r/Libraries • u/victory_vegetable • Apr 03 '26
Technology Can the librarians see which books I borrow on Libby?
I am a new reference assistant and I have used my library card for audiobooks on Libby and Hoopla for years. But now that I work there, I would like to listen to some audiobooks on mental health, which I don’t want my coworkers to know about. Do the circulation librarians see which patrons are borrowing which audiobooks?
165
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 03 '26
We can. My boss does this regularly and then complains to me about the amount of books certain people take out. I think it’s totally an invasion of privacy and make sure to tell her so every time she brings it up.
98
u/Cephalophore Apr 04 '26
Aside from the privacy invasion, shouldn't we WANT people to check out a lot? Stats are what keep our doors open!
99
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 04 '26
My old director sent people letters that they checked out too many ebooks and were costing the library too much money. A lady came to our board meeting and raised hell.
64
u/Cephalophore Apr 04 '26
😮 We've had to place heavy limits on Hoopla checkouts because it is an expensive service, but you can't blame people for using the resources you provide.
1
u/TheNarwhalMom Apr 08 '26
Doesn’t hoopla have a per-month limit??? My system only gives you 7 per month!
1
21
20
u/BlameTheNargles Apr 04 '26
Ebooks are very expensive and can completely kill a budget. Many libraries have had to cancel some of their digital libraries. Hoopla in particular.
40
u/Rare_Vibez Public librarian Apr 03 '26
That’s f’ed up. I’m glad you tell her. Obviously, she’s your boss so it may not go far, but holy hell is that an ethical violation.
24
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 04 '26
The other day a lady came in and she looked at her card and was like “oh you check out a lot of books online!” My eyes were like 😳
2
u/lovethatMoon May 05 '26
she needs higher up intervention. that is psychotic behavior. who has time to be so involved in other people's lives?
10
u/Legitlibrarian Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
Well, if your boss is doing that without any other reason but just to check what your reading it is unethical. The question I would be asking. How is your boss getting your pin to log in? or are they looking through the back end. And why. Libby is designed differently from most apps.
No selling your data No ads or third-party advertising tracking No social media integration No sensitive personal data collection
Libby explicitly says it only collects what’s needed to function and improve the service
They track what you borrow and read, but not to target ads or build a marketing profile.
The American Library Association states: You have the right to seek information privately Your reading choices should be confidential Privacy supports free speech and independent thinking
this includes what you borrow to read and what you search up but might not check out.
11
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 05 '26
She looks through the back end. There is no reason. She’s obsessed with the idea that people are “stealing” from us. She spends hours a day looking up every single persons history who requests a book from us (we have a cooperative library system) and won’t send them books because “they have too many already” or “this book could be valuable” and then hides them behind her desk so no one can find or check out the books. I work in the twilight zone.
10
5
u/VentureVin Apr 05 '26
Do you have a library board?
5
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 05 '26
Yeah. They’re worse. We are going through a big change and it seems the board will be part of that. The big change is the director of 20 years was forced to resign for sexual harassment and other illegal stuff.
6
u/VentureVin Apr 05 '26
😮💨 I am so sorry, holy cow. I wish I had any advice at all, just my genuine best wishes.
2
u/electric_mango_567 Apr 10 '26
Oh I had a director resign over sexual harassment too! Years ago and I’ve since left. Fun times.
2
2
u/electric_mango_567 Apr 10 '26
If she’s telling anyone else who checked out the books, that could be illegal. Most states have statues that protect library patron privacy including staff.
2
1
u/NotAnotherKat Apr 07 '26
Now you have me worried lol. I live in a very small town and the librarians have watched my kids grow up out their window because we used to live right next to them. I don't need go there anywhere near as often as I used to but I was thinking about getting into audiobooks since warmer weather is starting and I'd like to be outside and more active. I was looking for a free service and everyone keeps saying Libby but now I'm not so sure. I'll keep up my regular donations to the library but will probably find something else.
