Privacy Policy

CONFIDENTIALITY OF LIBRARY RECORDS

Because the library must maintain trust with members of the public, the Board of Trustees of the Madison Public Library shall make every reasonable and responsible effort to see that information about the patron and their individual information choices remain confidential.  For people to make full and effective use of library resources, they must feel unconstrained by the possibility of others being aware of the books they read, the materials they use, the questions they ask.Therefore, the Board of Trustees of the Madison Public Library has adopted the following guidelines concerning the disclosure of information about library patrons:  No information regarding or including:

1. A patron’s name (whether an individual is a registered borrower or has been a patron).
2. A patron’s address
3. A patron’s telephone number
4. The library’s circulation records and their contents
5. The library’s borrowers records and their contents
6. The number or character of questions asked by patrons
7. The frequency or content of a patron’s visits to the library or any other information supplied to the library (or gathered by it) shall not be given, made available or disclosed to any individual, corporation, institution or government agency without a valid process, order or subpoena.  Upon presentation of such a process, order or subpoena, the library shall resist its enforcement until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction.
8. Procedures:
   If patron information is requested by a member of the police force, no information is to be provided.  Police should be informed that the administration of SEKnFind rests with the Southeast Kansas Library System, and police requests for information should be referred to Roger Carswell at SEKLS headquarters, or if he is not available, someone else on the SEKLS staff.

All library employees (and those volunteers who work in its behalf) are hereby instructed to comply with these guidelines.  The Board of Trustees recognizes that it is only through continued public confidence in knowing these guidelines are being upheld that the public can maintain its confidence in the library.  It is the community’s right to know.  See Kansas Public Records Law, K.S.A. 45-215 et. seq. 1984.

Revised and approved:    03-14-2016

Reviewed and approved:  12-09-2020