Knowledge Base: Library Policies

Vermilion Public Library and its board and staff are subject to the Libraries Act and Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).

1. No records are kept of the frequency or content of visits to the library by specific patrons.

2. 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 3 and 7 below.

3. Library staff, board members, and volunteers will not disclose a patron’s personal information to a third party without the individual’s consent, except:

1. 1. in response to a subpoena, court order or another specific written request from a law enforcement agency to assist in an investigation
   2. 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.

4. Cardholders will sign a form acknowledging that their contact information will be available to other organizations for these purposes.

5. No patron information, including their presence in the library, will be given over the phone.

6. Staff and volunteers are to keep confidential the reading and viewing habits of individual patrons.

7. 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.

8. A privacy impact assessment will be conducted when new technology projects are considered concerning patron records.