Our Commitment to Privacy

Privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association. Protecting your privacy is important to us at the Free Library of Philadelphia. We believe that every individual should be able to seek knowledge freely from any source—without the scrutiny or judgment of others. We want you to make the most of our services, whether online or in person, and to feel confident while doing so.

We protect your right to privacy by:

1. Maintaining no record of books or other materials that you have checked out from us in the past, only those you currently are borrowing from us.
2. Retaining no record of your in-Library requests or book retrievals from our stacks or archives.
3. Divulging no information about your personal research or reading preferences.

We release personal information only when compelled to do so by legal authorities, such as when presented with a court order, or to comply with investigations under the USA PATRIOT Act.