Digital media lending system and method

A digital media lending method comprising:

• providing, in a lending library for patrons, an item representation corresponding to each of a plurality of lendable digital media items, each item representation comprising a dummy item having substantially a size and visual appearance corresponding to a non-digital version of the respective digital media item and including a machine readable identifier;
• and
• upon presentation of the item representation at a check-out terminal, reading the machine readable identifier, identifying a digital media item corresponding to the machine readable identifier and causing a copy of the digital media item to be made available to a digital media reading device of a patron for consumption for a loan period.

An item representation for providing, in a lending library for patrons, a physical representation of a lendable digital media item, the item representation comprising a dummy item having substantially a size and visual appearance corresponding to a non-digital version of the respective digital media item and including a machine readable identifier corresponding to the digital media item, the machine readable identifier being configured to cause lending of the digital media item to a patron upon checking out of the item representation at the lending library.