With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing many libraries from engaging in physical resource sharing this fall, Project ReShare announced at a community meeting held July 13 that its fall roadmap will include support for controlled digital lending (CDL). Work will continue concurrently on development of consortial resource sharing features required by ReShare’s early implementers.
ReShare plans to develop a minimum viable product to support CDL, the process of digitizing a physical item and lending a secure, electronic copy in its place. The CDL product will run on the ReShare platform, and can be used independently or alongside the system’s traditional resource sharing functions.
The CDL release will be scoped to support CDL within a single library and will rely on external software to support scanning and digital rights management (DRM) workflows. ReShare will repurpose many of its current features to support CDL, including real-time availability checking, integrations with local library management systems, and a state model for tracking requests. The project plans to have a testable prototype for CDL before the end of the year.
Throughout fall 2020, ReShare will aim to complete two smaller releases that support the lending of returnable items within a consortium. These releases will include support for patron account creation and management, real-time availability checking in the VuFind discovery tool, and more integrations with integrated library systems. The 1.1 and 1.2 releases are scheduled for October 31, 2020 and January 31, 2021, respectively.
For more detailed information about the planned roadmap for ReShare, please visit https://projectreshare.org/roadmap.
