Except for statements about POWER LIBRARY, transcripts may not be quoted for any purpose whatsoever by anyone, including providing libraries, POWER LIBRARY does not disclose any personally identifiable information without express advance permission or where the information is publicly available under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act 65 P.S. 66.1 et seq., or other applicable laws. Information collected may be subject to examination and inspection, if such information is a public record and not otherwise protected from disclosure.
Librarians protect the privacy of users and their questions. A name is used to identify a CHAT session and to communicate with the user. Users do not have to identify themselves by their real names. Names are stored in session transcripts and deleted after 90 days. For statistical reporting, we track the number of sessions by zip codes.
Phone numbers and email addresses are not required. A user may choose to provide a phone number or email address in the course of a CHAT. These are used only in the provision of service from this site and are deleted after 90 days. Phones numbers or email addresses provided during CHAT are never sold or provided to any other entities.
Phone numbers and email addresses are used only to
- send a transcript of the session for your reference or a scanned document at a later time;
- follow up on an incomplete session;
- contact a user during a session to clarify a request for information.
In the course of a CHAT, a librarian may ask for information regarding purpose (for instance, is this for a homework assignment?), or reading or grade level. Such incidental information will be used only to identify appropriate resources only.
Transcripts are only used to
- email the user a record of the session and a reminder of any resources provided during the session;
- monitor and improve the overall quality of service;
- develop aggregated statistical data on the number of requests received, the number completed, and the average length of sessions.
