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It is the policy of CUNY Libraries that the privacy of all our users, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors, shall be respected in compliance with federal and state laws and professional standards. Specifically, CUNY Libraries support and comply with New York State Law (New York State Civil Practice Law & Rules 4509, Chapter 112, Laws of 1988) and the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association with respect to the confidentiality of library records, including, but not limited to the circulation of library materials, interlibrary loan transactions, reference queries, and course reserve requests.
All library records relating to an individual patron's use of the library and its resources are considered confidential. These records may be consulted and used by library staff in the course of carrying out library operations, but will not be disclosed to others except upon the request or consent of the library user, or pursuant to subpoena, court order, or otherwise required by law. CUNY Libraries forward any law-enforcement requests for patron records to the appropriate college’s legal counsel. To better protect the privacy of library patrons, the CUNY Office of Library Services has procedures in place that minimize the retention of library patron records.
We make every effort to protect each patron’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired, or transmitted. However, CUNY Libraries, both individually and collectively, license many information resources from vendors. Ideally, in the process of negotiating licenses with vendors, CUNY Libraries should endeavor to determine whether the licensing language allows circumstances under which the vendor can sell or otherwise give user data to third parties without permission from the licensing library and, if so, renegotiate those terms.