Here are a few key things that have come out in the last few days:

The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has issued a statement in support of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), adding a significant global endorsement to the growing acceptance of CDL approaches that has been accelerated by the pandemic. It's important to recognize, however, as the American Library Association's Digital Content Working Group has recently stressed, that while CDL is an important tool, it does not address the problems raised by content that is only marketed in digital form. See

Today, Ithaka S+R issued a major report titled 'What's the Big Deal: How Researchers are Navigating Changes to Journal Access" authored by Danielle Cooper and Oya Rieger. This is a close look at how the landscape is changing as research libraries move beyond the traditional so-called "big deals" with major journal publishers, with particular attention to implications for scholars who use these journals. See

What’s the Big Deal? - Ithaka S+R

The dominant mode by which research libraries have provided maximum journal access as cheaply as possible—subscription bundles or “Big Deals”—is giving way to new approaches. This transition is taking place through a combination of negotiations, activism, business modeling, user needs research, and decision support, among other factors. To support these processes, Ithaka S+R partnered with 11 academic libraries to understand researcher perceptions to help inform their ongoing strategic decision ...

Finally, our friends at Hypothes.is, who have pioneered tools, infrastructure, and practices around web annotation and social reading, have rolled out a Coalition for Social Learning Across Content. This is potentially really important, and I urge you to read the announcement. CNI will be tracking this work carefully, and hopefully we'll have a report on it at our December Member meeting. See

A Coalition for Social Learning Across Content : Hypothesis

Announcing a coalition of educational content creators, technology platforms, service providers, and stakeholder groups coming together in support of cross-platform social learning.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI