Social Media Policy

In keeping with the Pillsbury Free Library’s mission to “serve the public by providing the freedom and opportunity to access information, knowledge, and ideas from a wide variety of sources” the Library participates in various “social media” applications whereby library staff and community members can interact through virtual (Internet) communication. These resources, summarized below, allow access to the resources of the Pillsbury Free Library without mandating a visit to the physical library. The Pillsbury Free Library regards social media applications in the same way as its other information resources in accordance with its mission of serving Warner’s needs for informational, educational, cultural and recreational pursuits.

Definition of Social Media

Social media is defined as any website or application which allows users to share information. Social media can include, but is not limited to, blogging, instant messaging, social networking sites, wikis, and posts to the library website. Examples of such sites are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and various blogging sites like Blogger and WordPress.

Privacy

The Library does not collect, maintain, or otherwise use the personal information stored on any third party site in any way other than to communicate library-related information with users on that site. Users may remove themselves at any time from the Library’s “friends” or “fan” lists, or request that the Library remove them. Users should be aware that third party websites have their own privacy policies and should proceed accordingly.

Users are encouraged to protect their privacy by not posting personally identifying information, such as last name, school, age, phone number, or address.

Parental Controls

As with more traditional resources, the Library does not act in place of or in the absence of a parent and is not responsible for enforcing any restrictions which a parent or guardian may place on a minor’s use of social media applications.

Commenting

Comments, posts, and messages are welcome on the Pillsbury Free Library social media sites. While the Library recognizes and respects differences in opinion, all such interactions will be regularly monitored and reviewed for content and relevancy (before publishing when possible). All postings which contain any of the following will be removed:

• Obscene or racist content
• Content that would be considered hate speech
• Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language
• Potentially libelous statements
• Plagiarized or copy-written material
• Private, personal information published without consent of individual
• Comments totally unrelated to the content of the library, its mission, or its activities
• Hyperlinks to material that is not directly related to the discussion topic
• Commercial promotions or spam
• Organized political activity
• Photos, images, or other media that fall in any of the above categories

Liability and Participation

The Pillsbury Free Library assumes no liability regarding any event or interaction that takes place by any participant in any Library-sponsored social media, and does not endorse content outside of the pages maintained by the Library and the posts created by Pillsbury Free Library staff in the course of their work duties. The library reserves the right to use any comments, posts, and messages on library social media sites for use in public relations and marketing materials. The Library will remove any personal information from the comment/post/message such as last name, school, phone, or e-mail.

The Library is not responsible for other people viewing or accessing personal accounts/profiles that are left open on computers in the Library.

Participation in the Pillsbury Free Library’s social media implies agreement with all Library policies, including its Social Media Policy and Computer Use and Internet Safety Policy, and the Terms of Service of each individual third-party service.

By posting a comment or other content you agree to indemnify the Pillsbury Free Library and its officers and employees from and against all liabilities, judgments, damages, and costs (including attorney’s fees) incurred which arise out of, or are related to the content that you post.

The Pillsbury Free Library reserves the right to monitor content before or after it is posted on all its social media sites, and to modify or remove any messages or postings that it deems, in its sole discretion, to be abusive, defamatory, in violation of the copyright, trademark right, or other intellectual property right of any third party, or otherwise inappropriate. The Pillsbury Free Library also reserves the right to edit or modify any submissions in response to requests, feedback or other commentary.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Pillsbury Free Library is not obligated to take any such actions, and will not be responsible or liable for content posted by any subscriber in any forum, message board, or other area within the Library’s social media.

If a user does not agree to these terms, they are not to use services provided.

Ongoing Use Evaluation

The role and utility of social media in relation to the goals and purposes of the Library will be evaluated periodically by the Library staff and Board of Trustees, and may be terminated at any time without notice to subscribers.

Adopted November 15, 2011

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