NYS Law on Confidentiality of Library Records

• 

  Posted by Bonnie Nelson on February 9, 2016 at 8:15 pm

  In discussing the “Internet Access Guidelines for CUNY Libraries” at our meeting this afternoon, I brought up the New York State Law on Confidentiality of Library Records and suggested that this law, which states that library records containing personally identifying details “shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed” except by court order was relevant to the discussion of the necessity of “providing infrastructure expressly for unrestricted access to the Internet.” Stephen Francoeur asked me to send him the link to the law, but I thought it might be of interest to all in this group.

  The citation is to NY CLS CPLR § 4509, and the full text of the law with commentary can most easily be found by searching Lexis-Nexis for New York statutes and the phrase “confidentiality of library records” (the permalink would embed the John Jay ezproxy). I like going through Lexis-Nexis, rather than just finding the text of the law on the web, since the Notes make very clear that the intent of the 1988 revision of the law was to protect not just circulation records, but all library records (including those involving computers) that might give clues to what an individual was reading. The legislature was concerned about the right to privacy, without which “there would be a chilling effect on the citizen’s right to seek information freely, contrary to the objectives of the First Amendment.” It’s a very enlightening read.

  Bonnie Nelson
  John Jay

• Stephen Francoeur (he/him)

  Participant

  February 16, 2016 at 5:05 pm

  Thanks for that, Bonnie!

  It looks like permalinks in LexisNexis don’t have any local proxy info embedded in the URL, so as long as you are on campus when you click the link below, you should be taken to the law:

  http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=5CT3-08C1-6RDJ-84R2&csi=9101&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true

  • This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Stephen Francoeur (he/him).
  Kevin_J_Collins

  Participant

  February 16, 2016 at 5:51 pm

  Just a quick FYI. We have begun removing patron identifying information from the CUNY Aleph catalog. Please see your local Access Services manager for details.
  Bonnie Nelson

  Participant

  February 17, 2016 at 3:16 pm

  And a very welcome move this is! Thanks for the quick action, Kevin. –Bonnie

  From: CUNY Academic Commons [mailto:commons@gc.cuny.edu]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 5:52 PM
  To: Bonnie Nelson <bnelson@jjay.cuny.edu>
  Subject: Kevin_J_Collins replied to the topic NYS Law on Confidentiality of Library Records in the forum Library Technology Subcommittee of the CUNY Committee on Academic Technology [CUNY Academic Commons]
  Stephen Klein

  Member

  February 17, 2016 at 7:43 pm

  This is great news. Thanks, Kevin.