ABSTRACT
The main legal deposit law of Sierra Leone is the Publications Ordinance, 1887, sect. 3. This law did not name a library as a depository; instead it stated that the publications must be deposited ‘to such officer as the Governor with the advice of the Executive Council, from time to time direct’ by a notification in the Sierra Leone Royal Gazette. In 1898 such a notification was published and it named the Registrar General as the officer directed to receive the publications on deposit. In 1962 this was amended to the ‘Chief Librarian’ of the Sierra Leone Library Board. It is compulsory for all publishers to deposit three copies of each publication, with the exception of newspapers. The Library Board keeps one copy and sends the other two to the Fourah Bay College Library and the British Museum (British Library). It is claimed that the law covers government publications, but it is out of date and needs to be amended.
