The Kingsborough Library offers scanned copies of certain textbooks in our collection as one-day, non-downloadable loans available for viewing in a user’s OneSearch account. We offer this service in accordance with the principles of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), which are themselves underpinned by fair use doctrine. There are four factors that determine a work’s viability under fair use:
- What is the purpose and character of the use? This factor is usually subdivided into two factors: 1) is the use commercial or non-commercial? And 2) is the use transformative? The Kingsborough Library is an educational institution and would in no way monetarily benefit from CDL. As for the second subfactor, the 2nd Circuit has ruled that making a work digitally lendable is a substantial enough transformation for it to qualify as fair use.
- What is the nature of the copyrighted work? Preference is given to factual works (textbooks, guides, etc.) as opposed to “literary” works, but this standard holds little legal weight. Regardless, the Kingsborough Library will focus solely on the dissemination of factual textbooks.
- How much of the copyrighted work is used? The Kingsborough Library would offer the copyrighted work in its entirety. However, these titles are only available to users with an active CUNY library account. Users must borrow the entire book digitally, as they would borrow the entire book physically. The book can only be viewed in a browser (users may not print out chapters or download pdfs). Every title offered digitally has been purchased in physical format by the Kingsborough Library and placed in storage on a one-to-one basis. If one copy of a title is placed in storage, then one copy would be available for digital loan. These physical copies earmarked for digital lending are marked as unavailable in the library catalog.
- Does the use affect the market for the work under consideration? Our preference as a library is to offer ebooks licensed from publishers. However not all books are available for libraries to license as ebooks. All books offered via CDL are in this category (i.e., we have not been able to purchase an ebook license). The Kingsborough Library checks for newly licensable etextbooks twice a year. In any case where a previously unavailable ebook has been made available for library licensing, any local digital copy of this title will be removed and replaced with a licensed version.
Publishers have issued legal challenges to the principle of controlled digital lending. In March 2023, a federal judge curtailed certain CDL practices, namely the digitization of textbooks with existing digital licenses. By restricting ourselves to textbooks with no available licenses, we believe we are abiding by current federal regulations.
If you have concerns about an item that is available for digital loan, please fill out our reconsideration form.
