- This lesson engages learners with the concept of controlled digital lending. As this requires a baseline knowledge of fair use principles, it should be used as a lesson after students understand fair use.
This episode is appropriate for courses engaging with the topic of fair use and first sale. Students should have a basic understanding of fair use before engaging with this material, though, as it requires a fairly advanced analysis of fair use. As such, it is applicable to many different types of librarianship, including academic librarianship, courses about instruction in librarianship, as well as courses in scholarly communication, archives, and digitization. Controlled digital lending is a relatively advanced concept and students should have a firm understanding of fair use before engaging with this material.
This episode provides you with background reading about controlled digital lending before Sara Benson explains how controlled digital lending has been used by libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assignment
- Read the whitepaper on controlled digital lending by Kyle Courtney and David Hansen.
- After reading the whitepaper, listen to the 13 minute episode on controlled digital lending during the pandemic.
The controlled digital lending whitepaper is available at https://controlleddigitallending.org/whitepaper
Episode available at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/scp/podcast/controlled-digital-lending-in-the-era-of-covid-19/
Total homework time: approximately 1 hour 15 minutes.
During Class
Ask students to discuss the following in small groups and then report out to the class. Discuss whether controlled digital lending is legal under the fair use doctrine. Are there ways to minimize the legal risk of being sued when engaging in controlled digital lending? What are they? Do you think the pandemic justified a greater amount of controlled digital lending? Why or why not?
Total class time: 30 to 45 minute discussion.