Tuesday, September 21, 2021

NISO Awarded Mellon Funding for Controlled Digital Lending Project

Yesterday the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced that it has received funding support for "the development of a consensus framework for implementing controlled digital lending (CDL) of book content by libraries." Developing a framework was approved by members of NISO as a new initiative.  The announcement goes on to say:

Libraries exist to serve their communities, to distribute information and knowledge of all kinds to users of many types, abilities, and resources; circulation of content in all formats is a core feature of what libraries exist to do, and they have been doing so legally for centuries. CDL is an emerging “lend like print” approach, which enables libraries to loan digital versions of their print books while using technical controls to ensure a consistent “owned-to-loaned” ratio. This allows a library to lend the exact number of copies of a specific title it owns—regardless of format—with controls to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version. The need for standards and best practices related to CDL was one of the three top ideas identified during the NISO Plus Conference that took place in February of this year.

Every library will benefit from NIO's efforts regarding digital lending in a controlled environment. I look forward to what they develop and I thank the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for supporting this effort.

You can read their entire statement on the NISO website.

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