Privacy & Confidentiality Policy

OUR COMMITMENT TO PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Meridian Library District recognizes the need to protect your right to privacy regarding the questions you ask and the materials you borrow both in analog and digital form. Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our patrons’ personal information is important to us. This policy explains our information practices, what information the library collects, and how the library uses and protects that information.

LIBRARY RECORDS

The personal information collected by the library is as follows and kept until your library card expires and your accounts are deleted unless otherwise indicated:

• Name, preferred name (if applicable), address, email address, phone number, library card number, date of birth and driver license number (for card registration only), materials currently checked out (until returned), overdue material (until returned), and fines paid or waived.
• Email addresses are used to send notifications of reserved materials, overdue materials, for the purpose of renewing your library card, and program participation where applicable. Library members may opt-in to subscribing to the library’s eNewsletter.
• Mailing addresses are used for billing notices.
• By default the Library does not retain reading history, but library users may opt in using their online library account. If opted in, patron reading history is only available from the patron user interface.
• The use of our public computers results in your library card barcode being stored alongside actual workstations usage for only the duration of your session. All browsing history is automatically deleted at the completion of each individual session.
• The use of our filtered public wireless networks may result in personally identifiable information, including the device’s MAC address and device name being stored on our network appliances logs for up to 12 months. The Meridian Library makes no effort to create “syslogs” databases to store or maintain information from any network appliance otherwise.

Library staff must refer all requests for library records and all requests for information about particular library users to the Library Director or the designee. Library staff are not allowed to share information about use of library resources and services by identified library patrons except as necessary for the performance of their job duties and in accordance with procedures approved by the library director and/or board.

PATRON CONTACT INFORMATION

No listing of library patrons, their addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, or other contact information is provided to any person or organization, except as may be required by a warrant, subpoena, law enforcement or court command, or as otherwise required by law.

CIRCULATION AND OTHER RECORDS

Pursuant to Idaho Code Section §74-108(4), circulation and other records connecting the names of library users with specific materials are confidential. We do not provide this information to any person or organization, except as required by a warrant, subpoena, law enforcement or court command, or as otherwise required by law.

CREDIT CARD INFORMATION

When payments are made by credit card, we do not retain credit card numbers, and other transaction data is retained only for as long as necessary for proper accounting.

REQUESTS FOR A PATRON’S OWN INFORMATION

Pursuant to Idaho Code Section §74-113, a person may, with certain exceptions, inspect and copy Meridian Library District confidential records pertaining to that person, and request a correction of information which is not accurate, relevant or complete. Pursuant to Idaho Code Section §74-102(10), the Meridian Library District is authorized to charge fees for actual labor and copying costs if (1) the request is for more than 100 pages of paper records, (2) includes records from which confidential information must be deleted, or (3) the actual labor to respond to the request exceeds two (2) person hours.

DIGITAL BRANCH SERVICES

When you visit the library’s digital branch (including the library’s website and third-party digital services like eBooks and digital magazines), a limited amount of information may be collected or transmitted to our partner companies who provide these services.

Website

We collect and store only information to measure use of our site using Google Analytics. This data is collected in aggregate. We do not examine or record individual user’s use of the site. The aggregate information is kept indefinitely. The information collected includes:

• The address (IP) of your computer, device, or internet provider
• The date and time of site access
• The address of any website that linked to our site
• Web browser & operating system type
• Which pages were accessed and for how long

Third-Party Services

In order to use our third-party digital services you log in to validate yourself as a Meridian Library member. Different services handle authentication different ways, but the following information may be transmitted to these service providers solely for the purpose of authentication and is usually collected in aggregate and/or anonymously:

Name, address (or only zip code), library card number, the address of your computer (IP), device or internet provider, the date and time of site access, search terms used, which pages were accessed and/or downloaded.

Privacy policies are notably different for eBooks offered through the library’s subscription to OverDrive. Downloading these titles for Kindle requires you to have an account with Amazon. Any notes or highlights added are retained on the patron accounts for all OverDrive eBooks. When you are using digital content from third-party vendors we subscribe to, we cannot guarantee that our privacy policies and Idaho confidentiality laws that apply to libraries will apply. We recommend that you check the privacy policy of the company providing the product that you’re using. 

OUR COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Protecting the privacy of children is especially important to us. We minimize the collection and exposure of children’s personal information wherever possible. Disclosure of a child’s personal information follows Idaho law.

HOW WE RESPOND TO SUBPOENAS AND OTHER DEMANDS FOR INFORMATION

When we receive a warrant, subpoena, or law enforcement or court command for confidential information, we obtain our attorney’s advice about whether we must disclose the information sought. In those cases where the demand does not appear to be supported by law, we may utilize appropriate legal procedures to oppose it. As the custodian of the records, the Library Director is the authorized party to release records. 

Approved by the Meridian Library District Board of Trustees on October 9, 2013

Revised on March 15, 2023