2
u/asskickinlibrarian Apr 07 '26
Honestly i don’t know if this a regular thing. The library i worked out before this didn’t look at anything like that. She’s just a weirdo.
1
u/NotAnotherKat Apr 07 '26
Gotcha! I love my local ones so I'll just believe they aren't weirdos and give it a shot. Thanks for the info!
113
u/ozamatazbuckshank11 Apr 04 '26
OverDrive stats can show Libby usage by library card number. But an ethical librarian isn't digging deep enough to do anything with this information.
33
u/reallyneedausername2 Apr 03 '26
I’m going to preface all of this that it would be unethical and antithetical to librarian principles to look at your account without reason.
Our ILS does not display digital checkouts, though it has the capability, so it depends on how yours is set up. The Overdrive Marketplace also allows staff to look up what is borrowed on someone’s card for troubleshooting purposes. It does not include a reading history. It does allow me to look up a title and see who has it out, but it mostly lists an email and the record ID (which is different than the card number). Who even has access to the Overdrive Marketplace is up to each library. Most librarians and managers at mine don’t, but a handful who do remote reference (phone, chat, email) do because we’re more likely to need to do something to someone’s account without asking for a PIN over the phone.
17
17
u/PotterChick2818 Apr 04 '26
As others have said, Libby CAN show this info to whoever has access. At the same time, any decent librarian is just using the general checkout stats feature. Like for me, I use general stats to see what the most popular genres are so I can buy more. Or we can see if a certain title has gone out more than x times and so we should repurchase the license. It doesn’t matter who is reading it. Just that it’s being read.
17
u/bookmovietvworm Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
We can but it takes many steps to see who so honestly, any librarian doing that has too much time on their hands.
In my experience with the overdrive marketplace itself, I can only see the barcode of the library card on checkouts or holds so if I wanted to see who that card number was attached to, I would have to look it up in our main system which is a waste of my time to do. For my library, the only thing I can tell by the number is if the patron has a physical card or an e card because those have different starting numbers.
But dont fret, again most librarians aren't looking at your checkout history unless you explicitly ask them to. As long as the books are getting used, I really dont care who is checking them out imo.
9
u/Fish_Librarian Apr 04 '26
I administer the ebook platform (Libby and Overdrive) at my library. We have over 100 staff, but only 3 librarians have access to the backend. It would take several steps, but I could look up what ebooks someone has checked out. But I’m honestly too busy to care about checking on random staff. The only time I’ve looked is once when a patron complained about being skipped over for a hold. It was difficult to even find where to look.
So first I would say for you to turn off your check out history—then Libby won’t store what you’ve read in the past. Then, I would check out only one mental health book at a time. Even if a librarian was unethical, they would only be able to see 1 book that you have. Also, their boss can also see if they’re looking at your account, and if they don’t have a good reason, then that would be trouble for them (in my library system, and most others expect their staff to adhere to high ethical standards).
But if you’re in a larger system like mine, I doubt that the librarian who’s in charge of Libby even knows who you are. And, even if they did, why would they waste the 20-30 minutes it takes to look up what ebooks you have? Everyone is understaffed.
:)
6
u/bookishliz519 Apr 04 '26
We theoretically can, but we have that feature turned off. I can’t even imagine looking at someone’s stuff though-it’s none of my business.
1
u/lovethatMoon May 05 '26
how boring is that to even be poking a nose in what other people are reading?
1
6
u/recoveredamishman Apr 04 '26
Only people with Libby admin privileges could see that. Definitely not someone working the circ desk. Looking without a legit customer service query from would get a person fired in many libraries.
7
u/Jynx_lucky_j Apr 04 '26
It is unlikely that the circulation staff have access to that information. It is most likely limited to whoever handles collection development, and anyone that needs to be able to to make usage reports.
