Privacy Policy
Washoe County Library System (WCLS) makes every effort to protect the privacy of library users. WCLS adheres to the American Library Association Code of Ethics that states in Article III: “We protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Emails and Web Forms
Personally identifying information that you provide by emails or web forms will be used only for such purposes as are described at the point of collection (for example on a web form), such as to provide information and/or services to you, update your patron record or to respond to your questions or comments. If you provide contact information, WCLS staff may contact you to clarify your comment or question.
Email sent to the Library is not necessarily secure against interception. The Library will not ask for and does not use sensitive information such as social security numbers or credit card numbers, and it is advisable not to send such sensitive information by email.
Cookies
The Library uses cookies to enable customization of individual visits on the Library website. Additionally, some WCLS electronic services, such as the library catalog and remote databases, set temporary cookies for current sessions. These cookies do not capture personal information, and they cannot be used to reveal or discover the identity of the individual user. Refusing or disabling cookies may result in an inability to access some library services from computers within the Washoe County Library System.
The Washoe County Library System may track the usage of the Library website and other services accessed through Library servers. WCLS uses this information as anonymous aggregate data to determine the number of visitors to different sections of our site and services and to help make our sites more useful. This information does not identify individual library users. The automatically collected data may include all or some of the following: the name of the domain and host from which you access the internet, the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you use, the browser software you use and your operating system, the date and time you access our sites, the pages visited and the length of time visited and the internet address of the site from which you linked directly to our site and services.
Many of the Library’s electronic databases can be freely accessed from anywhere by anyone with a Washoe County library card. The vendors of some of these databases collect statistics such as the names of the databases used, how often they are used and whether they are used in the Library or by remote access, but they do not track personal information about individual visitors or specific queries submitted to the databases. These vendors provide statistical information to the Library.
Server logs and statistical summaries are reviewed by WCLS to determine how individual electronic services are used in order to improve website content, better manage network traffic and troubleshoot server problems.
Wireless Network
The Washoe County Library System also offers a wireless network that allows patrons to connect to the internet at many WCLS branches. Please be aware that data accessed and sent over the WCLS wireless network is not encrypted.
Links to Other Sites
The WCLS website contains links to external websites and databases not maintained by the Washoe County Library System. The Library cannot be responsible for user privacy when visiting outside websites or the privacy practices of other sites which may differ from the practices described in this policy.
Policy Changes and Revisions
The Washoe County Library System reserves the right to change, revise or modify this privacy statement at any time to reflect changes in the Library’s policies and practices or to reflect new services and content provided by the Library. Patrons are encouraged to check this document periodically to stay informed of the Library’s current privacy guidelines. For more information:
Approved: May 18, 2011