Computer & Internet Policies

Computer Use Policy

Library Cards

1. 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.
2. Patrons using anoth­er per­son­’s library card (with or with­out per­mis­sion) will be 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.

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.

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.

Filtering

1. The Millington Arbela District Library net­work is
2. 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 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.

Library Use – Millington Arbela District Library staff may reserve com­put­ers for class­es. Closing – Computers and print­ers will be shut down 15 min­utes before the library clos­es. Headphones – Headphones are avail­able at each pub­lic access computer.

Printing

1. Black & white pages are 15 cents per Color pages are 50 cents per page.
2. Patrons may use their own spe­cial­ty paper, such as resume paper. The print­ing costs remain the same.

Saving Files and Documents – Patrons who wish a per­ma­nent record of their work need to save files and doc­u­ments on their own exter­nal, portable hard dri­ve, mem­o­ry card, or USB dri­ve. Millington Arbela District Library com­put­ers do not allow users to save doc­u­ments or per­son­al files to the hard drive.

Disclaimer – Patrons use library com­put­er hard­ware and soft­ware at their own risk.

1. 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
2. The Millington Arbela District Library is not respon­si­ble for the loss of any hard dri­ves, CD, or USB drive.
3. The Millington Arbela District Library com­put­ers are fil­tered using the best avail­able However, users are cau­tioned that ideas, points of view, and images can be found on the Internet that are con­tro­ver­sial, diver­gent, and inflammatory.
4. 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

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.

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:

1. Attempting to crash, degrade per­for­mance, or gain unau­tho­rized access to com­put­er sys­tems and networks.
2. Damaging equip­ment, soft­ware, or data belong­ing to the Millington Arbela District Library or other
3. Using the Internet for mali­cious pur­pos­es such as inten­tion­al­ly prop­a­gat­ing a
4. Sending unso­licit­ed
5. Attempting to gain or gain­ing access to anoth­er per­son­’s files or authorization
6. Using anoth­er per­son­’s iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, bar code or pin num­ber, with or without
7. Using, dis­clos­ing, or dis­sem­i­nat­ing per­son­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion infor­ma­tion regard­ing minors with­out parental permission.
8. Displaying obscene mate­r­i­al, child pornog­ra­phy, or sex­u­al con­tent that might be harm­ful to minors.
9. Harassing oth­er users with mes­sages, prints, or images.
10. Libeling, slan­der­ing, or mali­cious­ly offend­ing other
11. Violating copy­right laws or soft­ware licensing
12. Violating fed­er­al, state, or local laws, reg­u­la­tions, or ordinances

Definitions

752. Obscenity, as defined in sec­tion 1460 of title 18, United States Code and MCL 362.
753. Child Pornography, as defined in sec­tion 2256 of title 18, United States
754. Child sex­u­al­ly abu­sive mate­r­i­al, as defined in MCL 145c.
755. Harmful to Minors – The term ​“harm­ful to minors” as defined under MCL 674, means any pic­ture, image, graph­ic image file, or oth­er visu­al depic­tion that: 
     1. tak­en as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to a pruri­ent inter­est in nudi­ty, sex, or excretion;
     2. 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
     3. tak­en as a whole, lacks seri­ous lit­er­ary, artis­tic, polit­i­cal, or sci­en­tif­ic val­ue as to minors.
756. 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

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.

Philosophy –The Millington Arbela District Library pro­vides the Internet to the pub­lic as an infor­ma­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and recre­ation­al resource.

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.\

1. 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.
2. The Millington Arbela District Library is not respon­si­ble for the con­tent of infor­ma­tion accessed or
3. 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.
4. 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

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.

1. 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
2. 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.

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.

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.

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.

1. 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
2. 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
3. The Millington Arbela District Library can­not pro­tect against their chil­dren’s unau­tho­rized access to com­put­er resources, includ­ing ​“hack­ing,” and oth­er unlaw­ful online
4. 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

Wireless Access – Authorized and approved wire­less access to the Internet is sup­port­ed by Millington Arbela District Library with­in the libraries dur­ing library hours.

1. The Millington Arbela District Library net­work is an open net­work and is not
2. Most Wi-Fi equip­ment will be However, the Millington Arbela District Library can make no guar­an­tee to com­pat­i­bil­i­ty of equip­ment with Millington Arbela District Library’s network.
3. Printers are not avail­able via this ​“Hot Spot” wireless
4. The Millington Arbela District Library can­not guar­an­tee wireless
5. Millington Arbela District Library staff can­not assist with a patron’s com­put­er, wire­less net­work card, or
6. 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
7. Millington Arbela District Library staff is not respon­si­ble for any changes made to a patron’s com­put­er settings.
8. 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.

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.

Definitions

752. Obscenity, as defined in sec­tion 1460 of title 18, United States Code and MCL 362.
753. Child Pornography, as defined in sec­tion 2256 of title 18, United States
754. Child sex­u­al­ly abu­sive mate­r­i­al, as defined in MCL 145c.
755. Harmful to Minors – The term ​“harm­ful to minors” as defined under MCL 674, means any pic­ture, image, graph­ic image file, or oth­er visu­al depic­tion that: 
     1. tak­en as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to a pruri­ent inter­est in nudi­ty, sex, or excretion;
     2. 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
     3. tak­en as a whole, lacks seri­ous lit­er­ary, artis­tic, polit­i­cal, or sci­en­tif­ic val­ue as to minors.

