadays the main aim of the legislation is to ensure the long-term preservation of the publications for future research.

Milestones:

  • 1707: The legal deposit system of Sweden was extended to Finland. The Turku Academy was granted the status of Legal Deposit Library.
  • This status remained at the beginning of the period of autonomy, and from 1820 onwards the Academy began to receive legal deposits also from Russia. The Academy's right to Russian legal deposits was implemented in 1828 in the censorship legislation of the Russian empire.
  • From 1919 the legal deposit regulations were included in the Freedom of the Press legislation of independent Finland. The number of legal deposit copies was increased to five.
  • The current Act on Free Copies (420/80) took effect in 1981 as also did the complementary Statute on Free Copies (774/1980). The number of legal deposit copies of printed publications was further increased to six. Audiovisual materials were also now included. The number of legal deposit copies for this type of material is two.
Databases


From site
URL : http://www.nationallibrary.fi/publishers/deposit/legislation_history.html