The CSUDH Library affirms that privacy is an essential element of intellectual and academic freedom. For its core library functions, the library subscribes to the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association, which states: “We protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
We will not disclose the personal data we collect from users during reference interviews, instruction sessions, or other activities to any other non-library party except where required for system-related needs (e.g., third-party library service providers who have contractually agreed to maintain user confidentiality) or to fulfill the individual user’s service request. We permit only authorized library staff with assigned confidential passwords to access personal data stored in the library’s computer systems for the purpose of performing library work. The library does not sell or lease users’ personal information to companies, universities, or individuals.
We avoid creating unnecessary records, we avoid retaining records not needed for the fulfillment of the mission and operations of the library, and we do not engage in practices that might place personal information on public view. Information we may gather and retain about current and valid library users includes the following: user registration information, circulation information, interlibrary loan information, and electronic access information.
When users visit the library’s website, we may automatically collect certain information, such as: domain, country, IP address, browser, platform, resolution, entrance-exit pages, referrals, date, time, search terms, and search engines. This is standard practice for websites and is not used for any purpose other than to evaluate how we can design the site to best serve user needs.
In order to obtain premium access, we ask affiliated library visitors or website users to identify themselves by logging into our systems and to reveal personal information if they wish to borrow materials, request special services, or make remote use of those portions of the library’s website restricted to registered borrowers under license agreements. Additionally, some library e-resource vendors may require users to create accounts to use their sites, but these accounts are not under the library’s control. However, we regularly remove cookies, web-history, cached files, or other computer and Internet use records and other software code placed by users on our library computers.
Users of networked computers will need to enable cookies in order to access a number of resources available through the library. A cookie is a small file sent to the browser by a website each time that site is visited. Cookies are stored on the user’s computer and can potentially transmit personal information. Cookies are often used to remember information about preferences and pages visited. Users can refuse to accept cookies, can disable cookies, and remove cookies from their hard drives. Our library servers use cookies solely to verify that a person is an authorized user in order to allow access to licensed library resources. We do not share cookies information with external third parties. Some third-party library vendors may use cookies for their sites, but these cookies are not under the library’s control.
CSUDH uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., to understand how the university's website is being used and to improve our interface and services. The University Library also uses Matomo for web analytics, which does not record any personal data. The University Library uses this information for analytical and feature-improvement related purposes only. We do not transmit any information to other third parties. Learn more about Google Analytics and Google’s privacy policy, and Matomo's privacy policy.
If you choose, you can opt out of tracking by using one of the following methods:
When you search or browse library websites or databases, it is theoretically possible that someone else on the network could “eavesdrop” on your activities (though this is a violation of university policy). This is because most data on the Internet is transmitted in clear text. One way to avoid this is to use an encrypted SSL connection using the “https” prefix. OneSearch supports HTTPS searches. If you are concerned that someone on the network system might be eavesdropping on your searches, be sure to see if the prefix is https:// before you start your search.
We follow all university privacy related policies as well, including: