POLICIES & LEGAL NOTICES
Policies & Legal Notices
The Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) is a library consortium that facilitates resource sharing between BCCLS member libraries and the public. BCCLS has created and maintains www.bccls.org and certain related websites (the “BCCLS websites”) in order to make information available to BCCLS library staff and the public via the Internet. Additionally, BCCLS supports a network of machines across BCCLS member libraries to provide access to the Internet and BCCLS resources.
By using BCCLS services, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions contained herein. These policies and legal notices may change from time to time, and we encourage you to review them periodically. Your continued use of BCCLS services indicates your acceptance of any changes to these terms and conditions.
Policies
ELIGIBILITY FOR LIBRARY SERVICES
In order to be eligible for a BCCLS library account, you must reside, work, attend school, or own property in a town served by a BCCLS library. In some cases, pay cards may be purchased to gain access to a single BCCLS library’s collection. To register for a BCCLS library account, you will need to visit your home library with proof of identification and/or residence.
BORROWING MATERIALS IN BCCLS
To borrow materials from BCCLS libraries, you will need to present your valid proof of a library account. Individual libraries’ policies regarding loan periods, fines, etc. may vary.
BCCLS will contract with selector(s) to provide collection development in defined language areas under the direction of the BCCLS Executive Director who is responsible ultimately for selection. Participant libraries should insure that their boards and policies understand and reflect this collection agreement. Read more…
Social Media Policy
PUBLIC TERMS OF USE
By choosing to comment on BCCLS’ Social Media channels, public users agree to the terms set forth here.
BCCLS welcomes the comments, posts, and messages of the community and recognizes and respects differences in opinion. Comments, posts, and messages will be reviewed regularly and BCCLS and its designated moderators reserve the right to, but are not required to, remove any comment, post, or message that they deem inappropriate.
BCCLS is not responsible for or liable for any content posted by any participant in a BCCLS social media forum who is not a BCCLS staff member.
The following will be removed from any BCCLS social media forum:
- Obscene or sexual postings (postings must be appropriate for audiences of all ages).
- Sexist, homophobic, racist, or otherwise bigoted content. Hate speech is prohibited and includes any speech – or endorsement or promotion of speech – that is derogatory toward a group of people based on a protected classification. This can include race, color, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality, caste, gender, disability, creed, etc. For example, speech that dehumanizes, ridicules, condones, or promotes violence against a protected class of people is hate speech.
- Disparaging, harassing, abusive, or offensive comments or postings against BCCLS staff, library staff, or other social media users. Harassing comments or postings include profane or obscene statements or images, threatening physical harm toward another person, and engaging in behavior with the sole intent of harassing another person.
- Potentially libelous or defamatory statements.
- Plagiarizing or posting material that violates trademark, copyright, or publicity rights without permission or authority from the rights holder.
- Private, personal, proprietary, or confidential information about any person, business, or entity without appropriate consent or authority.
- Spam, including comments, postings, and/or hyperlinks not related to the content created by BCCLS or its designated moderators.
- Advertisements and solicitations not expressly permitted by BCCLS.
- Postings that violate local state or federal laws.
- Photos, videos or other images that fall in any of the above categories.
In addition, users are expected to abide by the terms and conditions set by third party social media platforms as well as follow appropriate Federal and State Law.
Persons who repeatedly violate these terms may be barred from further postings.
PRIVACY
Users should have no expectation of privacy when posting on BCCLS’ social media channels; by using such sites, users consent to BCCLS’ right to access, monitor, and read any postings on those sites. Users must understand that social media is permanent, retrievable, and public. Messages can potentially be read by anyone once posted, regardless of status on Friends, Follower, or Subscriber lists.
Users of all ages have the responsibility to protect their privacy. BCCLS does not act in place of, or in the absence of, a parent. BCCLS recommends that users do not post personally identifying information, such as last name, school, age, phone number, or address on BCCLS’ social media channels.
THIRD-PARTY CONTENT
BCCLS has no affiliation with any advertisements or other material posted by third-party sites or software. BCCLS is not responsible for the content on the pages of friends, fans, or followers of the library, and it does not endorse or review content of third-party sites.
BCCLS does not collect, maintain or otherwise use the personal information stored on any third-party social media site in any way other than to communicate with users on that site.
Legal Notices
Privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association. Confidentiality exists when a library is in possession of personally identifiable information about users and keeps that information private on their behalf.
BCCLS considers circulation and registration records identifying the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses of library patrons, as well as the materials borrowed or accessed electronically, not to be part of the public record. New Jersey law prohibits library staff from disclosing information contained in library records, except as outlined in the Confidentiality of Library Records law (NJSA 18A:73-43:1). The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (P.L. 107- 56) supersedes state law and expands the federal government’s authority for access to library records and documents to protect against international terrorism and clandestine intelligence activities. It also expands the authority of federal law enforcement agencies to track telephone and electronic communication, including any dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information and the actual content of the communication.
