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On this page, we provide information about the submission procedures for digital publications. You will find the legal provisions governing the obligation to deposit works at the German National Library on the page Our collection mandate.

What are non-physical media works?

Non-physical media works are works published in the internet. We also refer to them as online publications or digital resources.

What is subject to the legal deposit obligation?

Our collection mandate encompasses all texts, images and sound recordings accessible in the internet. These include both digital publications with printed equivalents and web-only media works.

More specifically, the obligation to submit online publications refers to

  • books (e-books)
  • journals (e-journals)
  • daily newspapers (e-papers)
  • university theses
  • music
  • sheet music
  • audio books
  • digitised works

In general, a deposit obligation exists even if the German National Library also collects physical versions of the publication.

We do not collect the following online publications: prepublications with a limited lifetime, pure software or application tools, television and radio productions, online publications that serve purely commercial or private purposes, for example product catalogs or digital photo albums.

We catalogue and archive the digital publications, guarantee their authenticity and ensure that they will remain available in the long term. Digital publications are given a Uniform Resource Name (URN) so that they can be uniquely and permanently identified and addressed. Each of the digital publications in our collections are indexed in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie and in our catalogue.

The decision as to which rights of use or access apply to each digital publication is made by you as the rights holder; alternatively, these rights are determined in accordance with the applicable copyright legislation. As default, the use of archived digital publications is restricted to registered users in the reading rooms in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main. The reading room devices to access digital publications have no internet connection, and it is not possible to store online publications on your own storage medium or process them in any other way. Moreover, digital publications may only be printed out insofar as the copyright laws permit.
For web archiving we use automated harvesting procedures.

Advantages of depositing publications

What are the advantages of depositing publications other than fulfilling the legal deposit (DNBG)?

  • Your publications are indexed in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography) and thus become part of Germany's national memory.
  • Your titles are indexed in the German National Library's catalogue, which is used worldwide, and the corresponding metadata are re-used in other bibliographic databases.
  • Data can be (re-)exported from the German National Library's holdings using various metadata formats (e. g. MARCXML ) and interfaces (https://www.dnb.de/metadataservice)
  • The long-term archiving guaranteed by the DNB ensures that your objects will remain usable in the long term (although access on devices other than the DNB's specially protected reading room computers is only possible in the case of objects approved for this purpose by the rights holder). The publications are stored in our long-term archive system.
  • Assignment of a free URN as a persistent identifier so that online resources can be uniquely and permanently referenced and cited reliably. Datasets without a URN are assigned an URN from a special subnamespace when they are imported into our holdings. The DNB adopts other persistent identifiers such as DOI, Handle or ARK when collecting digital publications and records them in the metadata.
  • Final authorisation and listing of an ISSN in the ISSN register (if the ISSN was previously only granted provisionally as part of an advance assignment process). More information on ISSN: https://www.dnb.de/EN/issn.
  • Before the automatic deposit is made, there is a test phase during which we give you personal advice on the choice of format and interface. You will receive professional reports on the quality of your bibliographic metadata.

Submission procedures

We offer the following options for the legal deposit of digital publications:

  • automated procedures for larger quantities of publications and
  • web forms for individual publications

Regardless of which option you choose, you are required to send us your digital publications together with the relevant metadata or make them available to us for harvesting.

We use machine-based quality assurance procedures to examine the publications deposited and determine whether they are suitable for long-term digital archiving.

More about our file format policy

If you do not wish to make mandatory deposits of digital publications yourself, you can commission a service company to do so. We will provide you on request with a list of the companies we already cooperate with.

If you are subject to the legal deposit requirement and wish to commission a company to make the deposit on your behalf, or if you are a service company interested in being included in our reference list, please contact:
np-info@dnb.de

Video "Submission procedures"

[Video in German language with English subtitles.]

Registration

Personalized access gives you extended access to the services of the German National Library.You must register with us before making your first deposit of digital publications. For this, please use the following link.

Registration

After registering, you will receive an automatically generated e-mail containing your password. Click on the link in this e-mail to complete the registration process.

