Black Gold Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting the Black Gold Cooperative Library System web site. We are committed to preserving the privacy of our visitors and patrons. We do not collect personal information about you just because you visit this site.

We will not share any information you give us with anyone unless required by court order. We do not collect or sell your information for commercial purposes. Your patron information is confidential.

In order to improve the usefulness of our site for visitors, we automatically collect and maintain statistical information about your visit to our web site and our library catalog, www.blackgold.org. This information includes the IP address of the visitor, the computer and web browser type, the pages used, the time and date, and any errors that occurred. We collect this information in our internal web site logs and in the Google Analytics external logging service. This information is used for internal reporting purposes. No attempt is made to identify individual users unless illegal behavior is suspected. We monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage to our web service. These security measures ensure that the web site remains available to use for your library needs.

Email Address

If you include your email address or other personal information when signing up for a library card contacting us through a feedback or question form on this site, we use this information only to answer your question or for other Library purposes such as investigating system problems. We do not share the information with outside parties. Email addresses used for correspondence will not automatically be added to your library account. Alternative contact methods are telephone and U.S. Mail.

Your Library card number and account

Some of the databases available to you from our web site will require the bar code number from your library card for verification purposes. These database vendors do not have access to our records.

You can log onto your account on our catalog using the Patron Account tab. To prevent others from viewing your account, do not share your library card number. Be sure to log out of your account when you are finished whenever using a public computer.

Your account in the system contains information about current hold requests, items checked out, items overdue, and fines. Once items are returned and fines are paid, this information is removed from your account. By default, the library does not keep a history of previous books checked out on your account. Optional services allow you to save book lists, save searches, and maintain a permanent reading list. This information is confidential and will not be shared with anyone unless required by court order. This information will not be used for any commercial purposes. You can delete optional features at anytime by changing your account options. If you pay fines and fees via credit card, the credit card number is not stored in your account, it is simply passed through to the payment processor.

Searches in this web site are not tracked against your library account. All web site usage information is logged separately from your library account information.

If you create an account in one of our databases, for example to receive email updates of new magazine articles, the account has no connection with your Library card number and account. Please review the privacy policy of the database site you visit.

Removing your email address

Currently you may give us your email address for the purpose of notifying you about your library account. This information is not used in any other way, and you can ask to remove your email address from our records at any time by contacting your local library.

Cookies

The Black Gold Cooperative Library System does not use cookies to track individual users of its regular public website at www.blackgold.org. The library catalog website at www.blackgold.org and several of our databases do use cookies. These are used to keep track of your current session and keep you logged on to the service or database you are using. These cookies are temporary and are not stored on your computer after your web browser is closed.

Children's Information

We do not collect any information about children other than the information needed for a library card.

Other Sites

This site contains links to other sites. The Library is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of other sites.

© 2011 Black Gold Library Cooperative. All rights reserved.