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Legal

Privacy Statement

The Harvard University Library is committed to protecting the privacy of Harvard Libraries users. Our policies conform to the "Code of Ethics of the American Library Association," which provides this summation of the library community's commitment to privacy: "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." While Harvard does gather data about system and resource usage for administrative purposes, the use of that information conforms to the precepts of confidentiality denoted in the Code of Ethics statement.

Data gathered about each Harvard Libraries session varies according to the method of connection to the resource. The resulting logs contain information necessary for analyzing the use of resources, troubleshooting problems, and improving services. Log data is also used to distribute resource costs among Harvard libraries and faculties. These anonymous logs remain intact for approximately one fiscal year.

A useful corollary to this statement is Harvard's Office of the General Counsel's "Privacy Policy for the OGC home page." If you have any questions regarding this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can contact:

Web Services
University Information Systems
60 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138