Controlled Digital Lending for Reserve Reading

Prompted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the MSU Libraries completely revamped the lending process for Reserved Reading Materials, including material in the Affordable Textbook Project. To give MSU students, faculty and staff quick access to Reserve material, the MSU Libraries now offers Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) for our high-use Reserve items. We are scanning Reserve items and uploading them to Sharepoint, which allows patrons to request these items via the ‘Get it!’ button in the catalog.  A form is then sent to a Patron Services staff member who emails the patron a link to a digital copy of the requested item. These links expire after a specified time so the MSU Libraries are not violating copyright laws. Low-use Reserve material is still available for check out at Patron Services. Returned items must be quarantined for five days before they can circulate again. It has required the collaboration and hard work of several departments in order to make CDL a viable resource for our MSU patrons.

For more information: https://lib.msu.edu/things-to-know/