We will activate your deposit account on request. To do this, please log in and go to “Mein Konto“/“Freischaltung beantragen für“/“Ablieferung von Netzpublikationen“ (My account/Request activation for/Submission of online publications). You are then required to complete the form and check your input on the page “Daten bestätigen” (Confirm data). After sending the form, you will receive an e-mail message from us within a period of one working day.

We will gladly also contact you directly to clarify details of the deposit procedure. Please send your queries to np-info@dnb.de.

More about registration for the submission procedures for online publications (only available in German):
Mehr zur Registrierung für die Ablieferung von Netzpublikationen 447kB, PDF - Barrier-free file

Submission using automated procedures

When submitting larger quantities of digital publications, you can choose between hotfolder and OAI-PMH procedures. You can use both procedures to submit monographs, university theses, audio books, music, sheet music and periodicals.

Hotfolder

If you choose the hotfolder procedure, we will set up an FTP account for you. You can then send digital publications and metadata to our server through an SFTP or WebDAV interface. This is effected by means of individual zipped transfer packets, each containing one digital publication together with its metadata record.

Specifications for transfer packages and their transmission to the German National Library using hotfolders (28 May 2021)

Example of a transfer package (only available in German) 117kB, zip - Not barrier-free file.

Please take note of the information in the following document when depositing music publications:

Specifications for transfer digital music to the German National Library using hotfolders, version 1.0 (20 November 2023)

Specifications for transfer digital music to the German National Library using hotfolders, version 1.0 (20 November 2023)

Example of transfer music (Data format zip, data size ca. 120 MB)

OAI-PMH

OAI-PMH is a technical protocol that describes the exact procedure of exchanging metadata and must be implemented by both parties. The submitter (server) provides a repository. The German National Library (client) can automatically obtain information about new publications and collect the metadata through an interface. Please provide a transfer URL so that we can collect the works. This is used solely to transmit the publication; we will not store it or forward it to anyone else. As the protocol is HTTP-based, all security mechanisms supported by HTTP can be used to protect the information transmitted.

More about delivery by OAI-PMH (Last updated 22 February 2012 (only available in German)

Metadata for automated procedures

Core set

Our metadata core set contains format-independent definitions of bibliographic information (e.g. “corporate bodies”) required for the automated submission of online publications

Metadata core set for all types of publication (Last updated: 28 August 2023)

Documentation

Metadata is delivered in XML-based standard formats. Detailed information about the bibliographic metadata standards that we are currently able to process automatically is provided in the following documents. They explain which XML elements must be provided when submitting digital publications and which other elements should be provided if they are available. Please use the documents together with the metadata core set.

Crossref (journal articles)

DDEX ERN (music audio files)

NISO JATS (journal articles)

MARCXML (e-books, university theses, sheet music, periodicals (individual articles and issues)

ONIX (e-books, university theses, audio books, sheet music)

XMetaDissPlus (university theses, e-books, research data belonging to dissertations, periodicals (individual articles and issues)

Submission by web form

The web forms can be used when depositing smaller quantities of online publications. You can use them to submit monographs, university dissertations and theses, sheet music and journals.

Monographs, university dissertations and theses and sheet music can be submitted together with the metadata using the form “Monografien/Hochschulprüfungsarbeiten/Noten“ (Monographs/university dissertations and theses/sheet music).

In the case of journals, please start by making a one-off metadata delivery using the form “Periodische Publikation – Titelmeldung” (Periodical publication – title registration). Afterwards, you can regularly deposit the articles or issues together with the metadata using the form “Periodische Publikation – Lieferung” (Periodical publication – delivery).

After logging in, retrieve the corresponding web form, fill it out and check your input on the page “Daten bestätigen” (Confirm data). After sending the form, you will receive confirmation that the data has been transmitted successfully.

Log-in

Instructions for depositing monographic online publications, university dissertations/theses and sheet music using the web form (only available in German)

Instructions for registering titles and depositing periodical online publications using the web form (only available in German)

Help for using the web form (only available in German)

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What has to be deposited if a publication appears both online and in print?

