Models for CDL

Contrary to common disinformation from bad actors, controlled digital lending is not a monolithic practice. A number of lenses can be applied to CDL to understand its use cases or the infrastructure models that define its application and execution in libraries. These frames of reference may include:

Technical Infrastructure

What systems are utilized to support CDL and how are they integrated? (e.g. standalone, institutionally integrated, centralized/decentralized amongst a group of libraries or consortia).

Lending Models

What type of library lending is CDL being used to support (e.g. general circulation, course reserves, interlibrary loan).

User Communities

What users are being served through the application of CDL to library collections? (e.g. users with print disabilities, distance learners).

NISO IS-CDL Working Group

The most comprehensive exploration of developing standard models and practices came from a working group of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). Originally formed in January 2022, the working group represented a broad swath of open-source projects, commercial entities, content providers, and libraries to develop a recommended practice for interoperable systems for controlled digital lending. 

The culmination of this group’s work came through the release of a draft practice in the spring of 2024 which, according to NISO, set out to outline “the technical and functional processes necessary for libraries to interoperably implement CDL in a variety of situations”. Though NISO ultimately declined to release the recommended practice following publisher backlash, the resources below have been collected to show the progression of the working group’s efforts in hopes of future publication of the recommended practice and implementation of the mechanisms explored therein:

📜 Interoperability of Systems: Controlled Digital Lending, ALA Conference - June 2022

📜 Controlled Digital Lending: What Does it Look Like?, Knowledge Rights 21 - November 2022

📜 Interoperability of Systems: Controlled Digital Lending, NISO Plus - February 2023

📜 NISO Update: Interoperability of Systems: Controlled Digital Lending, ALA Conference - June 2023

▶️ The Places We’ve Been: NISOs Interoperable System of Controlled Digital Lending Update, ATG the Podcast - August 2023

▶️ Empowering Users through Controlled Digital Lending and Beyond, Charleston Conference - November 2023

▶️ NISO Controlled Digital Lending Update, CNI Membership Meeting - March 2024

 

Even without official standards to guide the practice, libraries and consortia are actively engaged in realizing CDL to share their collections and support their user communities. To see real world approaches to CDL for different use cases, check out the next section of the toolkit: CDL Resources & Workflows. 

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