[Eril-l] NISO Awarded Mellon Funding for Controlled Digital Lending Project

[NISO Announce]

**Apologies for cross posting**

Baltimore, MD, September 20, 2021: The National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) today announced that it has received a grant of
$125,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the development of
a consensus framework for implementing controlled digital lending (CDL) of
book content by libraries, which has been approved by NISO members as a new
initiative.

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.

For institutional sharing, CDL is also an extension of traditional
inter-library loan (ILL) services. It uses the application of new
technologies to more efficiently serve these requests, with lower costs,
faster response time, lower environmental impact (no shipping), and more
effective collections development and management. Through CDL, libraries
can make out-of-print books available and also provide access to readers
with disabilities. Fragile collections—which would not otherwise be able to
circulate—can be made available via CDL, enabling access to rare or unique
materials by a wider range of researchers.

"We are very grateful for the support from the Mellon Foundation in support
of this work to help uptake of CDL in all kinds of libraries, whether or
not they are well-resourced," said Todd Carpenter, Executive Director of
NISO. "With the support of contributors in our working group, this effort
will consolidate the range of approaches currently being deployed, thereby
supporting faster and cheaper deployment of CDL in institutions. It will
also serve as a catalyst that identifies and spurs the advancement of
beneficial changes to existing specifications, the development of new
tools, or potential infrastructure that may be needed. This proposed
consensus framework aims to serve both academic and public libraries, as
well as special libraries and archives."

Mellon’s funding for the development of a consensus framework for CDL will
enable NISO to work with the information community to detail and compare
existing practices already implemented across broad types of libraries, and
to define best practices for multiple aspects of this new service model,
lowering barriers for adoption. Among other things, the grant will support
several in-person meetings of a new NISO Working Group charged with
developing a Recommended Practice—Interoperable System of Controlled
Digital Lending—which was formally approved by NISO Voting Members on
September 15, 2021.

The Working Group’s scope will include refining existing models that
describe the similarities and differences between CDL and traditional
circulation and ILL; developing use cases for CDL that take into account
all libraries who may adopt it; identifying gaps in the understanding of
CDL applications; developing model processes for library staff; describing
systems interoperability requirements; and identifying changes needed to
existing library protocols and standards. Importantly, lessons learned from
patron and staff experiences from the range of current implementations will
be incorporated into the working group process to ensure that usability and
accessibility is addressed in the output.

For more information about the Working Group, or to volunteer to
participate, please contact the NISO Office at nisohq at niso.org.

About NISO
Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO’s mission is to build knowledge, foster
discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through
collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional
communities. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages with libraries,
publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support
learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization,
management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting
communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of information
standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO
website (https://niso.org) or contact us at nisohq at niso.org.


NISO

3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302

Baltimore, MD 21211

Phone: 301-654-2512

E-mail: nisohq at niso.org
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