Privacy and Records Confidentiality Policy

Because the library must maintain trust with members of the public, the Board of Trustees of the Basehor Community Library shall make every reasonable and responsible effort to see that information about the patron and the patron’s 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, or the questions they ask.

Patron registration and circulation records are exempt from required disclosure pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA), K.S.A. 45-215 et seq., although this exemption from disclosure has been preempted to a certain extent in the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

Therefore, the Board has adopted the following guidelines concerning the disclosure of information about the library patrons:

Information regarding or including:

• a patron’s name (or whether an individual is a registered borrower or has been a patron)
• a patron’s address
• a patron’s telephone number
• the library’s circulation records and their contents
• the library’s borrower’s records and their contents
• the number or character of questions asked by patrons
• 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 court order or subpoena authorized under federal, state or local law.

Parents or legal guardians of children under 14 years of age may, upon presentation of proper identification, obtain the current status of their child’s circulation record or withdraw their authorization for the child’s library card.

All library employees (and those volunteers who work in its behalf) are hereby instructed to comply with these guidelines.  All outside inquiries regarding access to patron registration and charge records will be referred to the Library Director, and no records may be made public without his or her express approval.

** Approved by the Basehor Community Library Board of Trustees March 11, 2003.  Reviewed June 12, 2012 and February 12, 2015. Revised May 14, 2018. **