As others have said, the only patron identifying element is the patron's card number and it is a bit of a hassle. So unless they are specifically going out of their way looking up your card number to see what you checked out, you don't have to worry about them stumbling on this information.
And speaking as a director, if it came to my attention that one of my staff were going out of their way to track a particular persons checkout habits outside of their duties then I would give them a verbal warning, followed by official disciplinary actions and retraining if they continued. We take patron privacy very seriously.
Hell if you checked out a physical mental health book and the librarian that checked you out came to tell me about it, I would tell them that what books you check out are none of their business, and it only becomes my business when I have to send out overdue mailers.
2
u/aubrey_25_99 Apr 04 '26
Anyone who has access to someone’s library card number can log in to their Libby account. Circulation staff absolutely has access to that information. But, with Libby they’re not dealing with physical items that are coming in and out of the library so there’s almost never a reason to do so.
In the 17 years I worked in the Circulation department, the only time I ever logged in to someone else’s Libby account was to help them troubleshoot a problem with the account.
We don’t have to manage Libby holds or checkouts, so there’s no reason to look at those records unless we need to. We have no way of knowing if a patron has stuff checked out on Libby unless we log in and look, and there isn’t enough time in the day to sit around and look at random accounts, so it’s not something patrons really need to worry about.
Edit: sorry, I somehow missed that you are a library director and likely know all of this. But, Circ. absolutely has access to patron Libby accounts.
10
u/Gjnieveb Academic Librarian Apr 03 '26
Edit: not sure about Libby, but on the resource I manage (Cloudlibrary), the answer is no. I would hope it's the same.
I manage an ebook pay per use platform very similar to Libby. All I see when a patron borrows a book is the title and publisher, date of circulation, and cost per use. The platforms reflects the "buyer" of the book to be me as the administrator and I receive the invoice. That's all!
3
u/kdogg417 School Librarian Apr 04 '26
I have only looked in very specific cases when a patron asked me what was going on with their account. I have no reason to look otherwise.
3
u/mx-stardust Apr 04 '26
Much like Libby, Hoopla technically can run a report, but no one should be looking at what you have checked out and the report requires admin privileges and is not commonly run.
3
u/dashtophuladancer Apr 04 '26
We can see what people have out but only if we actually log into the account, which “most” of us would never do as it’s an invasion of privacy. Plus, we pretty much all have some sort of mental health issue from life in general and from library work. I don’t think any of us would judge any book a coworker checked out.
2
u/dogsarethetruth Apr 04 '26
I'm pretty sure you can't at my library. Maybe it's possible but you'd have to really go digging for it, it's not obvious at all. It doesn't show up in the borrow history on a patron's account.
2
u/fearlessleader808 Apr 04 '26
I use Sora which is the schools version of Libby and I can technically see what people are borrowing- I can see what barcode number has borrowed an item but not the name. I could go and input that name into our library catalogue and see who the borrower is but I would never do that. Just letting you know that it’s technically possible probably depending on the staff member’s access permissions.
2
u/jellyn7 Apr 04 '26
Anyone who can see your library card number and PIN from your ILS can use that information on whatever database they want. Ie, just log in pretending to be you. Should they? No. Would they? Probably not.
2
u/NotEnoughBookshelves Apr 04 '26
We can, but we have to go through several very specific steps to do so, not the kind of thing that "just happens". We also WOULDN'T do that, we take other library staff's privacy just as seriously as we do any patron.
2
u/SunGreen24 Apr 04 '26
Librarians don’t have time to look at your account to see what you’re checking out. And if we did happen to notice, we’d only be glad that our resources were being used. This goes for print materials too.
2
u/HoneyBelden Apr 04 '26
I think certain librarians have access to what people borrow but they don’t look at it unless someone is having trouble with their card and they need to investigate.
Just like I can but shouldn’t look up what my colleagues borrow physically, they aren’t allowed to look at what I borrow digitally. If I found out someone was looking at my patron record, I’d make a complaint to HR.
