Privacy Policies

The Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library is committed to the protection of personal privacy by keeping information confidential that identifies library users and their use of library books, materials, facilities, services, and assistance from staff. This information is limited to that which is necessary to conduct library business. Such information includes:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone Number
  • Email address
  • Driver’s license number
  • Library card number
  • Patron photo

Library Policy

Most information related to patrons is kept for the purposes of circulating materials and ensuring that responsibility is attributed to the correct person when an item is borrowed. This information is not publicly available and, beyond interactions between the library and the patron, will be shared only with third-party vendors with whom the library has contracted services necessary for conducting business and with law enforcement personnel upon valid, legal request.

Third party vendors with whom the library shares patron information are required by KRS 61.932 to provide their own security measures to protect any personal information. Where possible, the library has informed each entity in writing that appropriate security and breach notification is required. Under this policy, a library user’s personal information and borrower record shall not be made available to any agency or anyone other than the individual who is the subject of the record or information, except as follows:

Library Duties

Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library acts to limit the amount of personally identifiable information that it retains. Some information, however, is necessarily and understandably retained for the transaction of day-to-day business. The library also occasionally conducts promotional campaigns to inform the community of our services. The library at those times use patron e-mail or postal address for the library’s internal mailing list.

Non-personal information about visits to the library’s website or use of electronic resources may be collected. This information is used by system administration and to calculate usage statistics. No personal information is connected to usage information.

Patron Permission

Patrons may authorize another person permission to pick up holds or pay fines, approval of which is noted by staff on the patron’s account record. Allowing another person possession of a library card also indicates approval for check out or fine payments.

Lawful Requests

The library acts in accordance with a search warrant or court order when authorized by the Library Director to federal, state, or local law relating to civil, criminal or investigative discovery procedure. The library cooperates with the authorities in resolving crimes committed against the library or on library property.

Children and Teens

We believe that library account information of children and teens should be private and secure. Parents, guardians or custodians may request account information pertaining to children birth to 17 years old. Information will be disclosed to a parent or guardian who has their child’s library card or the child present. Staff may request proof of guardianship. If the child or library card is not present and guardianship cannot be verified, library staff will mail requested information to the address on the child’s library account.

To help us safeguard the confidentiality of your library account information, please keep your library card in a secure place at all times. If your card is lost or stolen, notify the loss immediately to either location of the Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library. Patrons should update their account if they move, change phone numbers, or change email addresses, to ensure library correspondence is directed to the correct person.

The Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library will comply with best practices established by the Department for Local Government (as required in KRS 61.932). This policy was adopted by the Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library Board of Trustees and follows the opinion of the Attorney General of Kentucky (OAG 81-159, April 21, 1981) and the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.

If you have concerns about how your information is used, please speak with us at the circulation desk or send comments through the Contact Us page of our web site.

All Previous Versions of this Policy are Void.

LHCMPL Website (publiclibrary.org) Privacy Policy

This Website Privacy Policy outlines the Hopkins County Madisonville Public Library (AKA " we ", " our " or " HCMPL ") practices with respect to information collected from users who access our website (" Site "), or otherwise share personal information with us (collectively: " Users "). 

Grounds for data collection
Processing of your personal information (meaning, any information which may potentially allow your identification with reasonable means; hereinafter " Personal Information ") is necessary for the performance of our contractual obligations towards you and providing you with our services, to protect our legitimate interests and for compliance with legal and financial regulatory obligations to which we are subject.

When you use the Site, you consent to the collection, storage, use, disclosure and other uses of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy.

We encourage our Users to carefully read the Privacy Policy and use it to make informed decisions. 

What information we collect?

The first type of information is un-identified and non-identifiable information pertaining to a User(s), which may be made available or gathered via your use of the Site (“ Non-personal Information ”). We are not aware of the identity of a User from which the Non-personal Information was collected. Non-personal Information which is being collected may include your aggregated usage information and technical information transmitted by your device, including certain software and hardware information (e.g. the type of browser and operating system your device uses, language preference, access time, etc.) in order to enhance the functionality of our Site. We may also collect information on your activity on the Site (e.g. pages viewed, online browsing, clicks, actions, etc.).

