BLC Adopts CDL for Interlibrary Loan

Chris Freeland of the Internet Archive has shared the news that the Boston Library Consortium (BCL) has adopted Controlled Digital Lending for interlibrary Loan. In a statement, BCL announced that CDL will be used “among its interested member libraries, under a new plan approved by its Board of Directors at their August 2021 meeting. In this resource sharing model, items that traditionally would be loaned physically could instead be digitized and lent digitally under controlled conditions.”

BCL affirmed that CDL “enables libraries to lend legally acquired materials in a digital format under conditions that emulate physical lending. With CDL, libraries limit the total number of copies circulating in any format to the number of physical copies they own, maintain regular lending period limits, and utilize digital rights management to prevent copying and redistribution.”

BVL has also provided a “a new public report, “Consortial CDL: Implementing Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan,” so that other libraries and consortia can benefit from the BLC’s work.”

ReadersFirst salutes BCL for joining other academic libraries in using CDL, It offers many advantages, certainly including fast and safe delivery of materials, increasingly the likelihood that rarer physical materials that might never be loaned through the post will be shared. Importantly, another group has made a strong statement that CDL is legal, acceptable, and valuable.

ReadersFirst encourages all libraries to review and sign the Statement on Controlled Digital Lending. We face many obstacles to begin able to create rich, lasting, and affordable digital collections. Relying on and digitally sharing our print collections, many titles of which are not digitized, is a powerful equalizer for half of the copyright equation: those with a need to know.