Confidentiality Policy
North Vancouver District Public Library Mission Statement:
Our Library’s mission is to nurture the love of reading and cultivate an informed and literate community through universal access to a wide variety of information and ideas. We strive for the highest quality library service in a welcoming, supportive environment.
1. North Vancouver District Public Library recognizes that in order to fulfil its mission statement, library users and staff should not feel constrained in their use of library resources due to fear of invasion of personal privacy.
Invasion of personal privacy is contrary to the Intellectual Freedom Statement of the Canadian Library Association which was endorsed by the North Vancouver District Public Library Board in 1976 and release of such information would contravene the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
2. North Vancouver District Public Library collects users' names and contact information, e.g., address, phone number, e-mail address, in order to ensure that members of the public are entitled to receive library services without charge, to circulate library material, and to provide usage statistics as required by the municipality, the province, and by library organizations.
North Vancouver District Public Library also tracks the amount of time a person uses public computers in order to ensure fair access to limited resources for all our patrons. This information may also be used for management reports regarding the amount of time the public Internet computers are in use; the average length of Internet sessions; the overall number of patrons using the Internet; length of sessions broken down by number of patrons. The library does not track the Internet sites or other electronic resources accessed by patrons.
3. North Vancouver District Public Library recognizes that its circulation records and other records identifying the names of library users with specific materials and/or Internet use are confidential in nature. Except where otherwise provided for in the Policy, confidential information of this type will not be made available without the user's consent. The Director of Library Services may authorize individuals to have access to this information for legitimate library purposes. Legitimate library purposes may include regular library-only mailings; library procedures such as processing hold and overdue notices; and fines and charges; as well as security and intrusion detection audits or investigations. Statistical reports made available to outside agencies will not link individual users with use of specific library or Internet resources. Internal reports will only link individual users with use of specific library or Internet resources when such information is required to provide library services or when such information is required for the collection of outstanding library fines or charges.
4. North Vancouver District Public Library staff, or the Library’s automated library software may exchange patron information with other library systems as part of a reciprocal borrowing arrangement. Any automated information exchanges will use the most secure transmission methods practicable between the two systems.
5. While North Vancouver District Public Library does not track the electronic resources accessed by patrons, such data may be created and/or stored as the normal operation of software installed on Library computers. Data such as cookies, cached web pages, temporary files, etc., will be deleted without being read as part of the ongoing maintenance of these computers, except in instances of suspected abuse and/or unauthorized access to Library computers, or as part of security and intrusion detection audits. In such cases, appropriate library staff or automated software may access library user information or available data that is created and/or stored as part of the normal operation of the software installed on Library computers, but data will not be kept for this purpose.
Only data relevant to suspected unauthorized access or abuse will be retained.
6. Any concerns about the accuracy of the personal information retained by the Library should be addressed to the Director of Library Services.
7. The Director of Library Services and/or Deputy Director will honour a court subpoena requesting release of personal information of a library user.
8. A copy of this policy may be given to any library user who is concerned about privacy or who has been refused information.
Revised and approved by Library Board February 9, 2006