Some 60,000 books are published in India annually but two-thirds are lost to history as they don't reach the Kolkata-based National Library, the country's book depository.
"The National Library receives only about 24,000 books," library scientist A.C. Tikekar said at a seminar here.
Under the Delivery of Books and Newspapers Act, passed in 1954, a copy of every book published in India has to be deposited with the National Library or its regional branches.
Officials complain very few do so.
National Library director Sudhendu Mandal said his institution was in an "unenviable position" of having to remind publishers of their duty.
Formerly called the Imperial Library, the century-old National Library is spread over three separate buildings. It has a separate preservation lab and a newspaper reading room.
The library, which houses 2.5 million books, has collections in 15 Indian languages - Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu - apart from English.
--Indo-Asian News Service