Thank you for visiting iCONN, a service administered by the Connecticut State Library in conjunction with the State Department of Higher Education. This service provides access to a number of licensed commercial databases in accordance with license agreements that define authorized users who are described at http://www.cslib.org/iconnsitemap/staff/WhoCanAccessDb.aspx. We are committed to ensuring your privacy while you are using this service. Please be assured that:

1. With exceptions noted below (interlibrary loan requests, and e-mail sent to iCONN staff), iCONN does not retain any personally identifiable information.
2. The IP address of the computer that you are using to access iCONN is used solely for the purpose of validating that you are within a library that is authorized to access iCONN, or that you are in Connecticut, and for statistical usage reports.
3. Your library card number is used solely for the purpose of validating that you are a resident of Connecticut or are a student of an accredited Connecticut institution of higher education, or are a patron of a Connecticut library participating in the reQuest interlibrary loan system.
4. Usage statistics are collected only in aggregate at the institution level and cannot be used to identify individuals

How iCONN Uses Your Computer's IP Address During Login

When you go to www.iconn.org from any computer, iCONN will attempt to verify that the computer's IP address is already registered in the system (all public, school and college libraries in Connecticut have registered their computers' static IP addresses with iCONN for this purpose). If iCONN recognizes the IP address, the user is brought directly to the keyword search screen and no further authentication is required. Once the user is logged in, the system does not retain the IP address. It does retain the library affiliation associated with the IP address in order to capture usage statistics at the institution level (as described above for library card number). If iCONN does not recognize the IP address, the user is presented with a screen that asks the user to enter his/her library card number.

How iCONN Uses Your Library Card Number During Login

When you enter your library card number at the initial iCONN login screen, the system performs mathematical tests to ensure that it is a valid library barcode number, and that it corresponds to any of the libraries in Connecticut who have registered with iCONN. Once the library card number is validated, the user is logged into iCONN. The system knows from the library card number which library the user is affiliated with, but does not know who the individual user is. The library affiliation is used to produce usage statistics reports by library and by type of library (public, school and college).

Use of the "Try This!" Button (Geo-location Authentication Service Using IP Address)

If the user does not have a library card and wishes to try a different method of authentication, the user can click on "Try This!" The system will then use a geo-location service to verify whether the computer's IP address is from Connecticut. If the IP address is recognized as being from Connecticut, the user is brought directly to the keyword search screen but is not affiliated with a specific library since that information is not known. If the IP address is not recognized, the user is returned to the login screen. The geo-location service is provided by a third party vendor (Quova - www.quova.com) which maintains a database of all IP addresses in the state of Connecticut. This service also collects and reports aggregate statistics on the total number of successful and unsuccessful logins. IP addresses are not correlated with individual users nor are they used to track search activity.

How iCONN Uses Your IP Address in Statistical Reports

The system collects and stores a variety of statistical data on how the site is used and which databases are being accessed and searched but none of this data is correlated with individual users nor does the system capture information regarding specific searches. Currently, this data is collected automatically using a program called 123 LOG Analyzer (http://www.123loganalyzer.com/). This information is not reported or used in any manner that would reveal personally identifiable information.

The Analyzer program displays by month or cumulatively those IP addresses that rank in the Top 40 in the following categories:

• Most recent visitors
• Visitors who had the most hits on the web site
• Visitors who used the most bandwidth
• Visitors who spent the most time on the web site

The program indicates what IP addresses visited the site but does not record what was done or what content was accessed while at the site. Although it is possible to determine who the owner of an IP address is (e.g., by using the freely available service at http://www.arin.net/), unless the IP address is a static IP address, the owner indicated will be the Internet Service Provider who assigned the IP address, not the individual using the IP address. Most IP addresses are dynamic, which means that they change each time you log into the system.

How iCONN Uses Cookies

Definition: "Cookies" are small bits of text (letters and numbers) that are either used for the duration of a session, or saved on a user's computer in a file named "cookies.txt" in order to identify that user (or information about that user).

When you use the "Remember my card number on this computer" function, iCONN places a cookie on your computer so that you do not have to enter your library card number again. This cookie expires in one year, and it may be superseded by another cookie if another user chooses to log in on the same computer with a different library card number and uses the same "Remember" function.

The vendors who supply the licensed databases that require authentication to access will often place a cookie on the user's computer after the user logs in. The cookie will typically expire automatically after a predetermined time period (typically, in 24 hours but it could be as long as 30 days). The purpose of the cookie is to eliminate the need to go through the login procedure at the beginning of each new session.

Cookies are not used to collect personal information nor are they used to track search activities.

Use of Library Card Number in Making Interlibrary Loan Requests

If the user is affiliated with one of approximately 200 libraries that participate in the reQuest interlibrary loan system, and is using the reQuest statewide library catalog, the user will be able to request an item in reQuest using an online form (by clicking on "Request This Item"). The form requires the user to enter their name, contact information (phone, fax or e-mail address) and, at the user's option, their library card number. This personally identifiable information remains with the home library (the library the user is affiliated with) and is not transmitted to the borrowing library. All personally identifiable information associated with each interlibrary loan request is automatically deleted by the system 14 days after the lending library indicates that the interlibrary loan transaction is completed (i.e., when the borrowed materials have been returned to the lending library). Once deleted, this personally identifiable information can no longer be retrieved (not even from the system's back-up archives).

Other Information

The Connecticut State Library is not, and cannot be, responsible for maintaining the privacy or confidentiality of personal or personally identifiable information provided by a user to a third party, such as a data service licensed by the State Library for its users.

The Connecticut State Library requires that you provide personal information to enable us to respond to your e-mail, Report A Problem reports, How Can We Improve iCONN? reports, etc. Your e-mail may be forwarded within the Library to employees who are better able to assist you, or to the vendor who may be able to help diagnose a problem or issue with the system, or to your home library. Apart from those exceptions, and other than for authorized law enforcement activities, the Library does not share e-mail with outside organizations without obtaining your permission. We are required by law to retain your e-mail for two years, as specified in the State Agencies' Retention/Disposition Schedule S1 located at http://www.cslib.org/publicrecords/stateretsched/S1Admin2010.pdf (see "E-mail and Electronic Messages" after section S1-090).

The system monitors search terms that users enter into the iCONN search engine for the purpose of reporting on the most popular search terms but this tracking is not correlated with individual users.

iCONN staff uses the information gathered above to tailor site content to user needs, and to generate aggregate statistical reports.

iCONN contains links to other independently run Web sites outside the "iconn.org" domain. iCONN is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these Web sites.

Security

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control.

Contacting iCONN

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can contact:

iCONN
Connecticut State Library
786 South Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457
888-256-1222 (in CT)
860-704-2220
http://www.iconn.org/sendcomments.aspx

This Privacy Policy was approved by the Connecticut Digital Library Advisory Board on October 4, 2006.