1. 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

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.

Computer/Internet Policy

General Guidelines

1. The public-use com­put­ers are avail­able dur­ing nor­mal library oper­at­ing hours. Patrons need to sign the com­put­er log and present library cards pri­or to use. The public-use com­put­ers will be shut down fif­teen min­utes pri­or to the library’s clos­ing time for that day.

2. Patrons must read the pro­ce­dures and poli­cies regard­ing com­put­er usage as estab­lished by the Millington Arbela District Library Board and must have signed a com­put­er use agree­ment pri­or to using any com­put­ers oth­er than those machines that list the con­tents of the Millington Arbela District Library. Patrons under the age of eigh­teen must also have the agree­ment signed by a par­ent or guardian. 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. Parents/legal guardians are ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble for any dam­ages inflict­ed upon any equip­ment and or soft­ware used by chil­dren or ado­les­cents under their legal super­vi­sion, includ­ing the costs incurred to repair or replace any hard­ware or software.

3. Some equip­ment is intend­ed for the use of patrons need­ing word pro­cess­ing. Patrons must famil­iar­ize them­selves with the cur­rent­ly installed word pro­cess­ing pro­gram. While library staff mem­bers are avail­able to offer assis­tance in oper­at­ing the com­put­ers, staff mem­bers and oth­er employ­ees can­not devote time to the tutor­ing of patrons in com­put­er usage. The library will make every rea­son­able attempt to pro­vide com­put­er­ized tuto­r­i­al pro­grams avail­able to assist each

4. Tutorial class­es may be offered and will require pre-registration. Patrons may reg­is­ter by tele­phone or in per­son at the Tutorials will acquaint patrons with oper­at­ing pro­ce­dures and sim­ple com­mands; they will not be a course in or an intro­duc­tion to programming.

5. In order to insure every­one an equal oppor­tu­ni­ty to use the library com­put­ers, patrons must 1) sign the login sheet; 2) first come first serve; 3) use in hour blocks of time. Patrons who have not had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to use the library’s com­put­ers shall have the right to use the com­put­ers before any­one who has already had an hour access to the machines. This includes any­one who has signed up before

6. Additional access time will be deter­mined by the library staff on the basis of over-all user demand, includ­ing the need for staff access for library sup­port pur­pos­es. No more than two peo­ple shall be at a com­put­er at a time.

7. Patrons requir­ing spe­cial needs should con­sult with the librar­i­an or clerk on

8. Patrons may use their own disks, USBs, or portable, exter­nal hard dri­ves to down­load or save information.

9. Patrons may not install any per­son­al pro­grams or data on the library’s hard dri­ve; files must be saved on patrons’ indi­vid­ual disks, USBs, or portable, exter­nal hard dri­ves. The library reserves the right to peri­od­i­cal­ly delete files from its computers

10. Patrons may not send, receive, or dis­play text or graph­ics which may be rea­son­ably con­strued as

11. All library pro­grams are copy­right­ed and may not be

12. The library is not respon­si­ble for lost and or cor­rupt data.

13. The charge for print­ing mate­r­i­al will be 15 cents per page for black and white and 50 cents per page for Patrons must check with the librar­i­an or clerk on duty to make arrange­ments to use the printers.

14. The library can­not insure that patrons’ indi­vid­ual disks, USBs, or portable, exter­nal hard dri­ves will not be infect­ed with com­put­er virus­es, Trojan hors­es, or mal­ware which may be embed­ded in files that are down­loaded from the Internet, stored on the library’s com­put­ers’ hard dri­ves, or embed­ded in oth­er library-owned hard­ware or software.

15. The library can­not guar­an­tee the secu­ri­ty of infor­ma­tion stored on indi­vid­ual patrons’ disks, USBs, or portable, exter­nal hard drives.

16. The library staff is not allowed to view patron’s per­son­al infor­ma­tion such as; cred­it cards, social secu­ri­ty num­bers, account num­bers, etc.

17. The library staff may not dis­crim­i­nate on any basis in their mon­i­tor­ing of com­put­er usage. This includes but is not lim­it­ed to age, race or sex.

18. Using library com­put­er equip­ment for pur­pos­es oth­er than those per­mit­ted under the Millington Arbela District Library Computer/Internet Policy or per­form­ing any act that dam­ages, dis­ables or redi­rects com­put­er hard­ware or soft­ware will result in the fol­low­ing discipline: 
    1. If a patron per­forms any act that dam­ages, dis­ables or redi­rects com­put­er hard­ware or soft­ware, the patron will no longer be allowed to use any library
    2. If a patron dis­plays child pornog­ra­phy on any library com­put­er, the patron will no longer be allowed to use any library com­put­er and author­i­ties will be notified.
    3. For all oth­er vio­la­tions of the Computer/Internet Policy: 
       1. First Offense will result in a
       2. Second Offense will result in sus­pen­sion from use of all library com­put­ers forever.

A library patron has the right to appeal their sus­pen­sion to the Millington Arbela District Library Board.

ADOPTED ON SEPTEMBER 8, 1997

UPDATED NOVEMBER 7, 2005

AMENDED MAY 1, 2006

AMENDED JUNE 25, 2007

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

AMENDED JULY 12, 2021