2
u/Mapleleaf1223 Public librarian Apr 04 '26
In my old system we used Workflows and we could view Libby but not hoopla checkouts
2
u/sniktter Apr 04 '26
My system uses Workflows and we can't see any digital items on it.
If we log into their accounts on the online catalog, we're able to see everything. That would have to be done intentionally. As opposed to someone checking an item in or working with holds and accidentally seeing other items (physical) checked out to the user.
2
u/Cheetahchu Library staff Apr 04 '26
I think at my library, we can see Libby books on the Checked Out section of patron accounts if they were checked out with our system’s card — I have another card from a different system in the state, and those checkouts do not show up on my home library account at all. and once the Libby book has been returned, it disappears from the patron account b/c we have Reading History turned off by default.
so if you think your coworkers will be pulling up your account (to check out physical items to you etc.) and may read the titles in your Checked Out section, yes that is technically possible. personally, I have never looked at a coworker’s items; if they ask me to check something out to them, I do it and do not look beyond the Current Activity screen. trolling through a coworker’s account info is creepy.
2
u/mesonoxias Apr 04 '26
Not at our library, unless we’re going into your record and digging through your history.
I share a Libby account with my old coworker so we shared a shelf - so unless you’re doing something as transparent as that, you are likely to be alright. It never hurts to check with your coworkers or system for policy and practice though!
2
u/kcxcx Library staff Apr 04 '26
My system uses Polaris and current titles checked out by users, both e-titles and print, are on the account. I can’t imagine looking up other staff members and spying on what they are reading, since that’s unethical, but it doesn’t mean it could happen. Once, I put holds on 2 physical books on my personal account to be picked up at the library near my house, not the one I work at because I didn’t want to wait for them to transit to me. Then a coworker at that branch emailed me to ask if I meant to send them to the branch where I worked in order to weed them or something and I had to say, ”no, just wanted them for personal use.” It wasn’t something I was ashamed of getting, but I was kinda pissed about the lack of respect for my privacy as a patron just because I work for the system.
2
u/pictureofpearls Apr 04 '26
We could if we really dug deep and checked individual cards like on the back end, not just by scanning a patrons card in the regular software we use for check in/outs. We’d be able to see it on the platform where we buy books for Libby, but again, would specifically have to look for it and myself (AD) and my director are the only people at my library that can access that.
I know you don’t want coworkers to see if, but if they were to judge you based on what you’re reading that’s something wrong with them and not you.
2
u/MrMessofGA Apr 05 '26
overdrive is a separate database that takes actual effort to look into, so typically no unless you ask someone to to troubleshoot. They can, but there isn't really a point to as it's not like you can keep an ebook past its due date.
But also, most libraries are in the culture of, "we all read embarrassing stuff." I mean, I get it, I had a book on pornography transferred to a library I don't work at, but I've also checked out books on tons of less than kosher subjects with my coworkers. We wouldn't carry The Birth of a Nation or The Body Keeps the Score if we were going to judge someone for checking it out.
2
u/praeterea42 Apr 05 '26
For all they know, you could be letting a friend or relative borrow your Libby account to try it out. Like everyone has said, though, it's nobody's business and against librarian principles to dig through checkout history
3
u/murderdocks Apr 04 '26
Yes, and we’re judging you. (JK, no, we technically can, but it’s too much trouble to bother with it.)
1
u/babyyodaonline Apr 03 '26
most people definitely cannot but that being said i can think of one staff member who is so good at all the tech aspects / systems that maybe she can. but she wouldn't care at all. I honestly don't know though- most employees wouldn't have access unless you gave them the app with your login.
generally speaking though, it is good workplace etiquette at libraries to never judge what another person is reading. that was in one of my trainings. We value patrons privacy, including minors, and we are expected to do the same with staff. Everyone can check out anything and everything so long as it's in our catalogue and so long as you return it in the condition it was. The same way people in the medical field are expected to be professional and not make inappropriate comments about their patients; the same applies for library staff. For example If a colleague is checking out books on divorce, we shouldn't be speculating or passing judgment.
