The British Library has issued a Press Release on the Consultation on the Draft Legal Deposit Libraries (non-print works) Regulations 2013, recognising the importance of the legislation for web archive collections.

Since the introduction of the  Legal Deposit Libraries Act in 2003, the Legal Deposit Libraries have been working with the Government and publishers on the necessary regulations to allow the collection of digital material published in the UK on and offline. Without these regulations, a great deal of digital information about UK life and records of major events of the 21st century are at risk of being lost to the 'digital black hole'. 

The regulations are designed to 'ensure the Legal Deposit Libraries provide a national archive of the UK’s non-print published material'. This includes websites and would enable the web archive to begin comprehensive crawls of the UK domain, made accessible from the reading rooms of the Legal Deposit Libraries.

The consultation is open until May 18th.