The Alma Digital Interest Group began as the Alma Digital CCC Cohort, a group of California Community College Libraries that are evaluating and utilizing features of ExLibris's Alma Digital tool in their respective Alma environments. Their goal is to work collaboratively to develop and maintain documentation and resources that are specific to their institutional needs, along with identifying and resolving issues related to Alma Digital (Alma-D) observed in their libraries.
Alma Digital is part of Alma’s Unified Resource Management framework, also known as the Alma URM. The Alma URM has three components so you can use a single platform to manage the full scope your library’s print, electronic, and digital resources. Concurrently, patrons can discover all of these resources via Primo VE.
Digital resources vs electronic resources?
Digital resources are files that are owned by the institution, such as images, videos, sound recordings, and PDFs. Electronic resources, on the other hand, are owned by a vendor and accessed via subscription, open access, or other contract.
Digital resources are unique in Alma because in addition to the metadata, the asset files themselves are managed in Alma.
For electronic resources, only the metadata is managed in Alma. The vendor manages and stores the actual files elsewhere.
Where does Alma store your digital resource files?
Alma uses Amazon Web Services’ Simple Storage Solution, or S3 for short to store your files in the cloud.
Each Alma institution has its own segregated S3 storage bucket that is only accessible to the owner institution. Many institutions will never interact directly with the files in their S3 buckets. Instead, they’ll use standard Alma workflows to interact transparently with the files.
Institutions with very large uploads, however, may choose to upload content directly to Amazon S3. These libraries will create access keys via Alma to allow direct interaction with S3 via Amazon Web Services.
Source: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Training/Alma_Digital/01_Alma_Digital%3A_Overview
Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) is an emerging method that allows libraries to loan print books to digital patrons in a “lend like print” fashion. Through CDL, libraries use technical controls to ensure a consistent “owned-to-loaned” ratio, meaning the library circulates the exact number of copies of a specific title it owns, regardless of format, putting controls in place to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version. When CDL is appropriately tailored to reflect print book market conditions and controls are properly implemented, CDL may be permissible under existing copyright law. CDL is not intended to act as a substitute for existing electronic licensing services offered by publishers. Indeed, one significant advantage of CDL is addressing the “Twentieth Century Problem” of older books still under copyright but unlikely ever to be offered digitally by commercial services.