The state of legal deposit in Uganda : challenges for electronic publication

Abstract

This study examined the legal and regulatory framework of legal deposit in Uganda, with specific interest in gaining an insight about how electronic publications are being preserved in Uganda and how the legal deposit institutions are taking up the new challenges. The research was guided by the following objectives: to examine the regulatory framework for electronic publications legal deposit in Uganda; to assess the institutional framework of legal deposit institutions in terms of infrastructure, staff and resources; to establish the challenges faced by legal deposit centres in preserving electronic publications in Uganda and to suggest strategies for effective legal deposit of electronic publications in Uganda. Case study research design was adopted with the study being specifically qualitative. Interview, observation and content analysis were the methods applied for data collection. A sample of twenty nine (29) respondents were involved in the study and these included fifteen (15) staff/librarians, six (6) administrators of the three centres, three (3) publishers, two (2) members of Uganda Publishers and Booksellers Association, one (1) official from NABOTU and two (2) policy makers. The findings of the study indicate that of the three deposit laws in Uganda, only the National Library Act, 2003 caters for the deposit of electronic materials. However, all the three deposit institutions collect a particular amount of electronic materials. Findings also revealed that the three deposit institutions have the required resources to facilitate electronic materials legal deposit, the staff are qualified and the ICTs and related resources are in place. However some challenges exist and these include lack of government support, inadequate cooperation between publishers and the centres, islandism of the three centres and financial constraints, among others. Some of the recommendations proposed include mutual collaboration between publishers and the legal deposit institutions, compilation of an electronic national bibliography, network amongst the legal deposit institutions, sensitization of stakeholders about the existence of the laws and capacity building for the staff of the legal deposit institutions.