Use of regional legal deposit e-papers via “Regional Window solution“

Project description

The collection of online publications on the basis of legal requirements is now not only a federal task and thus a task for the German National Library, but also one for the relevant legal deposit libraries of the federal states. Newspapers in the form of e-papers constitute an important element of this collection (currently in PDF format); these are available for public use (with an 8-day delay) in the reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt. The expansion of the collection to include approximately 1,200 e-paper titles published in Germany allows synergies to be exploited between the German National Library and the regional libraries.

To achieve this goal, the German National Library and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Regionalbibliotheken (AG RB) – Regional Library Working Group launched the joint “Regional Window“ project. The aim was to set up a technical infrastructure to provide region-specific access by the respective regional legal deposit libraries to the e-paper newspapers archived in the German National Library. Searches in the relevant holdings can be launched here. The individual daily editions can be accessed in the reading rooms of the participating libraries.

Following the launch of the Regional Window in early 2018 as the Regional Access Service

• the publishers will be able to fulfil their legal obligation to submit e-paper newspapers via the regional window to the regional depository libraries.
• it will no longer be necessary for all publishers falling under the legal deposit mandate to set up their own procedures in addition to that required for depositing a copy with the German National Library.

Project framework

Partners

• Regional state-level legal deposit libraries in Germany
• The German National Library
• Publishers required to submit legal deposit copies

Project duration

1 October 2015 to 31 December 2017

Contact

Service Regional window
service-rb@dnb.de