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<TITLE>Re: [Libs-Or] Email Notification Complaint</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Hi Diedre. Email notifications, such as the “Concerned Patron” is concerned about do not constitute a violation of ORS 192.502(23). CP’s interpretation of the law is incorrect. <BR>
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The law does not “state that the library will not disclose” the name and address of library patrons. The law makes these library records exempt from disclosure under Oregon public records law. But an exemption from the public records law is not the same thing as a prohibition against disclosure. Attached is a Letter of Advice that the State Library received from the Oregon Attorney General’s Office in 1995 that explains this in answer to question #2. Library staff in Oregon should be familiar with this. <BR>
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Every Oregon library needs to have a policy in place that covers their use of patron records, as the AG advice points out. Ideally this policy would cover the issue of email notifications. The suggestion of the Concerned Patron to remove the address from email notifications might be reasonable and could be made part of library policy.<BR>
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Thanks for raising this important issue. <BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Optima, Times New Roman">Jim Scheppke, State Librarian<BR>
Oregon State Library<BR>
250 Winter St. NE<BR>
Salem, OR 97301<BR>
503-378-4367<BR>
(fax) 503-585-8059<BR>
jim.b.scheppke@state.or.us<BR>
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<IMG src="cid:3345557492_2031901" ><FONT COLOR="#007F00">Go Green, Keep it on screen - think before you print.<BR>
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On 1/2/10 10:30 AM, "Diedre Conkling" <diedre08@gmail.com> wrote:<BR>
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</FONT></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">Like most of you, we are trying very hard to secure patron information and to follow the new FCC regulations (not yet in affect) and state laws related to identity theft. (Manystates have similar identity theft laws.) I think these are the laws more related to this question than the Oregon library statutes, since I think the library statues apply differently to each library in Oregon depending on that library's own policies.<BR>
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We do send out email notifications at this time that include name and address since they replicate our snail mail notifications for holds and overdue items. The notifications are sent out by our computer consortium with a text agreed upon by all of our libraries. We are currently in the process of hiring a new system administrator so it is taking us more time to find out, than normal, if we can do a different kind of message for email messages than the message we use for snail mail. <BR>
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Patrons are not required to get notices by email. It is a personal choice. However, we would prefer that most of them would use email since it costs us less.<BR>
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<B>My questions</B>: Have any of you dealt with this problem? Do you send out different notifications through email than you do through snail mail? I won't ask you the legal questions but if any of you know more about whether or not this kind of notification is violating any laws we would like to get that information as well.<BR>
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<U>This is the message we have received twice:<BR>
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Hi, <BR>
I noticed that the Library's Email Notifications contain the full name and address of patrons along with the library materials ordered. Emails are not considered secure communication and in so, expose private information therefore violating the Library's Privacy Policy as well as Oregon Revised Statute 192.502(23). These state that the Library will not disclose: <BR>
• circulation records, showing use of specific library material by a named person: or <BR>
• name of a library patron together with the address, telephone number, or e-mail <BR>
address of that patron. <BR>
At minimum, please consider removing the residential address of the patron inside emails. Are there any plans to address this concern? <BR>
Thank you, <BR>
A concerned patron. <BR>
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