Recently Asked Questions

My concern is about employee privacy and image use. Since it is so easy to take a picture these days, and many employee meetings are happening over videoconference, what are the laws governing the use of employee images and materials generated by a library employer?   What stops the participants in an online meeting from taking and using screenshots of attendees?  I know that being a librarian often means working with the public, but when it comes to an employer using an employee's picture and other digital captures of their image, what does the law say?   Can an employee attending an online meeting be compelled to turn on their camera?

[I work at the library of a public university.] Every year we have requests from students in Media Arts program to videotape in the library. They ask me to grant permission. I do not feel comfortable granting permission for others to be filmed.

Do students in the library have a right of privacy that would prohibit filming them as they go about their normal business in the library?

We would like to have a written policy.

The images would not be used for commercial purposes, just as an academic assignment.

Are libraries legally required to obtain photo releases from all patrons (children's parents, teens, adults), even if we don't name those patrons before publishing photos to our social media accounts and/or press releases?