Computer Use Policy

1. Use of the Briggs Lawrence County Library’s public access computers and the access to the Internet provided by the Library are privileges, and users of these privileges must abide by the Library’s policies and rules for their use.

2. All persons using the Library’s computers and Internet access agree that they will not engage in any activity on the computer that constitutes a violation of Library policy, or a violation of local, state and/or federal law.

3. You must sign up at the front desk before you can use the Library computers and you must have a Library card, or a valid I.D. confirming your patron information or age, to use a computer. You must be 13 years old or older to use the public access computers by yourself. Children 12 or younger must be accompanied by a parent/guardian at all times while they are on the internet access computers. Computers in Children’s areas are limited to children 12 years of age or younger. Persons who are visiting or traveling through this area, (and thus would not have or need a Library card), may use the computers with a valid driver’s license, student I.D. card or other form of picture I.D.

4. Computer use is limited to sixty (60) minutes at a time. You may request additional time at the circulation desk to stay on a computer if there are no others waiting to use the computers, or if you are in process of an online task that may take longer to complete, at the discretion of the staff person. Patrons whose time on the computer is up must vacate to provide access to other patrons waiting to use the computers.

5. The Library staff has the right to deny your use of the computers if you have Library items that have not been returned or you have not made arrangements to pay for such or if you have unpaid fines or fees. The Library staff also has the right to end your computer privileges if you are on an inappropriate website; if you are acting in an inappropriate manner by being loud or disrupting other patrons; if you are not old enough to be on the computer without a parent/guardian; if you are being destructive to or damaging the equipment; or, if it is someone else’s turn to use the computer. Failure to comply with a staff member’s request to vacate a computer, or failure to discontinue the prohibited behavior, may result in the loss of computer privileges temporarily or permanently

6. The Library prohibits the use of its public computers for the following reasons; to display pornography, obscenity, or sexually explicit pictures or images, including virtual or digital images; to harass other users or to violate their privacy; to libel, slander or maliciously offend other users; to violate copyright laws or software licensing agreements; to crash, degrade performance or gain unauthorized access to the Library’s or any other computer systems or networks; to damage software or data belonging to the Library

7. Patrons are not allowed to download data onto the Library’s server or computers from a personal storage device they brought into the Library or from the internet or to change the settings on the Library’s computers. The Library staff is not responsible to enable or repair personal storage devices brought into the Library by patrons to work on Library computers. Patrons may not store personal information on the Library’s computers. Personal storage devices can be brought to the Library by patrons for their use.

8. Copies are $0.25 per page for material printed on the computers. Copies are to be picked up at the front desk or the print center. You are responsible for every page you print.

9. There are websites that patrons may be unable to access due to the restrictions of the Library’s filtering system. This may be due to that website containing information unsuitable for viewing on the Library’s public access computers, or it may be the website you are trying to access requires configurations or software that the Library’s public access computers do not have. The Library is not responsible to ensure that every website can be accessed from the public access computers.

10. If you are trying to access a website that should be available but is not due to the application of the Library’s filters, you may request the filter be turned off. To do so, you must ask at the circulation desk for the filter to be disabled. However, the Library does not permit the filters to be disabled in order to allow patrons to view sites that contain pornography, obscenity or sexually explicit materials in any format.

Revised 7/20/2010