[ILL-L] Paperwork Retention vs. Patron Privacy

[INTERLIBRARY LOAN Office]

The only "legal" standard that I know of is in the CONTU guidelines (which are not, actually, law, but which most people treat as such), which state that you have to retain "records" of CONTU-related requests (CCG requests) for three complete calendar years:  

"The requesting entity shall maintain records of all requests made by it for copies or phonorecords of any materials to which these guidelines apply and shall maintain records of the fulfillment of such requests, which records shall be retained until the end of the third complete calendar year after the end of the calendar year in which the respective request shall have been made."

I suppose, though I hadn't thought about it before, that you don't have to retain the actual requests, just records of the requests (database or spreadsheet) which you could keep without any patron identifying information included.

Mike Grossman


Interlibrary Loan Office
Duluth Public Library (DUD)
520 West Superior St.
Duluth MN 55802
ph: 218-730-4228; fax: 218-723-3815; e-mail: interlib at duluth.lib.mn.us

>>> "Lynn Melchor" <lmelchor at elon.edu> 4/1/2008 2:22 PM >>>
We have been retaining ILL request paperwork for the number of years
suggested by the ILL Code.

However, I've heard libraries mention they discard requests at the end
of the year, due to patron privacy issues.

Does anyone discard their requests frequently, and has it caused any
problems?

 

Thanks for your input!

Lynn Melchor

ILL Coordinator

Elon University (NEO)