E-Legal Deposit Access

Readers across Cambridge University Libraries have access to the Electronic Legal Deposit collections of e-books and e-journals restored. 

At the end of October 2023, the British Library was subject to a major cyber-attack which disrupted access to UK Electronic Legal Deposit publications, including at Cambridge. A full scan of the Electronic Legal Deposit collections of e-books and e-journal articles has confirmed that they are intact and free of any malware that might have been left by the attackers.

The most recent stage, which has now been completed, was to build a platform on which to access this content. The new interface is an interim solution with limited functionality, but is both secure and compliant with the very specific access restrictions required by UK statute.

For the time-being, access will only be possible for the Electronic Legal Deposit collections of e-books and e-journals collected prior to October 2023. (Access to other e-books and e-journals outside of Electronic Legal Deposit remain available as before).

Availability

Our Electronic Legal Deposit (ELD) terminal is situated on the ground floor. This machine is available to all walk-in users without the need for a user ID or password. It provides access to electronic legal deposit material, (i.e. information resources that have been deposited by the publisher in a digital format).

Content (post-April 2013)

Generally speaking, there is no access to e-legal deposit for journals published earlier than when e-legal deposit began in April 2013. The majority of ELD book materials will be published after April 2013, but some publishers have also provided back files.

Discovering Electronic Legal Deposit material

Electronic publications acquired through legal deposit can be discovered through the iDiscover catalogue, both within the library and externally, but links to the full text will only work within the library, University Library and other affiliated libraries.

For further information on electronic legal deposit, please see this E-Legal Deposit LibGuide.

Terms of Use

The regulations place a number of important restrictions on use of the deposited publications:

• One concurrent user per work per library, (i.e.; per Legal Deposit Library and their affiliated libraries).
• No digital copying is permitted, (i.e. no downloading, copying and pasting, or photography
• Printing is possible and will be sent to the Moore Library's networked copier nearby. See our guide to printing for further infomation