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Privacy, Public Libraries, and Maryland State Law

Excerpted from Michie’s Annotated Code of Maryland and the 2010 Supplement

23-107. Circulation Records
(a) Inspection, use, or disclosure prohibited. – Subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, a free association, school, college or university library in this State shall prohibit inspection, use, or disclosure of any circulation record or other item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual that:
(1) Is maintained by a library;
(2) Contains an individual’s name or the identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual; and
(3) Identifies the use a patron makes of that library’s materials, services, or facilities.
(b) Exceptions. – A free association, school, college, or university library in the State shall permit inspection, use, or disclosure of the circulation record of an individual only in connection with the library’s ordinary business and only for the purposes for which the record was created. (1988, ch. 233; 1990, ch. 635)