Controlled Digital Lending: Unlocking the Library's Full Potential

A policy document has been released by Library Futures. Below is their announcement written by Kyle Courtney.

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We are very excited today to announce the release of the Library Futures Foundation’s (LFF) new policy document “Controlled Digital Lending: Unlocking the Library’s Full Potential.” As outlined, controlled digital lending maximizes a library’s ability to loan works, thereby making the entire loaning system more efficient and equitable. 

Library Futures Foundation developed this document in consultation with the Intellectual Property and Information Policy (iPIP) Clinic at Georgetown Law. This concise policy document covers all the benefits, innovations, and goals that are the basis of any controlled digital lending system. It expands beyond the legal rationale laid out in the Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) White Paper by clarifying the core principles that are the foundations of a library’s mission to provide access to materials to serve the public good. 

This policy document will be useful in understanding the role these principles play in the creation of a controlled digital lending bill. As the document demonstrates, controlled digital lending is a force amplifier for many of these library principles in the modern environment. Congress should support their communities by empowering libraries to serve as a meaningful access point for these publicly funded collections by supporting legislation that codifies the practice of CDL by libraries, encouraging funding through grant programs and other incentives to facilitate CDL, and promoting the development of a federal, centralized set of digital materials for use in CDL programs.

Over 100 libraries in the U.S. and Canada are employing some version of CDL, and we hope this document can further discussions about a library’s right to provide equitable access to knowledge in the digital environment.

The document was designed to be modular, so you may freely use, quote, cite, adapt, download, read, and share with your colleagues, communities, patrons, and others. To maximize its sharing, LFF licensed this policy document under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Read the document

Library Futures Foundation (LFF) is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization focusing on legislative change and policy. LFF is a parallel organization to the Library Futures Institute.