Computer and Internet Use

This Computer Use Policy is de­signed to pro­vide all mem­bers of the pub­lic with fair, eq­ui­table ac­cess to com­puter ser­vices.

1. Library Cards
a. Millington Arbela District Library pa­trons must use their own li­brary card. Only cur­rent (un­ex­pired) li­brary cards may be used. To in­sure all pa­trons an equal op­por­tu­nity to use the pub­lic ac­cess com­put­ers, pa­trons must present their li­brary card and sign the lo­gin sheet.
b. Patrons us­ing an­other person’s li­brary card (with or with­out per­mis­sion) will be sus­pended. In or­der to pro­tect the owner’s rights, cards that are used by per­sons other than the owner will be in­val­i­dated un­til the owner is able to show iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.
2. Time Limits – The ini­tial time limit may be 30 min­utes. If no one is wait­ing, com­puter time may be ex­tended. The Millington Arbela District Library does not guar­an­tee a spe­cific amount of time for com­puter use.
3. Specific Use Computers – Some Millington Arbela District Library com­put­ers are des­ig­nated for spe­cific pur­poses such as children’s soft­ware and older Microsoft Office ap­pli­ca­tions. These com­put­ers are NOT con­nected to the Internet.
4. Filtering
a. The Millington Arbela District Library net­work is fil­tered.
b. Parents or le­gal guardians need to be ac­tively in­ter­ested in and are re­spon­si­ble for su­per­vi­sion of their children’s on­line use of the Internet and other elec­tronic sources. Parents or le­gal guardians are en­cour­aged to dis­cuss the use of the Internet in re­la­tion to fam­ily val­ues and bound­aries with their chil­dren and to mon­i­tor their children’s use of the Internet. A par­ent, le­gal guardian or ap­proved adult care taker must ac­com­pany chil­dren eleven years of age and un­der at all times while us­ing the pub­lic ac­cess com­put­ers.
5. Library Use – Millington Arbela District Library staff may re­serve com­put­ers for classes.
6. Closing – Computers and print­ers will be shut down 15 min­utes be­fore the li­brary closes.
7. Headphones – Headphones are avail­able at each pub­lic ac­cess com­puter.
8. Printing
a. Black & white pages are 10 cents per page. Color pages are 25 cents per page.
b. Patrons may use their own spe­cialty pa­per, such as re­sume pa­per. The print­ing costs re­main the same.
9. Saving Files and Documents – Patrons who wish a per­ma­nent record of their work need to save files and doc­u­ments on their own floppy disk, mem­ory card, or USB drive. Millington Arbela District Library com­put­ers do not al­low users to save doc­u­ments or per­sonal files to the hard drive.
10. Disclaimer – Patrons use li­brary com­puter hard­ware and soft­ware at their own risk.
a. The Millington Arbela District Library is not re­spon­si­ble for equip­ment mal­func­tion, loss of data, any dam­ages to the user’s disks, data, or elec­tronic trans­ac­tions of any type.
b. The Millington Arbela District Library is not re­spon­si­ble for the loss of any floppy disk, CD, or USB drive.
c. The Millington Arbela District Library com­put­ers are fil­tered us­ing the best avail­able tech­nol­ogy. However, users are cau­tioned that ideas, points of view, and im­ages can be found on the Internet that are con­tro­ver­sial, di­ver­gent, and in­flam­ma­tory.
d. The pro­vi­sion of ac­cess does not mean or im­ply that the Millington Arbela District Library en­dorses or sanc­tions the con­tent or point of view of any of the in­for­ma­tion or com­men­tary which may be found on the Internet.
11. Staff Assistance – Computing re­sources are self-​serve. While staff mem­bers are avail­able to as­sist users with the equip­ment, staff mem­bers do not pro­vide as­sis­tance in the use of soft­ware. Staff mem­bers are NOT al­lowed to view patron’s per­sonal in­for­ma­tion such as credit card num­bers, so­cial se­cu­rity num­bers or bank­ing in­for­ma­tion.
