The Olympic College Libraries highly value the privacy of library users, and support the Right to Privacy as set forth in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights.
The Libraries collect and retain personally identifiable information only for the purposes of managing and providing library services to current students, current employees, and opt-in community users. The Libraries have practices and procedures in place to safeguard personal information, and to anonymize and/or purge personal data as soon as it is no longer needed to provide library services.
The Libraries will not share library user data with any entity outside of the library, except in response to a lawful directive.
Access the full "Olympic College Libraries Patron Data Privacy Policy" on the OC Libraries Policies & Procedures guide.
For students and college employees, the following fields are imported automatically into the Library Management System (LMS) from the College’s registration and/or HR database(s):
First and last name
Preferred name (if listed)
Student or employee ID number
Address
Phone number(s)
Email address(es)
User group (student, staff, faculty, part time faculty)
For public patrons, the same fields are manually entered in the LMS, except that a driver license or state ID card number is stored instead of a student/employee ID number.
Additionally, the LMS stores information about:
current or recent loans
current or recent material requests
fines/fees
If using the Libraries’ virtual chat services, the following information is collected:
Name
Email address
IP address
The Libraries use patron data only for the purposes of providing library services, including:
verifying patron status as a current college student or employee, or community patron
authenticating user access to licensed resources
lending and receiving of library materials
requesting materials from other libraries on behalf of patrons (interlibrary loan)
providing library information or research consultations via virtual chat services
Only Library employees or their proxy, who use assigned passwords and have permissions only as required for their roles, have access to patron data.
Multiple state and federal laws protect information that is considered part of your educational record. Additionally, under RCW 42.56.310, library records are exempt from the Public Records Act and will not be included in requests for public records.
Under the State Government General Retention Schedule (SGGRRS) “library services” need only retain most records for as long as needed for library business.
Information that is collected in the LMS is protected by the vendor’s (Ex Libris) cloud security and privacy practices, until such time as the data is anonymized or deleted:
Student and employee accounts expire once a student or employee is no longer enrolled or working at the college; community patron accounts expire one year from creation date. Expired accounts are purged annually if there are no outstanding loans, fines/fees, printing credits (for community patrons only), or other blocks on the account.
Once library materials are returned to the library with no fines/fees accrued, the LMS will keep the loan data for a short period of time, before the loan is anonymized. For loans that have accrued fines/fees, once the fines/fees have been paid or waived, the loan will be anonymized. The LMS used by the library does not currently offer a way for patrons to opt-in to retaining a record of their prior borrowing activity.
The LMS automatically sends a variety of courtesy notices to patrons with active or overdue loans such as due date reminders, overdue notices, hold notifications, return receipts, etc. The LMS retains a copy of these notices for a short period of time, before permanently deleting them from the system. Notices related to lost items with fines/fees are retained until the patron record is deleted.
Library employees do not collect personally identifiable information when working with patrons in the classroom or at the service desks.
Patron data related to requests for library related services, assistance, or information via the Libraries’ virtual chat service will remain on the vendor’s (Springshare) secure servers until the library consortium manager requests that the transactions be anonymized.
Requests for library related services, assistance, or information via the Olympic College email system are State property and retained by the College under Washington State public college records retention rules, but are exempt from public disclosure requests under RCW 42.56.310.
The Libraries do not require patrons to check in to use library spaces. Study room sign-up sheets are shredded after aggregate statistical data is recorded.
Groups or individuals who wish to use the Libraries as a photography or videography setting (including creating content for social media) must first get approval from the Library Dean and must agree to not include library patrons in photos or videos, unless the library patron first gives explicit permission and voluntarily signs an image release form.
Library staff do not attempt to ascertain the owner of lost-and-found items, including media storage devices, mobile phones, backpacks, notebooks, etc. Physical descriptions of lost-and-found items are logged in a notebook and then turned over to campus security nightly at closing.
Patrons may ask to review, receive a copy of, or update their library patron data at any time. Some update requests may be completed by library staff in the LMS, but some types of data may have to be updated in the College registration or HR system instead.
No patron data maintained by OC Libraries is offered to third parties.
When accessing library-licensed third party research databases, library users are directed to access the databases via a proxy server which prevents users’ personally identifiable information from being transferred to the database vendor. The proxy server company (OCLC) itself uses patron data solely to provide the proxy services they are contracted for by the library.
The Libraries are not responsible for personal data that library users voluntarily give to database vendors if they opt to create a personal account on a vendor’s site; library users should review the vendor’s privacy policy before doing so.
The Libraries are not responsible for personal data that library users voluntarily give to other third party vendors while using college-owned computers in the open lab located within the Libraries. Library users should read and understand the privacy policies of the non-Library services they use, whether maintained by OC or by third parties. These services may include, but are not limited to:
Olympic College computers
Pharos print management system
Microsoft 365 products and services
Learning management system (Canvas)
Campus bookstore (Barnes & Noble Education)
Digital textbook/classroom websites, even if required by an instructor
Google products and services
If you have questions about this policy or specific procedures, or feel that OC Libraries have acted in violation of this policy, please contact librarians@olympic.edu or 360-475-7262.
Olympic College |
Privacy Policy
1600 Chester Ave. Bremerton WA 98312 | Information Desk: 360.475.7252