The second type of information Personal Information which is individually identifiable information, namely information that identifies an individual or may with reasonable effort identify an individual. Such information includes:
 
Device Information: We collect Personal Information from your device. Such information includes geolocation data, IP address, unique identifiers (e.g. MAC address and UUID) and other information which relates to your activity through the Site, ONLY if the user has allowed this data to be shared through their browser/devise settings.

How do we receive information about you?
We may also receive your Personal Information from various sources:

  • When you voluntarily provide us your personal details in order to register or submit a contact form on our Site
  • When you use or access our Site in connection with your use of our services
  • From third party providers, services and public registers (for example, traffic analytics vendors)


What information we distribute and or share?
We do not rent, sell, or share Users’ information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy.

No mobile device information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We may use the information for the following:

  • Communicating with you – sending you notices regarding our services, providing you with technical information and responding to any customer service issue you may have
  • To communicate with you and to keep you informed of our latest updates and services
  • Conducting statistical and analytical purposes, intended to improve the Site

In addition to the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, we may share Personal Information with our trusted third party providers, who may be located in different jurisdictions across the world, for any of the following purposes: 

  • Hosting and operating our Site
  • Providing you with our services, including providing a personalized display of our Site, i.e. ADA Compliance ad-ons
  • Performing research, technical diagnostics or analytics

 
We may also disclose information if we have good faith to believe that disclosure of such information is helpful or reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; (ii) enforce our policies (including our Agreement), including investigations of potential violations thereof; (iii) investigate, detect, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or other wrongdoing, suspected fraud or security issues; (iv) to establish or exercise our rights to defend against legal claims; (v) prevent harm to the rights, property or safety of us, our users, yourself or any third party; or (vi) for the purpose of collaborating with law enforcement agencies and/or in case we find it necessary in order to enforce intellectual property or other legal rights.

User Rights
You may request to receive a copy of personal information you directly volunteer to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. If you wish to receive this information, please contact us.

Cookies
We and our trusted partners use cookies and other technologies in our related services, including when you visit our Site or access our services. A "cookie" is a small piece of information that a website assign to your device while you are viewing a website. Cookies are very helpful and can be used for various different purposes. These purposes include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, enable automatic activation of certain features, remembering your preferences and making the interaction between you and our Services quicker and easier. Cookies are also used to help ensure that the advertisements you see are relevant to you and your interests and to compile statistical data on your use of our Services. 

The Site uses the following types of cookies:
a. 'session cookies' which are stored only temporarily during a browsing session in order to allow normal use of the system and are deleted from your device when the browser is closed; 

b. 'persistent cookies ' which are read only by the Site, saved on your computer for a fixed period and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Such cookies are used where we need to know who you are for repeat visits, for example to allow us to store your preferences for the next sign-in; 

c. 'third party cookies' which are set by other online services who run content on the page you are viewing, for example by third party analytics companies who monitor and analyze our web access.

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but Personal Information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. You may remove the cookies by following the instructions of your device preferences; however, if you choose to disable cookies, some features of our Site may not operate properly and your online experience may be limited.

We also use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about your use of the Site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users access the Site, what pages they visit when they do so, etc. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve our Site and services. Google Analytics collects the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit sites, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.


Third party collection of information
Our policy only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent you disclose your information to other parties or sites throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. Accordingly, we encourage you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of each third party that you choose to disclose information to. 

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that we do not own or control, or to individuals whom we do not employ or manage, including any of the third parties which we may disclose information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. Transfer of data outside the EEA 

Please note that some data recipients may be located outside the EEA. In such cases we will transfer your data only to such countries as approved by the European Commission as providing adequate level of data protection, or enter into legal agreements ensuring an adequate level of data protection.

Updates or amendments to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to periodically amend or revise the Privacy Policy; material changes will be effective immediately upon the display of the revised Privacy policy. The last revision will be reflected in the "Last modified" section. Your continued use of the Platform, following the notification of such amendments on our website, constitutes your acknowledgment and consent of such amendments to the Privacy Policy and your agreement to be bound by the terms of such amendments.

If you have any general questions about the Site or the information we collect about you and how we use it, you can contact us.

Last Modified September 24th, 2026