Knowledge Base: Library Policies

1. The Village of Paradise Valley Library Board, hereafter called the “Board” and the Three Cities Public Library, are subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act 95(a).

The Board shall take steps to manage FOIP requests and keep the personal information in its care confidential, except when required by law.

1. 1. The Library Manager is designated as head of the local public body for the purposes of the FOIP Act.
   2. When an applicant may be charged a fee for services under Schedule 2 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Regulation, the maximum amount shall be charged.
   3. Library board members, staff, and volunteers will only collect patrons’ personal information when it is required for the purposes of delivering public library service.
   4. No records are kept of the frequency or content of visits to the library by specific patrons.
   5. No records are kept of a cardholder’s item checkout history, unless the cardholder has given written permission for this record to be kept. If this record is kept, it is subject to disclosure with the cardholder’s other records under the conditions described in points 1.6 and 1.10
   6. Library staff, board members, and volunteers will not disclose a patron’s personal information to a third party without the individual’s consent, except:

a. in response to a court order (e.g. subpoena, search warrant) or another specific written request from a law enforcement agency to assist in an investigation. Note that library representatives are only required to disclose personal information to law enforcement officers upon presentation of a written court order. They are not required to comply with other written requests.

b. in partnership with other Alberta libraries and library systems for the purposes of sharing materials under conditions defined in existing resource sharing agreements and programs (e.g. interlibrary loan agreements, TAL Card, ME Libraries), collecting fees or fines, and retrieving borrowed materials.

c. for the purpose of contacting next of kin or emergency response personnel in the case of an emergency

1. 7.  Cardholders will sign a form acknowledging that their contact information will be available to other organizations for these purposes.
   8. No patron information, including their presence in the library, will be given over the phone.
   9. Staff and volunteers are to keep confidential the reading and viewing habits of individual patrons.
   10. Upon request, a library patron will be given access to all information concerning their records that the library has on file. Access to a user’s records is limited to that user except where the user is a minor, or if the user has given written permission for someone else to access their records. Where a parent or guardian’s signature is required for a cardholder to obtain a library card, that parent or guardian may have full access to the cardholder’s records for retrieval.