ABSTRACT
The current legal deposit law of Hong Kong is the Books Registration Ordinance. The Ordinance covers books published, produced or printed in Hong Kong. The person responsible is the publisher, or his agent or the person primarily responsible for the production of the book. Failure to comply with the law can lead to a fine of 2000 Hong Kong dollars. Exclusions are trade catalogues, price lists and other trade publications and publications which are not available to the public at large. The law does not mention audio-visual material of any kind, thus exempting them from deposit. Also there is no mention of government documents, although they should be included by inference. Although the stated purpose of this law is the ‘preservation of books first printed, produced or published in Hong Kong’ there is no provision in the Ordinance for the role of the library in preserving these legal deposit copies, nor in the matter of public access.
