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Why Your Library Should Be All-In with Controlled Digital Lending

Medium – “…There are very specific industry guidelines that have been created about what percentage or how many chapters of a book can be placed on electronic reserve, and for how long, or how many times we’re allowed to order something through interlibrary loan before voluntarily paying a publisher extra. All those kinds of self-policing criteria, however well-intentioned, have zero corresponding basis in the actual law. The only thing we have as a legal precedent are those nebulous factors for Fair Use as defined in the United States Code. No distinction is made between a library lending a print manifestation or lending an electronic version of a work. I can only hope that, should a more concrete set of laws about libraries sharing digital forms of information be enacted, they will more explicitly codify what’s fair, just, and right…”

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