UNE Library Services’ Privacy Policy
Protecting your privacy is essential to supporting your academic freedom.
We uphold the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights, section IIV as well as their Statement on Privacy. We collect personal information for the sole purpose of providing library services. This policy explains how we handle your privacy and any personally identifiable information (PII) that might be collected by the university, Library Services, or third-party vendors when you use library materials. Personal information that we collect or that you share with us will be protected in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Library Records
Your library records are confidential; we will not share, sell, license or disclose your personal information to third parties unless we are compelled to do so by law or to comply with a court order.
We receive your personal information, including your name, UNE Personal Reference Number (PRN), UNE email, phone number and home address, from the University registrar’s office in order to create an account so that you may borrow library materials. You can see this information by logging in to your library account and clicking on Personal Details. Your information is accessible to authorized library employees who have signed the University of New England Employee Confidentiality Agreement.
When you borrow from the library, your personally identifiable information is connected with the item you have checked out. This information remains in our system only until someone else borrows the item. Our systems do not retain a record of the items you have borrowed.
After you graduate from UNE, your library account will expire. We delete expired accounts after 3 years unless you re-enroll in a UNE program, become a UNE employee, or request alumni access.
Interlibrary Loan
A record of the items you have borrowed through UNE Interlibrary loan is retained in the system for two years and is only available to UNE Library staff to facilitate repeat requests.
Online Resources
We provide licensed access to resources owned and operated by third parties, including search services, research databases and other online resources, electronic journals, e-books, and UNE’s institutional repository. We license these resources for the use of current UNE students, faculty, and staff. These websites and resources have their own privacy policies and are not governed by UNE Library Services. We recommend that you review the privacy policies of the websites that you connect to through the library website, particularly if you are creating your own account in order to access specialized services like saved searches, bookmarking, notes, personalization features or alerts. When connecting to licensed resources outside the library, we authenticate you as current member of our community using your UNE login and password, and do not pass any personally identifiable information on to vendors.
Web Use Statistics
UNE Libraries uses Google Analytics on our webpages to assess website usage and make improvements to our services. All data collected by Google and sent to us has been aggregated and anonymized, but your IP address may be recorded. Read Google Analytics and Google’s privacy policy
You can opt out of Google Analytics by using this browser extension or setting your browser to private/incognito mode.
Cookies
Our site also uses cookies to collect information about how, when, and for how long you visit our website. Cookies are small text files stored in your browser, and they do not identify you personally. For help managing, deleting or opting out of cookies, consult your browser’s help files.
Chat & Email Help
If you initiate a help request using our chat service or Ask a Librarian, your email address along with the webpage from which you initiated the request will be recorded so that we have a way to follow up with you if needed. Transcripts of chat conversations are retained for one year and may be shared with UNE Library employees in order to improve our services.
Library Computers & Printers
When you enter your UNE login and password to use a computer in the library, a record of your use is stored with UNE’s ITS department. After you log out, the computer deletes any files downloaded as well as all browser history and cookies. The Eco-Print system stores your UNE ID and the name of your print job for 24 hours, after which time this information is deleted.
Camera Surveillance
Both UNE library locations have camera surveillance systems installed for the security of our collections and artwork. The video these systems record can be viewed by UNE security staff, and on the Portland campus, by authorized library employees. Video recordings are stored for a maximum of 30 days and then deleted.
Patriot Act
We observe state and federal laws regarding the disclosure of personal information in library records. Confidential records include but are not limited to:
- borrowing records
- registration records
- research requests
- internet searches
- interlibrary loan requests
The USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) expands the scope of inquiries by law enforcement into library records, but student, faculty, and staff rights to privacy and confidentiality remain unchanged.
Questions & Help
If you have questions on this, or another topic, contact a librarian for help!