The legal deposit is the memory of Genevan publishing, attesting to its diversity and vitality. The legal deposit conserves everything brought out by publishers in the city, whether scholarly works, children’s literature, or comic books—areas where Genevan publishing is strongest—as well as novels, travel books, historical studies, etc. All subjects and all genres are found on our shelves, like a vast encyclopedia.

The legal deposit is especially mindful of collecting what is known as “gray literature,” publications that are not produced by publishing houses but rather by groups, associations, political parties, institutions, businesses, even ordinary individuals. Each year sees hosts of reports, brochures, commemorative booklets, programs, and printed matter of every stripe published, and yet they are rarely conserved by libraries. The legal deposit guarantees that this output of print, solidly anchored in the reality of Geneva, is conserved for the long term.

Since 1969, the legal deposit has registered 60,000 books and brochures, 40,000 volumes of periodicals—all of which occupies 4 km of shelving—and over 30,000 posters.

Genevan documentation rounds out the legal deposit. The Bibliothèque boasts extensive collections of items by Genevan authors or dealing with Geneva and/or its inhabitants, but which were published outside the Canton of Geneva.