St. Mary`s County Library

Privacy/Terms of Use

 

 

TERMS OF USE

St. Mary’s County libraries is a service of St. Mary’s County Board of Library Trustees, Leonardtown, Maryland.

ACCURACY OF INFORMATION

We attempt to ensure that all information on this web site is current and accurate. 

We do link to many other sites and although considerable care is taken over selecting these links, we do not control the information on them and are not able to ensure the accuracy of information displayed.

PRIVACY

Your privacy is important to us. We will not disclose any information given to us to anyone else.

We will only use the information for the purpose for which it was given. Personal information may be required for entering competitions so that we can get your prize to you. Personal information may be requested in feedback so that we can reply to you.

Internet Safety Policy

Mission of St. Mary’s County Library

• For all county residents, St. Mary’s County Library strives to meet the current, as well as the emerging, educational and personal development needs and deliver valuable and convenient services and resources.

In order to achieve this mission, the St. Mary’s County Library provides access to the Internet at all of its library branches.  To regulate the use of this resource, the Board of Trustees for the St. Mary’s County Library created and approved this Internet Safety Policy.  All users of the Internet in a St. Mary’s County Library branch must agree to follow this Internet Safety Policy before they are able to enjoy the Library’s Internet Resources.  This policy brings the library into compliance with the federal law CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act, 2000) and Maryland Law Article 23, Section 506.1.

Acceptable Use

The Internet is an ungoverned and unregulated source of information.   Library users must recognize their increased responsibility when using this resource.  Librarians and filtering software cannot completely control what the user will see on the Internet.   Users must continually evaluate the information they retrieve, both the validity as well as the suitability of the information, according to their own standards.  Users should also be aware that, while they have the right of confidentiality as to the information they seek and receive, security on the Internet is technically difficult and Internet transactions can become public.

The St. Mary’s County Library’s Internet Safety Policy does not allow the following activity:

• Access and display of materials that are obscene or constitute child pornography as defined by federal statutes, 18 U. S. Code, Sections 1460 and 2256, and Maryland Annotated Code, Criminal Law Article, Title 11, subtitle 2, Obscene Matter.

• Inappropriate use of chat.
• Violation of copyright laws or software licensing agreements.
• Making changes to the set-up or configuration of the software or hardware of the library’s public access computers.
• Activity which seeks unauthorized access to any computer system to damage or alter software components of any network database or to use computer resources for any other purpose deemed unacceptable by the library in consideration of the best interests of the public.
• Activity which is disruptive, offensive, libelous, or slanderous.
• Activity which violates another user’s privacy.
• Unauthorized disclosure, use and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors.

Technology Protection Measure (TPM)

The St. Mary’s County Library provides a Technology Protection Measure (TPM), also referred to as filtering software, on all Internet access computers in all the library branches.  Users of the Internet, however, should be aware of the following:

• No TPM guarantees all obscene and pornographic sites will be blocked.
• TPMs might block some sites that might not be considered obscene or pornographic.
• Parents or guardians are the final authority and it is their responsibility to determine what is best for their children.  No technological solution can match a family’s individual values and preferences.

The TPM purchased by the St. Mary’s County Library electronically controls the number of www sites available to users based on the birth date recorded on their library card registration form.  The sites are blocked to meet the following requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA):

• ALL customers will have sites blocked which contain obscene and pornographic visual depictions as chosen by the filtering software vendor.  These cannot be changed by the library staff.

• Customers under 17 years will have additional sites blocked which contain visual images that are considered harmful to minors.
• Customers over 16 years old may request from a librarian that the TPM be disabled.  The library staff is not able to “unblock” or “block” specific www sites.  

Termination or Prohibition of User Access

Library employees are authorized to terminate any user’s access session or take any other appropriate action to ensure compliance with this policy.  Internet users whose access session has been terminated may request a review of the action.  There is a formal procedure for filing a complaint regarding Internet access. 

Approved by St. Mary’s County Library Board of Trustees
Date:   July 7, 2004

CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY

One of the public library's most cherished and valuable assets is the fact that anyone may use the library's resources in privacy, without fear of censorship, repression, or intimidation.  

In accordance with Maryland law (Maryland Code, Ed 23-107), circulation and other records identifying personal information with the use of specific library materials, services or facilities are confidential.  Such records shall not be disclosed except to:

• persons acting within the scope of their duties within the administration of the library and only for the purpose for which the record was created
• persons authorized by the individual to inspect the individual's record.

The following requests must be immediately referred to the Library Director:

• An agency of state, federal, or local government or any individual pursuant to a valid court order, search warrant or subpoena authorized under the authority of federal, state or local law relating to civil, criminal or administrative discovery procedures or legislative investigative power.

 

• A government official with a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Request.

All requests for such information must be referred to the Library Director.  If the Library Director is not immediately available, give them the contact information or take their name and number and have the Director contact them.

Library personnel shall not disclose to any other individual, corporation, institution, government agent or agency, except as provided in the above paragraph, information that includes but is not limited to

• the library's circulation records and their contents as pertains to individual patrons
• the library's registration records and their contents
• the number or character of questions asked by a patron
• the frequency of a patron's visits to the library
• a patron's name, address, or telephone number
• a patron's interlibrary loan records
• a patron's record of computer and database usage
• computer contents that could be used to identify material or sources a patron consults
• the contents of a patron’s information transaction:  titles requested, information requests, personal documents being created using library’s software, etc

If a request for information is denied, the Library Director shall inform the individual, corporation, institution, government agent or agency making the request within ten (10) days of receipt of the request.

Adopted December 19, 2006
St. Mary’s County Board of Library Trustees