Sir, - Alf MacLochlainn, a distinguished former librarian, has alerted your readers (May 20th) to the onerous deposit requirements of Irish copyright legislation. In the United States, book publishers are required to submit two copies of a work to fulfil this requirement; in Australia, one copy; throughout the European Union the average requirement is fewer than three copies. Publishers in the Republic of Ireland are currently required to submit 13 copies.
There is every evidence of support among our membership for the maintenance of a national archive of publication through statutory deposit of new publications in libraries of record. However, there is no obvious need for a deposit in 13 separate libraries unless it is the implicit assumption that publishers and authors ought to subsidise various educational libraries through the supply of free stock.
We are wholeheartedly in agreement with Mr MacLochlainn's reasonable and timely comments. If the purpose of the new Copyright Bill is to harmonise our legislation with that of Europe, then why continue this outmoded and unnecessary practice? - Yours, etc., John Murphy, President, Cle - The Irish Book Publishers' Association,
Temple Bar, Dublin 2.