Controlled Digital Lending News
/Don’t forget the Internet Archive Community Update on Controlled Digital Lending tomorrow, 11 am Pacific Time. Sign up here. “Whether you are new to Controlled Digital Lending or have already implemented it in your library, this session will give everyone an update on where the community is today & where it’s going.”
Seven librarians from Canada have published a paper on that “explores legal considerations for how libraries in Canada can lend digital copies of books” through Controlled Digital Lending (CDL).
The paper aims to “help libraries and their lawyers become better informed about the concept by fully explaining the legal rationale for controlled digital lending in Canada, as well as situations in which this rationale is the strongest.”
The authors contend the following:
CDL shifts . . .lending to a new format that opens up access possibilities for readers with disabilities, physical access limitations, research efficiency needs, or other needs for digitally accessible content. We are aware that libraries across Canada are discussing the value of CDL in a range of areas, such as to improve the efficiency of interlibrary loan, to support lending among institutions that share last copies for preservation, and to enable access during periods of library closure. We also contend that CDL may be used more generally for library lending, including to improve availability of out-of-print materials for all Canadians.
The paper gives a detailed consideration of the legal aspects of “fair dealing.” ReadersFirst hopes all Canadian librarians will give it careful consideration and work towards appropriate implementation. See an abstract and review the paper here. [Disclaimer: one of the authors, Christina de Castell, did pioneering work for ReadersFirst and still follows our Working Group activities. Great paper, Christina!]
Meanwhile, UC Davis Library and California Digital Library are exploring expanded lending of digitized books.
Under the leadership of the UC Davis Library and the California Digital Library (CDL) and with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UC has begun an investigation of key questions around the future of ebook lending, such as:
What have we learned about the best uses for print versus digital books, and what are the implications for the future?
How does digital book lending extend and strengthen the historical role of the academic library in ensuring long-term access to scholarship?
What legal framework(s) and/or case law might support various long-term options for large-scale digital book lending, beyond the emergency context of the pandemic? Does a form that builds on controlled digital lending offer a scalable solution?
What technologies and formats are required for a large multi-campus university system like UC to implement such a system at scale?
What critical mass of digitized books is needed to create a viable, compelling resource for scholars? What content gaps might need to be filled via targeted digitization within UC’s mass digitization efforts?
How do authors, including those among UC’s staff and faculty, perceive the ethical and legal issues involved?
And importantly, as we look to the future, what transformative research opportunities might be enabled by broader access to digital books?
ReadersFirst looks forward to seeing the white paper that will be produced as a result of this project and the ebook delivery system that will be developed.
No doubt in part because of the lack of digitization of most older works by publisher and the severe limitations on many licenses of such older works as are digitized, libraries continue to explore CDL as a valuable and vital too for content sharing. There are policies and procedures to formalize and standardize, but the rewards more than justify the work.