>Did the emergency policy lend more digital books than the number of physical books locked in libraries?
We'll probably never know, but I think that was the logic.
The most checked out book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, had ~850 check outs. I think it's safe to assume they didn't come close to the amount of physical books locked in libraries.
Not that it's very important, the pandemic policy is barely mentioned in this ruling.
This is a justification that makes sense in theory, but the Internet Archive doesn't own those books and can't track them. If they had asked libraries to explicitly send parts of their collection to the IA for this, that might've held some weight.
The most checked out book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, had ~850 check outs. I think it's safe to assume they didn't come close to the amount of physical books locked in libraries.
Not that it's very important, the pandemic policy is barely mentioned in this ruling.