Learning analytics involve big data collection, analysis processes, and technology that are used in higher education institutes and academic libraries to support student success and perform organizational assessment. Since these processes require the input of personally identifiable student and patron information to be effective, there are major ethical and legal considerations that must be addressed concerning privacy. This article demonstrates that privacy concerns about learning analytics can be mitigated by requiring informed consent from participants, establishing protocols for the collection and management of personally identifiable information, and advocating privacy rights of patrons. By synthesizing and expanding on viewpoints from the literature, this article offers recommendations pertaining to the collection, analysis, and management of patron data that are gathered for the purpose of learning analytics.

Libraries and library consortia are adopting controlled digital lending (CDL) as a strategy, accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, to facilitate equitable access to print collections. While advocates of CDL contend that digitize-and-lend practices reflect an incremental, technology-assisted adjustment to traditional library circulation, lending, and resource-sharing practices, opponents of CDL in the United States and Canada argue that the practice contravenes well-established copyright protections. This paper discusses current controversies surrounding CDL, its potential promise and perils, and concludes that a reasonable, equitable, and forward-looking application of copyright laws ought to insulate libraries and library consortia from exposure to liability for engaging in CDL.

For two decades, publishers and vendors have used e-book licenses to back academic libraries into a corner. These rightsholders and intermediaries lease rather than sell content, and they dictate what constitutes permitted downstream usages. Libraries have historically used interlibrary loans to fill gaps in collections, but publishers and vendors unilaterally claim that interlibrary loans of entire e-books infringe on their exclusive rights. As a result, libraries at small and mid-sized colleges and universities are constrained to providing patrons access only to e-books that fall within the limits of modest collections budgets. Grounded on the premise that e-book interlibrary loans are needed to advance and protect information equity in higher education, this presentation invites interdisciplinary discussions and collaboration with respect to the future of resource sharing in academic libraries.