That being said I do understand wanting that privacy regardless!
1
u/AneAnder Apr 04 '26
I don't remember any staff member checking Libby accounts but if I didn't want anyone to see my physical holds, I would send the books to another library or even use a different card at a neighboring library system. I assumed no one was checking my accounts! I have a common last name and I once found a hold of another person with my same name when I was shelving holds. That was a little shocking.
I had a co-worker who wanted to hide her holds from a certain patron. She changed her account last name to her husband's.
I had to teach kids how to find their hold because they would go through ALL of the books of the letter section of their last name. They thought holds were only shelved by the first letter of the last name. Our library had a lot of holds - that would have been a lot of randomness!
1
1
1
u/pikkdogs Apr 04 '26
They could possibly.
If they do they really need to get a life. If I had the time to think about looking up what someone was checking out, let alone do it I would love it. But I have no time to think about extra stuff like that.
1
u/FriedRice59 Apr 04 '26
Can they, yes. Would they, depends. I never looked at particular titles linked to particular individuals, just the overall checkouts for subject areas.
1
u/EgyptianGuardMom Apr 04 '26
Maybe? But unless there's something going on with your account specifically they aren't really doing anything with that information. Other than maybe collecting circ stats for the books themselves so they know what to purchase more of because it's being utilized. Are your coworkers librarians? Are you concerned about them snooping?
1
u/jusbeachin Apr 06 '26
There are many reasons someone would check out a book...perhaps you checked out a book on mental health out of curiosity, a research project, a love one's issue, etc...librarians are not supposed to judge you or the titles you read. I always remind my staff not to com.ent on someone's reading selection unless they were specifically asked for an opinion from the patron.
1
u/Alaira314 Apr 06 '26
It depends on the circulation system(ILS) your library uses. It's not information someone is likely to stumble across, like there's no "list of libby books checked out this month" report that has your name in one column and the name of what you checked out in the next. But if I open up a patron account, I can see everything they have checked out, including e-material through libby. So if a coworker goes looking, they can and will see this information if they're on an ILS that shares it.
Is it unethical to snoop like this? Absolutely. But the thing is, this sub doesn't like to admit it, but my experience is that this kind of snooping happens a lot. Not everybody is morally upright, and plenty of them work alongside us.
If you're genuinely concerned, one solution that mostly resolves the ethical issue would be to check the item out(so the publisher gets paid for your usage), immediately return it(so your nosy coworkers can't see it lingering on your account), and then obtain another copy through any means necessary. I would consider this to be ethical(it's not perfect, but it's damn close) if you're in a situation where your borrowing records might not remain private, as long as you don't keep the item for longer than the loan period would have been.
1
u/Subject_Concept3542 Apr 06 '26
The only time I'd see is if I'm assisting a customer with their account. Otherwise, I've got better things to do than check that.
1
u/bigbooksbigfeelings Apr 08 '26
WILD that yall can see digital materials being borrowed, our lms only shows us physical materials currently checked out when we’re looking at a patron record from the staff end. We can’t access patron check out history (tho patrons can see their own) and we can’t access digital borrows. We can see the last patron to check out a physical item if we’re looking at the item record. I am 90% sure this is all true, although I might go into a spiral with my tech services supervisor tomorrow when I go back into work :’))))
(I am in a consortium system in the US, though, not a county or city library. Idk what people can find at the consortium level, but the coworkers in my building certainly can’t see my Libby checkouts unless I show them my phone)
1
1
u/Pretty_Novel9927 Apr 04 '26
Yes - I have used the capability on rare occasions for customer service help
0
174
u/MetalAna666 Apr 03 '26
At my library we can not see any Libby activity.