12. Illegal and Unacceptable Uses – Patrons may use li­brary com­put­ers or the wire­less ac­cess only for le­gal uses. Examples of un­ac­cept­able uses in­clude but are not lim­ited to the fol­low­ing:
a. Attempting to crash, de­grade per­for­mance, or gain unau­tho­rized ac­cess to com­puter sys­tems and net­works.
b. Damaging equip­ment, soft­ware, or data be­long­ing to the Millington Arbela District Library or other users.
c. Using the Internet for ma­li­cious pur­poses such as in­ten­tion­ally prop­a­gat­ing a virus.
d. Sending un­so­licited ad­ver­tis­ing.
e. Attempting to gain or gain­ing ac­cess to an­other person’s files or au­tho­riza­tion codes.
f. Using an­other person’s iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, bar code or pin num­ber, with or with­out per­mis­sion.
g. Using, dis­clos­ing, or dis­sem­i­nat­ing per­sonal iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing mi­nors with­out parental per­mis­sion.
h. Displaying ob­scene ma­te­r­ial, child pornog­ra­phy, or sex­ual con­tent that might be harm­ful to mi­nors.
i. Harassing other users with mes­sages, prints, or im­ages.
j. Libeling, slan­der­ing, or ma­li­ciously of­fend­ing other users.
k. Violating copy­right laws or soft­ware li­cens­ing agree­ments.
l. Violating fed­eral, state, or lo­cal laws, reg­u­la­tions, or or­di­nances.
13. Definitions
a. Obscenity, as de­fined in sec­tion 1460 of ti­tle 18, United States Code and MCL 752.362.
b. Child Pornography, as de­fined in sec­tion 2256 of ti­tle 18, United States Code.
c. Child sex­u­ally abu­sive ma­te­r­ial, as de­fined in MCL 750.145c.
d. Harmful to Minors – The term ​“harm­ful to mi­nors” as de­fined un­der MCL 722.674, means any pic­ture, im­age, graphic im­age file, or other vi­sual de­pic­tion that:
i. taken as a whole and with re­spect to mi­nors, ap­peals to a pruri­ent in­ter­est in nu­dity, sex, or ex­cre­tion;
ii. de­picts, de­scribes, or rep­re­sents, in a patently of­fen­sive way with re­spect to what is suit­able for mi­nors, an ac­tual or sim­u­lated sex­ual act or sex­ual con­tact, ac­tual or sim­u­lated nor­mal or per­verted sex­ual acts, or a lewd ex­hi­bi­tion of the gen­i­tals; and
iii. taken as a whole, lacks se­ri­ous lit­er­ary, artis­tic, po­lit­i­cal, or sci­en­tific value as to mi­nors.
e. Sexual Act; Sexual Contact – The terms ​“sex­ual act” and ​“sex­ual con­tact” have the mean­ings given such terms in sec­tion 2246 of ti­tle 18, United States Code.
14. Compliance – Failure to com­ply with this pol­icy or with li­brary staff di­rec­tions may re­sult in re­stric­tion or ter­mi­na­tion of the user’s li­brary priv­i­leges and may re­sult in pros­e­cu­tion un­der lo­cal, state, or fed­eral laws. Any per­son de­nied ac­cess to the Library or its ser­vices may ap­peal the de­nial to the Library Director. If the ap­peal is not re­solved by the Director, it may be sub­mit­ted in writ­ing to the Library Board. The Library Board will pro­vide the per­son with an op­por­tu­nity to be heard be­fore de­cid­ing the ap­peal.

INTERNET ACCESS POLICY

The Library’s Internet Access Policy is in com­pli­ance with fed­eral and state laws.
1. Philosophy –The Millington Arbela District Library pro­vides the Internet to the pub­lic as an in­for­ma­tional, ed­u­ca­tional, and recre­ational re­source.
2. Internet Content – The Internet, as an in­for­ma­tion re­source, en­ables li­braries to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion be­yond the con­fines of their own col­lec­tions. It al­lows ac­cess to ideas, in­for­ma­tion, and com­men­tary.
a. The Internet is an un­reg­u­lated medium. As such, while it of­fers ac­cess to a wealth of ma­te­r­ial that is per­son­ally, pro­fes­sion­ally and cul­tur­ally en­rich­ing to in­di­vid­u­als of all ages, it also en­ables ac­cess to some ma­te­r­ial that may be out of date, in­ac­cu­rate and of­fen­sive.
b. The Millington Arbela District Library is not re­spon­si­ble for the con­tent of in­for­ma­tion ac­cessed or se­lected.
c. The Millington Arbela District Library strives to main­tain a com­put­ing en­vi­ron­ment that pro­motes ac­cess to a wide va­ri­ety of elec­tronic in­for­ma­tion in an ar­ray of for­mats; how­ever, Millington Arbela District Library makes no guar­an­tee that all Internet con­tent and ser­vices will func­tion on its equip­ment.
d. If an adult wants un­fil­tered ac­cess to the Internet, the adult must make a re­quest to staff to have the fil­ter­ing soft­ware turned off. At least one com­puter may be­come un­fil­tered.
3. Privacy – It is the pol­icy of the Millington Arbela District Library to pre­serve the con­fi­den­tial­ity of li­brary us­age records of its pa­trons in ac­cor­dance with the Library Privacy Act as last amended.
a. Unless or­dered by a court af­ter giv­ing Millington Arbela District Library no­tice of the re­quest and an op­por­tu­nity to be heard on the re­quest, the li­brary or an em­ployee or agent of the li­brary shall not re­lease or dis­close a li­brary record or por­tion of a li­brary record to a per­son with­out the writ­ten con­sent of the per­son iden­ti­fied in that li­brary record or that person’s par­ent or le­gal guardian.
b. The Millington Arbela District Library makes no rep­re­sen­ta­tions re­gard­ing the pri­vacy of in­for­ma­tion sent over the Millington Arbela District Library net­work (in­clud­ing Wireless Access) ac­cess­ing the Internet in­clud­ing e – mail, chat, or in­stant mes­sen­ger. Those trans­mis­sions are not guar­an­teed to be se­cure against in­ter­cep­tion and may be mon­i­tored by a third party.
4. Technology Protection Measure – It is Millington Arbela District Library’s pol­icy to com­ply with the re­quire­ments of the Michigan Library Privacy Act, 1984 PA 455, MCL 397.601 et seq., and the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) (47 USC § 254 and 20 USC § 9134) and the June 23, 2003 United States Supreme Court de­ci­sion re­lat­ing thereto, as well as pro­vi­sions in the Michigan Library Privacy Act re­gard­ing re­stric­tion of Internet ac­cess to mi­nors (MCL 397.606). Millington Arbela District Library uses a tech­nol­ogy pro­tec­tion mea­sure (or ​“Internet fil­ter”) to re­strict ac­cess to Internet sites that con­tain adult con­tent (nu­dity, pornog­ra­phy, as well as proxy avoid­ing web pages). All pub­lic com­put­ers are fil­tered.
5. Filtering Guidelines – Millington Arbela District Library uses the re­quire­ments of CIPA and Michigan law to de­ter­mine what the fil­ter should block. Millington Arbela District Library uses the least re­stric­tive block­ing cat­e­gories pro­vided by the fil­ter ven­dor that by their de­f­i­n­i­tions ap­pear to in­clude pro­hib­ited con­tent. Content to be blocked in­cludes ob­scen­ity as de­fined in 18 USC § 1460, child pornog­ra­phy as de­fined in 18 USC § 2256, and sex­ual con­tent harm­ful to mi­nors as de­fined in 47 USC § 254 and 20 USC § 9134.
6. Parental Guidance – Parents need to be ac­tively in­ter­ested in and are re­spon­si­ble for su­per­vi­sion of their children’s use of the Internet and other elec­tronic re­sources. Parents and guardians are en­cour­aged to dis­cuss the use of the Internet and fam­ily val­ues with their chil­dren.
a. Parents and guardians need to be aware that the fil­ter is not to­tally ef­fec­tive and the Millington Arbela District Library can­not as­sure that a child will not pur­pose­fully or in­ad­ver­tently ac­cess in­ap­pro­pri­ate ma­te­ri­als.
b. The Millington Arbela District Library does not fil­ter the con­tent of e-​mail, chat rooms, or other forms of di­rect elec­tronic com­mu­ni­ca­tion and can­not there­fore as­sure the safety and se­cu­rity of mi­nors us­ing these func­tions.
c. The Millington Arbela District Library can­not pro­tect against their children’s unau­tho­rized ac­cess to com­puter re­sources, in­clud­ing ​“hack­ing,” and other un­law­ful on­line ac­tiv­i­ties.
d. The Millington Arbela District Library can­not pro­tect against unau­tho­rized dis­clo­sure, use, and dis­sem­i­na­tion of per­sonal iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing their chil­dren if their chil­dren pro­vide it while us­ing the Internet.
