Abstract
Many countries have deposit collections, which aim to be comprehensive for national imprints. It is desirable to find out how far they attain this aim. The deposit collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands, unlike most countries, has no legal basis; publishers send voluntarily one copy of each publication. A study was conducted in 1995/1996 to assess its coverage, focusing on books with ISBNs, academic publications (dissertations etc.), grey literature and periodicals. For each of these categories, samples were taken from sources that offered a complete or the most comprehensive overview of Dutch imprints. Titles that did not meet the selection criteria of the library and titles that had not actually been published were removed from the samples, and the remaining titles were sought in the catalogue of the deposit collection to determine whether they were held, on order, or neither. The findings of the study indicate that coverage is not only good but has improved since the previous study in 1983. They also suggest that a legal basis for deposit is not a necessary condition for high coverage, although such a basis is currently being sought in the Netherlands. In the future, improvements in coverage can be made by applying some of the sources used for the study to daily practice. Other countries planning to embark upon a similar project may be able to use the experience gained.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.