One of the goals of our collection mandate collection mandate is to ensure that our collections are complete, regardless of the type of media or form of publication. If a publication appears both as a physical publication and as a online publication, copies must be deposited in both formats. Special rules apply to daily newspapers and university publications.

Who is obliged to deposit online publications?

Mandatory deposits must be made by all companies, institutions or persons

  • who have the right to distribute the media work or to make it available to the public, i.e. publishing companies, originating authorities or self-publishers, and
  • whose headquarters, business premises or main residence is located in Germany.

Only persons and organisations which have the right to distribute the online publications (publishing companies, originating authorities, self-publishers) or which have been requested/authorised to make deposits (e.g. distribution departments, hosts) are entitled to deposit these works.

Legal basis

What requirements do online publications have to fulfil before they can be deposited?

The German National Library only accepts online publications that have actually been published. Both the content and the format must be identical to the original publication stored on the depositor's server.
You can use web forms to transmit PDF and EPUB files as well as container and/or archive files. You can also use the automated procedures to deposit digital audio books in mp3 or wav format. The preferred file formats for e-books, e-journals, e-papers, online university publications and digital sheet music are published PDF/A and other PDF versions.
In order to guarantee long-term preservation online publications may not be password-protected or copy-protected on submission

More information is available at "File Format Policy for the Delivery of Net Publications":
Dateiformat-Policy für die Ablieferung von Netzpublikationen.

Why is it essential to provide metadata?

The metadata you submit is required to index and retrieve your online publications.
This is the basis used to index online publications in Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography) series O and for research in the catalogue.

The procedures we use to enrich online publications with additional subject cataloguing data are mainly machine-based.

What can I do if the metadata delivered is incorrect or incomplete?

You cannot make direct changes to metadata that has already been delivered.

Please send us your desired corrections. To do this, retrieve the title of the media work in our catalogue and select the “Correction Request” button on the right side.
Alternatively, you are welcome to send us your correction requests in an informal e-mail:
np-info@dnb.de

What can I do if the internet address (URL) of an online publication changes later on?

We only correct internet addresses if it is clear that they were entered incorrectly. In cases like these, please send your corrections by e-mail to:
np-info@dnb.de

We do not make changes if the internet address is amended at a later date. Online publications are assigned a Uniform Resource Name (URN). The addresses on our archive server are structured in such a way that long-term access to the publications is guaranteed using modern technology.

This does not apply to e-journals, for which the web addresses are entered into the bibliographic description. In these cases, please send your correction requests to:
np-info@dnb.de

What is a URN (Uniform Resource Name)?

A URN (Uniform Resource Name) is an identifier that facilitates the unique identification and citation of the associated online publication in the long term regardless of where it is stored. We provide a URN service which indexes the registered URN and establishes links to the locations (URL) of the online publications whenever queries are sent through the URN resolver.

URN are systematically assigned to all online publications archived by the German National Library.

More information is available from our URN service.

How are daily newspapers deposited?

We use a special process to ensure that e-papers are deposited automatically in PDF format and dispense with the collection of physical daily newspapers provided e-paper versions with the same layout are deposited.

Here too, the system links must be configured and the bibliographic data recorded in our catalogue before the e-papers can be collected.

Please contact us if your daily newspaper is not yet in our e-paper collection.
np-info@dnb.de

Our “Regional Access Service” also offers publishers and regional legal deposit libraries the opportunity to cooperate on the fulfilment of the respective state deposit obligation for e-papers.

Do Kindle e-books have to be deposited at the German National Library?

In general, e-books sold through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing are also included in the German National Library's collection mandate. However, the producer-specific file format currently appears to be unsuitable for long-term archiving, which means that these files cannot be deposited. Instead, self-publishers can deposit a PDF or EPUB version of their e-book using our web form.

Contact

Online publication service

np-info@dnb.de

Phone +49 341 2271-282

Last changes: 24.10.2024
Short-URL: https://www.dnb.de/EN/netzpublikationen

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