The information collected by BCCLS is limited to what is believed to be necessary or useful to conduct library business. Personal information such as name, address, phone number, and email address are gathered for the purpose of identification and accountability for use of library materials. It is also retained to determine eligibility for resources limited to residents of a particular community. BCCLS does not disclose patron information to any third parties, except as necessary for provision of library services.
The intellectual pursuits of individuals using library resources are considered confidential information regardless of the age of the borrower. Such records shall not be made available to any individual or agency except pursuant to such process, order, subpoena or warrant as may be authorized under the authority of, and pursuant to, federal, state, or local law relating to civil, criminal, or administrative discovery procedures or legislative investigative power.
While all BCCLS member libraries are encouraged to develop and implement their own privacy policy, BCCLS assumes no liability for disclosure of library user personal information by any library staff acting within or outside the scope of his or her duties.
While we encourage patrons to provide email addresses in order to receive email notifications from BCCLS, you are not required to provide an email address in order to have a BCCLS library account. You can add, change, or remove an email address from your library account online at any time. Alternatively, you can visit your BCCLS library with your library card to update your account information.
If you provide an email address for your library account, in any correspondence with BCCLS, and/or in any patron-generated content you provide through BCCLS, you agree to receive electronic communications from BCCLS.
Email messages sent to BCCLS or a member library may be stored or forwarded to others within BCCLS or to member library staff in order to respond to a request for information.
Please note that email notifications are a courtesy. Failure to receive email notifications does not remove your responsibility to return or renew materials by their due date, nor your responsibility for any overdue fines incurred for late materials. BCCLS makes every effort to ensure proper email delivery. However, we cannot guarantee final delivery of email notifications.
BCCLS has appropriate measures in place in our central physical facility to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that has been collected from you at our member libraries. BCCLS cannot and does not guarantee that every task completed on machines connected to its network is private.
BCCLS does not filter any content accessed via machines on the BCCLS network. Individual BCCLS libraries may have additional filtering software and/or local Internet policies regarding the use of their machines that may apply in addition to this policy.
We may obtain data regarding users at the time they use a library card to gain access to electronic content (for which the State, BCCLS, or the individual library pays a subscription fee). BCCLS keeps no permanent record of websites visited by library users, the electronic databases accessed, or the searches performed by individual users. While we may disclose information about use of our website in aggregate (such as server use statistics), we will not disclose to third parties any information that could be used to identify individuals or their use of BCCLS resources, except as required by law or appropriate law enforcement procedures.
BCCLS contracts with a variety of partners to provide electronic content to our users. Before checking out any electronic content, users should read the privacy policy of the company that is providing the service in question.
BCCLS does not partner with or have special relationships with any advertisement server companies.
Some pages on the BCCLS website include links to other websites. BCCLS has not reviewed all of these websites and is not responsible for the content of these websites. Links are provided for informational purposes and as a convenience. Links do not imply endorsement of, sponsorship of, or affiliation with any linked organization or website.
BCCLS encourages patrons to become involved in the interactive portions of our website. Before you participate in these activities, we ask that you keep the following in mind:
- BCCLS is not responsible for any of the patron-generated comments/content that appear on our websites.
- Patrons who provide content to BCCLS for its websites are granting BCCLS the right to use the material for promotional/publicity materials online and/or in print. In each instance, you agree that BCCLS may use your content for these purposes without making any payments to you. If you are not willing to grant BCCLS these rights, please do not contribute content to our site.
- Please make sure that any content you contribute does not infringe on the rights of any third party. Do not contribute content to which you don’t own the rights.
- Please also remember to exercise good judgment when contributing written material or other content. For patron-generated reviews, for example, BCCLS prohibits comments that are offensive, that use inappropriate language, or that are off-topic. We reserve the right to edit or delete user comments/content in a manner consistent with our mission and policies. We also ask that you do not insert your own or a third party’s advertising, branding, or other promotional content into any of your comments/content.
The BCCLS websites contain a wide range of content. They contain materials that are in the public domain as well as materials that are protected by copyright. It is your responsibility to acquire the proper rights or acknowledge the source of the material, if necessary.
The following websites have information about copyright, fair use and other related topics which may be useful:
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
If you use material from our website online, we ask that you credit the consortium by linking directly to the material on the BCCLS website. If you use material from our website offline, we ask that you credit BCCLS as follows: “Courtesy of BCCLS, www.bccls.org.”
If you attend a BCCLS-sponsored event, please keep in mind that photographs may be taken. By attending a BCCLS-sponsored event, you acknowledge that you may appear in photographs posted on the BCCLS web site or used in promotional materials. If you find that you appear in a photograph posted on the BCCLS website and you wish to have the photograph removed, please contact us at support@bccls.org and we will work with you to resolve the issue.