References and resources

The following are some additional resources about Controlled Digital Lending:

• The website Controlled Digital Lending by Libraries provides information and resources related to CDL, including pointers to legal frameworks, pointers to papers on the topic of CDL, and a list of frequently asked questions (and answers).

• In September 2021, the non-profit Library Futures Foundation released a policy document titled Controlled Digital Lending: Unlocking the Library’s Full Potential. The document “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. “

• In June 2021, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions issued a statement on Controlled Digital Lending in support of CDL as a means of enabling libraries to fulfill their missions.

• The Internet Archive and Library Futures hosted a webinar on “Myth Busting Controlled Digital Lending” in Feburary, 2021. The video is available online and touches on many myths and realities of CDL.

• The Controlled Digital Lending Implementers is a forum organized in April 2020 by a group of libraries and people interested in implementing controlled digital lending services. They host a regular forum and provide links to resources about CDL.

• Project ReShare is a group of libraries, consortia, information organizations, and developers, with both commercial and non-commercial interests working on implementing new and open approaches to library resource sharing. The ReShare Community Charter provides more details about the goals of the effort.

• The CDL Information & Recommendation Cooperative (CIRC) is a group of library professionals working to discover and evaluate potential tools and solutions for CDL.

Caltech’s DIBS is not the only CDL implementation, nor is it the first. The following are others that the developers of DIBS are aware of:

• The Open Library is an open library catalog and digital lending system implemented by the Internet Archive. The source code is available from GitHub.

• Princeton University Library has implemented CDL using Figgy, an open-source digital repository application they developed. Like DIBS, it uses IIIF and the Universal Viewer.

• Fordham University developed G-CDL, an open-source CDL system that uses Google Drive as its backend.

• Alma Digital is a commercial repository system that’s part of ExLibris Alma. It supports digital lending, including control on number of concurrent users, cooling-off periods, and more.

• DLSG’s Directed Lending Solution is another commercial system for digital lending.

Articles about DIBS:

• How the Library’s Digital Borrowing Service (DIBS) Solved a Pandemic Problem (Chris Daley, June 2021, Caltech)