Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) at Cañada College Library

CDL is a service that the Library is piloting which is the digital equivalent of traditional physical library lending—a library can digitize a book it owns and lend out a secured digital version to one user at a time, in place of the physical item. (See https://sparcopen.org/our-work/controlled-digital-lending/ .) 

Controlled Digital Lending has three important core principles: 

• A library must own a legal copy of the physical book, by purchase or via donation or gift; 

• A library must maintain an “owned to loaned” ratio, simultaneously lending no more copies than it legally owns; and, 

• A library must use technical measures to ensure that the digital file cannot be copied or redistributed.

Faculty members who normally send their students to borrow physical course reserve books or other learning materials at the library now have the option of making a digital copy of resources available to students as they study remotely. CDL is rooted in the “fair use” right of the US Copyright Act and is also permissible under the ‘first sale doctrine’ in copyright law. It carries certain restrictions and digital controls that restrict the electronic version of the work to one user at a time. These digital controls also inhibit copying, printing, and redistribution of the work. One of the important limitations is that only one person can use the digital version at a time, for each physical copy we have in our possession. This replicates the physical world experience, where one person can borrow one print book at a time.  The Library will control this kind of access and restriction on use by employing its existing catalog and course reserves system.  

The resources that make the most sense to make available as CDL resources are those available in a physical form that the Library can purchase, but are not yet available in any digital form. For example, if faculty determine that an earlier edition of a textbook would be useful for students to use in a class, especially for an online or hybrid class, and it can be determined that no digital copy of that edition is available by any publisher, the Library could digitize a print copy of the edition that it already owns or can buy, and make it available as part of the course’s textbook reserves.  The resource would be available under borrowing conditions similar to that of the physical copy but would have restrictions upon use by the student (i.e., no downloading, copying, printing or otherwise distributing), as configured by the course reserve software.

The Library’s traditional course reserves make instructional materials available based on format, i.e., either as physical copies and “electronic” copies (as eBooks or databases of journal articles, audiobooks, etc.) while CDL resources are considered “digital.”  The factors that influence loan periods for each are 1) number of copies purchased, 2) faculty requests based on pedagogical uses for the resource within a course and 3) librarian assessment of student demand.  Generally, physical copy 1 of a resource that is on course reserve is available for a shorter loan period (e.g., 2 hour or 1 day) while physical copies 2 – x are available for 7 days.  Loan periods and extent of subsets of a resource for electronic copies of a resource are usually determined by parameters set by the publisher and chosen by librarians who are assessing faculty and student demand.  The “digital” (CDL) resources can offer more flexibility to faculty and students in terms of setting loan periods and subsetting a resource.  Even if a digital resource is only available for 2 hours, a student can renew the loan if there are no other students on the waitlist for the resource rather than having to wait until a physical copy is returned or the loan period for the electronic copy has ended.  The one physical copy to one digital copy rule still applies for CDL resources, but additional physical copies can be purchased if needed, and the system can then allow 2 students to access the resource at a time with a single digitized copy.   

Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality teaching, learning, and research instructional materials that are either in the public domain or have a license that allows free reuse by others.  OER may contain other materials that are legally available and free of cost to students, and may be included in Zero Textbook Cost instructional materials.  

Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) instructional materials are legally and digitally available, and may include OER as well as other materials that are properly licensed (e.g., with a Creative Commons license).  The zero in Zero Textbook Cost name refers to the fact that students incur no costs because they do not have to purchase the textbooks for their courses; however, there may be costs for the materials incurred by the College.  For example, ZTC materials can include journal articles, eBooks or other materials purchased by the Library as subscription databases.  See more at:  About OER/ZTC Resources.

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) instructional materials are Library-digitized copies of in-copyright, Library-owned materials that are made available with restrictions on use and loan periods,  maintained by an "owned to loaned" ratio, i.e., 1 owned copy of a physical resource equals 1 circulated copy of the digital resource, and managed by digital rights management software.  

For more information about how to incorporate these kinds of materials into courses, you may want to discuss your options with Nancy Hoebelheinrich, CDL Librarian (hoebelheinrichn@smccd.edu), Carlos Luna, OER Librarian (lunac@smccd.edu), or Sarah Harmon, OER/ZTC Coordinator (harmons@@smccd.edu).

There will tasks for the faculty and tasks for the Library.  The important point is that it will take time for the Library to digitize the resources appropriate for CDL and put them in the Library's Course Reserve Systems before the course begins.  The earlier interested faculty members start the process by contacting Library staff of their interest, the better the results will be for faculty and staff.  

We at the Library are excited to partner with you in this endeavor to make instructional materials more easily and freely available to you and your students!  Get in touch and stay tuned!