Controlled Digital Lending

Abstract

Controlled digital lending is an intriguing model for libraries to make books available digitally. Building on fair use and the first sale doctrine, libraries digitize their print books, put the print books in dark storage, and lend one electronic copy for each print copy on a platform that prevents users from copying or redistributing electronic versions. The concept empowers libraries to digitize in-copyright books when there are no alternatives available in the e-book licensing market. AMBS Library experimented with a small pilot controlled digital lending collection using Internet Archive’s established digitization and controlled digital lending services. This session reported on the results of that experiment.