Michigan State University implemented a controlled digital lending program to provide digital access to course reserves and affordable textbooks during the pandemic. They researched CDL best practices and set up a system using SharePoint and their library catalog. Patrons could request digital book chapters, which were manually checked out for limited times. Over 900 checkouts occurred. Challenges included the manual workload and lack of real-time availability updates. Going forward, MSU will consider continuing and improving their CDL program.

1. Controlled Digital Lending at
Michigan State University
Erin Weller Joan Lindsay
ferriser@msu.edu lindsayj@msu.edu

2. Rationale
• Pandemic - Course Reserves, Affordable Textbook Program, Closed
Reference
• Core Value - User Engagement
• We place users at the forefront of our work. We engage with and learn
from our users and adapt to meet their evolving needs.
• Strategic Directions
• Center of Activity & Engagement
• Act as a connector of people, services, and resources
• Student Development & Support
• Prioritize creation and adoption of open and affordable course
content to support student success

3. Research
• Held meetings with our copyright librarian and other library
stakeholders
• “A White Paper on Controlled Digital Lending of Library Books” by
David R. Hansen & Kyle K. Courtney
• Internet Archive webinar - “How Controlled Digital Lending Works
for Libraries”
• Looked at CDL platforms already in existence

4. Let’s Do It!
• Own a physical copy for each digital copy we lend
• Isolate the physical copy
• Prevent downloading, copying and printing of the digital copy

5. Getting Set Up
• Library IT investigated existing programs
• SharePoint – Microsoft Power Automate
• Get it! button in catalog and webform

9. Preparing the Material
• What to make available through CDL?
• Reserves, Affordable Textbook Program, Closed Reference
• All Affordable Textbook Program books
• Highest use historically
• Sierra – created new location
• Scan – ABBYY FineReader to add OCR text
• Upload to SharePoint
• Isolate Physical Copies

10. Checking Out
• Patron clicks “Get it!” button
• Fills in missing portions of webform
• Circulation staff receives an email notification
• In Sierra
• Look up patron
• Check item out to patron
• This changes the status in the catalog to “checked out”

11. Checking Out
• In SharePoint
• Set expiration date/time – 2-hour, 24-hour, 3-day
• Email document to patron
• Uncheck “Allow editing” and toggle to
“Block download”

12. Checking In
• SharePoint sends email to Circulation
• In SharePoint, “Ready for Check-in” is marked
“Yes” and we reset back to “no”
• In Sierra, check the item in

13. Team Effort
• Library IT staff
• Reserves Coordinator
• Accessibility librarian
• Cataloging librarian
• Copyright librarian
• Web services staff
• Circulation staff
• MakeCentral staff
• Associate Deans and Dean

14. Successes
• 163 different courses
• 206 different texts
• Happy patrons
• Usage Data
• Undergraduates – 827 checkouts, 91.4% of CDL checkouts
• Graduates – 44 checkouts, 4.9% of CDL checkouts
• Faculty/Staff – 33 checkouts, 3.7% of CDL checkouts

15. Challenges
• A lot of manual work at each checkout/time on staff
• It takes a long time to scan an entire book
• Patrons do not have instant access
• We do not know when a patron is done with the book (could be 2 minutes,
20 minutes, 1 hour), so we cannot lend until time has expired
• Patrons are not alerted when a checked-out copy becomes available
• Not available to community borrowers
• We do not have great statistics
• Setting up automatic email alerts

16. Future of CDL at MSU
• Will MSU continue to offer CDL?
• Will MSU continue this method?

17. Questions?
Erin Weller Joan Lindsay
ferriser@msu.edu lindsayj@msu.edu