July 21, 2025
The purpose of this policy is to outline how Rapid City Public Library collects, uses, and discloses personal information for its registered patrons and for library users both of the physical facility and the online library.
South Dakota Codified Law (SDCL) holds that all public library records containing personally identifiable information are confidential; these records may not be released except by court order or by the parent or legal guardian of a minor. Rapid City Public Library also considers individuals’ use of materials in the library to be confidential.
In keeping with SDCL and the American Library Association’s Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records, the library will not respond to any informal third-party request for personally identifiable information about any library user. Information may be released only in response to a court-issued subpoena or search warrant.
The library collects only the information to identify and contact library users, such as email address, phone number, mailing address, etc. Photographs of library users are retained in the library database for visual identification to ensure the correct person is using the library account. Individuals may be added to library-specific mailing lists, and also have the ability to opt-out of those lists. Personal information and mobile numbers collected through opt-in will not be shared, sold or rented with third parties for marketing purposes; contact information may be shared with a contracted collection service when needed as specifically related to the recovery of library materials.
Data about an individual’s checkouts is retained while those items are checked out, or if that individual opts-in to track their reading history. Past checkout history may also be retrieved by library staff when looking at a specific item, but this is only used to address damage at the time it is found. Other data recorded by the library includes the number of overall materials checked out and number of renewals; none of those data sets tracks individual’s names.
Emailed or messaged reference questions submitted to the library are archived on a secure server. Questions are retained only for the purpose of statistics and to assist with follow-up information. The questions themselves and any personal information included in the communication are regarded as confidential, and will not be released to the general public. In the unlikely event that such information is requested, it will be released to police or attorneys only upon receipt of a court-issued subpoena or search warrant.
The library’s computers are part of the City of Rapid City technology network. The city makes every reasonable effort to protect its network from hackers, but makes no guarantee of the security of information that individuals send or receive using the library’s public computers or Wi-Fi.
Library systems provided by third party vendors are secured by the protocols defined by those vendors.
Per directive from the City Attorney’s office, still and video images from the library’s security cameras are considered confidential, and will not be released to the general public. Footage from the exterior cameras will be released to the Police Department upon their request for investigation of crime. Footage from the interior cameras will be released to police or attorneys only upon receipt of a court-issued subpoena or search warrant. If the library itself is the victim of a crime, relevant security camera images may be released to the police by discretion of the Director or his/her designee.
An individual’s presence in the library or at library activities is not confidential. Library users generally do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy while in the library, due to the public nature of the facility.
The news media or individuals are not required to ask permission from people who appear in news pictures, news stories, or photos or videos taken for someone’s personal use or social media posting. However, any such filming or recording cannot cause disruption to any library user.
Records regarding identifiable use of the library’s public computers or Wi-Fi are not retained; the number of computer sessions and hours of Wi-Fi use are retained only for the purpose of statistics.
The library may track the usage of the library’s website and other library systems and services. The library uses this information only as anonymous aggregate data to determine the number of visitors to different sections of the website and to help make the website more useful. The library does not use the information to track or record information about individuals.
Some library electronic services, such as the library catalog and remote databases, set temporary cookies for current sessions. These cookies do not capture personal information and are deleted when sessions are ended. The library does not use cookies or tracking mechanisms that collect personally identifying information on its website or on the library catalog.
Use of the library’s remote databases is logged automatically by the vendors of those systems; that data summarizes statistical uses, but does not track personal information or specific queries submitted to the databases.
The library documents internal incidents dealing with behavior policy or legal infractions that occur in the library or on library property. These reports are confidential documents, per directive from the City Attorney’s office; they are shared only upon authorization of the Library Director or his/her designee with:
Registered library users may opt-out of receiving messages from the library at any time. They may reply STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, OPT-OUT or UNSUBSCRIBE to any text or email messages sent by the library. They may also contact the library directly to stop text messages or to modify or remove their email address. Doing so may impede the users’ ability to receive timely information regarding activity on their library account.
Adopted July 21, 2025, Rapid City Public Library Board of Trustees.
