Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS) is committed to protecting the privacy of patrons’ personal information as well as information regarding individual use of the member libraries or their services.

CLAMS adheres to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 78, Section 7, which states that library records shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except that such records may be disclosed to the extent necessary for the proper operation of such library and shall be disclosed upon request or consent of the user or pursuant to subpoena, court order or where otherwise required by statute. CLAMS considers circulation and registration records identifying the names, addresses, telephone number, and email addresses of library patrons, as well as materials borrowed or accessed electronically, not to be part of the public record.

The information collected by CLAMS is limited to what is believed necessary or useful to conduct library business. Personal information gathered such as name, address, phone number, and email address are gathered for the purpose of identification and accountability for use of library materials. Records of library use (i.e. amount of or titles of materials checked out and returned or services used) are maintained only for the purpose of statistics.

CLAMS staff and/or officers will not retrieve and/or disclose borrower information for the purposes of generating mailing or solicitation lists for member libraries or other parties.

Staff at member libraries shall respect the confidentiality of borrower information. CLAMS staff and/or officers are not responsible for violations of confidentiality occurring at member libraries.

CLAMS keeps no permanent record of Internet sites visited by library patrons, the electronic databases accessed, or the searches performed by individual patrons.

Library patrons should be aware that CLAMS and other Massachusetts library organizations license commercial databases from a variety of vendors. CLAMS will make every effort to restrict electronic database vendors from collecting and using identifying personal information of its library users, however it provides no guarantee that personal information will not be shared with third parties.

Email messages sent to CLAMS or a member library may be stored or forwarded to others within CLAMS or to member library staff in order to respond to a request for information.

Library patrons may provide their library with an email address in order to receive periodic mailings with information about new acquisitions, items about to fall due, or items being held. This service can be discontinued by contacting the library.

Library patrons may register their cellphone with a third party vendor (currently Shoutbomb) in order to receive periodic text messages with information about items about to fall due, items that are overdue, or items being held. This service can be discontinued by texting the command QUIT and confirm by replying to the prompts sent to their cellphone. See full Shoutbomb Privacy Policy .

CLAMS has appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that CLAMS has collected from patrons and stored at our site.
CLAMS takes many measures to safeguard user information, but cannot and does not guarantee that every task completed via its network is private.

CLAMS uses a tool called Google Analytics to collect information about use of the CLAMS website. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. CLAMS uses the information from Google Analytics only to improve the CLAMS websites. CLAMS uses IP Anonymization in Analytics as described here
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en). CLAMS does not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information, and personal information is not shared with Google. See: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) if you want to opt out of Google Analytics data collection. Information on the Google Analytics privacy policy is available online at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en). The Google privacy policy is available online at http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ (http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/).

Individual CLAMS libraries may have local privacy policies that may apply in addition to this consortium Policy.

For information regarding the Kindle and eBooks, please see CLAMS Kindle eBooks Privacy Statementand the full OverDrive Privacy Policyfor more details.

Approved by CLAMS Board of Directors: 4/9/2014
Updated 8/8/18