[Publib] Confidentiality: telephone reserve notification

[Fred Sandner - FML]

Here is the short question: Do libraries with either automated or live telephone reserve notification provide the titles of reserved materials? If you do in a "live" situation, do you require ID, eg patron barcode? What is our responsibility regarding confidentiality of patron information? ALA does not address this specifically.
 
Here is the (much) longer question: In our library system, a NYS library consortium with a Horizon ALS and very heavy electronic ILL, the majority of reserve notification is done by email. For those patrons who do not have email, I believe all libraries telephone the patron to notify them. Our library has a policy of not giving out titles of reserve materials when we call. To do so, we would require the patron's barcode due to confidentiality concerns (anybody could have answered the phone). However, the call list does not include the patron's barcode because the Horizon report does not include the patron barcode as an available field (it does include the patron ID #, which the patron does not have). Therefore, we would have to search the patron db to check the patron's ID each time we got a request for titles. Our call lists can be quite long, so this would slow things down considerably. We also have volunteer callers who do not use the automated system. So we have opted not to give out titles when we call. We do tell patrons if they call back later and give their barcode and phone number to a clerk, we will provide them with the titles (which also acts as a deterrent, since few call back).
            Here's the rub: some patrons who we call become annoyed that we do not provide the titles. They tell us that there are other libraries that will - apparently without requiring the patron's barcode. So there is some interest in having a uniform system-wide policy. I know that there are libraries with automated reserve calling systems that do not provide the titles - ostensibly due to confidentiality. What do other libraries with telephone reserve notification - live or automated - do about titles? What is our responsibility regarding confidentiality of patron information? ALA does not address this specifically.
 
 Fred Sandner
Senior Department Head
Head, Circulation/Media Services
Finkelstein Memorial Library
24 Chestnut Street
Spring Valley, NY 10977
  
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