7. Wireless Access – Authorized and ap­proved wire­less ac­cess to the Internet is sup­ported by Millington Arbela District Library within the li­braries dur­ing li­brary hours.
a. The Millington Arbela District Library net­work is an open net­work and is not se­cure.
b. Most Wi-​Fi equip­ment will be com­pat­i­ble. However, the Millington Arbela District Library can make no guar­an­tee to com­pat­i­bil­ity of equip­ment with Millington Arbela District Library’s net­work.
c. Printers are not avail­able via this ​“Hot Spot” wire­less con­nec­tion.
d. The Millington Arbela District Library can­not guar­an­tee wire­less con­nec­tiv­ity.
e. Millington Arbela District Library staff can­not as­sist with a patron’s com­puter, wire­less net­work card, or con­fig­u­ra­tion.
f. Millington Arbela District Library as­sumes no re­spon­si­bil­ity for any loss or dam­ages done di­rectly or in­di­rectly to per­sonal data, equip­ment, un­at­tended equip­ment or for any dam­age or in­jury aris­ing from loss of pri­vacy aris­ing from use of its World Wide Web server, wire­less con­nec­tion, or con­nec­tion to other Internet ser­vices.
g. Millington Arbela District Library staff is not re­spon­si­ble for any changes made to a patron’s com­puter set­tings.
h. Wireless users must com­ply with the Millington Arbela District Library Computer and Internet Use Policies. Users are ex­pected to use the Millington Arbela District Library’s wire­less ac­cess in a le­gal and re­spon­si­ble man­ner.
8. Complaints and Penalties – If a user feels that a web site is be­ing blocked or al­lowed in­ap­pro­pri­ately by the fil­ter, the user may re­quest that it be re­viewed by li­brary staff.
9. Definitions
a. Obscenity, as de­fined in sec­tion 1460 of ti­tle 18, United States Code and MCL 752.362.
b. Child Pornography, as de­fined in sec­tion 2256 of ti­tle 18, United States Code.
c. Child sex­u­ally abu­sive ma­te­r­ial, as de­fined in MCL 750.145c.
d. Harmful to Minors – The term ​“harm­ful to mi­nors” as de­fined un­der MCL 722.674, means any pic­ture, im­age, graphic im­age file, or other vi­sual de­pic­tion that:
i. taken as a whole and with re­spect to mi­nors, ap­peals to a pruri­ent in­ter­est in nu­dity, sex, or ex­cre­tion;
ii. de­picts, de­scribes, or rep­re­sents, in a patently of­fen­sive way with re­spect to what is suit­able for mi­nors, an ac­tual or sim­u­lated sex­ual act or sex­ual con­tact, ac­tual or sim­u­lated nor­mal or per­verted sex­ual acts, or a lewd ex­hi­bi­tion of the gen­i­tals; and
iii. taken as a whole, lacks se­ri­ous lit­er­ary, artis­tic, po­lit­i­cal, or sci­en­tific value as to mi­nors.
e. Sexual Act; Sexual Contact – The terms ​“sex­ual act” and ​“sex­ual con­tact” have the mean­ings given such terms in sec­tion 2246 of ti­tle 18, United States Code.
10. Compliance – Failure to com­ply with this pol­icy or with li­brary staff di­rec­tions may re­sult in re­stric­tion or ter­mi­na­tion of the user’s li­brary priv­i­leges and may re­sult in pros­e­cu­tion un­der lo­cal, state, or fed­eral laws. Any per­son de­nied ac­cess to the Library or its ser­vices may ap­peal the de­nial to the Library Director. If the ap­peal is not re­solved by the Director, it may be sub­mit­ted in writ­ing to the Library Board. The Library Board will pro­vide the per­son with an op­por­tu­nity to be heard be­fore de­cid­ing the ap­peal.

This pol­icy was adopted by the Millington Arbela District Library
Board of Trustees at a reg­u­lar meet­ing on August 6, 2012