Posted 10:52 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024
Change in January 2025: how our library system retains your borrowing records
The Loan History App is being rolled out to all campus libraries.
You'll soon see banners in the library catalog and on the website directing users to the Your Borrowing History LibGuide, which explains in more detail. Basically, anyone who wants their loan history saved will need to OPT-IN to the Loan History App before January 2025. Starting in January, if your account has history older than six months, that older information will be anonymized, removing any connection it has to your account.
What does this mean?
Whenever an item is checked out from and returned to the library, our systems record the history of that transaction, including a reference to the person who checked out the item and which copy of the material was borrowed.
To protect your privacy, starting in January 2025 Murphy Library will be anonymizing all loan history data that is older than six months. This process will de-identify the individual associated with the loan transaction. After anonymization, Murphy Library will retain a record of the loan for internal collection analysis purposes, but will no longer be able to know which patron borrowed the item at that time.
If you do NOT want to maintain your full loan history, there is nothing you need to do. Starting in January, if your account has history older than six months, that older information will be anonymized, removing any connection it has to your account.
If you want to maintain your full loan history, then you need to follow the instructions below prior to January 2025:
- Log in to https://loanhistory.library.wisconsin.edu/ and opt in so that your history is preserved for your use.
- If you decide later that you do want your loan history anonymized, you can go back to that URL and opt out.
- If you have opted in to maintain your full loan history, you can view your loan history from within My Library Account.
- Once you opt in, you can export your loan history by using the Download link in the loan history service. This will download a text .csv file you can store offline or use in your personal applications.
FAQs:
What happens after January when new students and staff start Spring semester? Will they still be able to opt-in to save their loan history?
- Yes, students and staff can opt in, and opt out, at any time. If they opt in after we anonymize in January though, they'll have lost the chance to preserve any history older than 6 months. So for someone like me, who has been from before we got Alma in 2015, if I waited to opt in until after Madison anonymized in January, I'd lose out on about 10 years of Alma history. So encouraging everyone to opt in before January is a good idea. The sooner the better.
Is opting-in a perpetual choice or a one-time choice before January?
- Users can opt out at any time - it is not a one-time choice.. If they opt out now, before January, and opt in again, before January, they'll get to preserve everything we have for them in Alma. If they opt in now, opt out, and later opt in again after January, they'll be stuck with a maximum of 6 months of history when they opt in the second time. But their history will grow from the time the opt in that second time.
People that chose not to opt-in-- can they change their minds after January, meaning can they opt-in?
- Anyone who has a status of opt out, whether by default or because they opt in and later opt out, can change their mind and opt in at a later date. But as discussed, if they opt in again after we've enable anonymization, they'll have lost the chance to preserve their existing Alma history beyond 6 months. For those of us who have been with our university for a long time, that's potentially a lot of history lost.
Contact the Murphy Library Reference Desk with further questions!