Since 2020, BLC has worked to make consortial CDL for ILL a reality in partnership with Project ReShare and Index Data. In August 2023, ReShare CDL, an MVP software developed and supported by Index Data to facilitate and process CDL for ILL requests, was released. To promote broader adoption of the practice and software, BLC’s new report, ReShare CDL: Software & Workflows for Consortial CDL for ILL, details the consortium’s engagement with CDL for ILL to date and provides:
- An introduction to the ReShare CDL interface and functionality
- Adaptable workflows to execute consortial CDL requests
- Future development directions for ReShare CDL, Project ReShare, and BLC
BLC has taken enormous strides in the development of consortial CDL for ILL. In September 2020, the BLC Board of Directors convened a CDL Working Group charged with investigating delivery mechanisms, technology, workflows, policies, copyright and legal issues, shared storage solutions, and other actions related to a potential consortial implementation of CDL among interested BLC member libraries.
After almost twelve months of intensive work, the Working Group released its final report in September 2021, ‘Consortial CDL: Implementing Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan', after approval from the BLC Board of Directors in August 2021. This report sought the formation of a Controlled Digital Lending Steering Committee to collaborate with Index Data to develop a viable solution to facilitate consortial CDL transactions. This collaboration led to the development of ReShare CDL, a module within the consortial resource sharing software owned and maintained by Index Data. In the spring and summer of 2023, a development partnership of BLC member institutions worked with Index Data to refine the software solution in anticipation of the BLC’s Early Adopters Program.
