Privacy Policy, Community Rules, and Terms of Service
This policy has been updated and is effective as of May 25, 2018. The previous version may be found here.
These terms apply to users of LibraryThing.com, and its associated domains, such as LibraryThing.nl and LibraryThing.es. They also apply to TinyCat (LibraryCat.org).
Privacy Policy
The Law
We take reader privacy very seriously. Reader privacy enjoys special Constitutional protections under US law, and LibraryThing will not cooperate with US law enforcement unless compelled to do so. LibraryThing will not cooperate with non-US law enforcement unless compelled, or if we are convinced the law is at least as just, and applied as justly, as US standards. If you are using LibraryThing from a foreign country with an oppressive government, LibraryThing urges you not to put yourself at risk.
As of June 18, 2026, we have never received a National Security Letter, FISA order, or any other classified request for user information.
No Sale of Personal Information
LibraryThing will not sell or give personally-identifiable information to any third party. This would be evil, and we are not evil. Yes, still.
There is one exception to this rule, described below (see Reviews under Sharing and Transfer of Information). Review sharing is entirely optional and member-controlled.
We reserve and currently exercise the right to sell or give away anonymous or aggregate information.
See Sharing and Transfer of Information, below, for more on this topic.
Emails from LibraryThing
LibraryThing membership requires an email address.
LibraryThing respects your inbox. We do not sell your email address to authors, publishers, marketing companies, or anyone else.
By default, most new members who provide their email address are subscribed to our "State of the Thing" newsletter. Members who join from the EEA after May 25, 2018 are not subscribed automatically, and will have to consent explicitly to receive the State of the Thing.
By default, members who provide their email address receive private messages by email. This can be disabled in the Privacy Center. LibraryThing reserves the right to send profile-comment emails for GDPR-exempt system notifications, and customer support.
See LibraryThing Early Reviewers, below, for terms surrounding this optional program.
Member Privacy Center
All LibraryThing members have access to their own Member Privacy Center, where they can see and then update:
- Subscription settings for different types of LibraryThing emails
- Review-sharing preferences
- EEA or non-EEA residency
- Display preferences for name, location and other non-required fields
- Application-sharing preferences, such as to Facebook and Twitter
- Export and download account data (incomplete as of June 8, 2018)
- Disable or delete your account
How to Delete Your Data
LibraryThing members have full control over deleting their accounts and personal data.
To permanently delete your account and associated data:
- Go to your Account Settings.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page, under the “Big Steps” section, and click Delete Account.
- You’ll be prompted to confirm your password.
- After confirming, you’ll be taken to the Delete Account page, where you can review and complete the process.
On the Delete Account page, you’ll see information about what deletion means:
- Your account and all personal data will be permanently deleted and cannot be restored.
- Your books, reviews, ratings, and library data will be removed.
- Contributions to shared community resources, such as book covers or Common Knowledge entries, are retained.
- If you use TinyCat, your catalog will be disabled.
- You can choose whether to keep, anonymize, or delete your Talk posts and private messages.
Before deleting your account, you have the option to export your books and download your personal data.
If you need assistance or prefer to request deletion manually, you can contact us at info@librarything.com.
Private Libraries
LibraryThing allows "private" libraries—libraries that others can't see. We cannot give an absolute 100% guarantee of privacy. After all, even Amazon had a day when all their "anonymous" reviewers were exposed by mistake. If the public disclosure of your library would really damage you, by all means don't post it online.
LibraryThing has a "private books" feature, marked as a "beta" feature. It is not fully functional, and does not guarantee security.
Community Rules
Member Accounts
Individual accounts are designed for personal collections. Couples and families are fine too. Organizations, like churches, companies, schools, and museums, can also join, with some restrictions. (See organizational accounts.)
In event of dispute, account ownership is determined as follows: If a paid account—from when LibraryThing charged a modest membership fee for accounts with over 200 books—ownership belongs to the party that paid for the membership. For all other accounts, ownership is determined by the email address linked to the account. If there is no email address linked to the account, LibraryThing staff will make a good faith effort to determine ownership. Our decisions are final.
Social Features
Freedom of Discussion and Personal Attacks
- LibraryThing has no speech code per se.
- LibraryThing prohibits all personal attacks on members. As Wikipedia's policy states, "Comment on content, not on the contributor."
- Personal attacks are attacks on a person. To dispute or disparage someone's words is not a personal attack. It is the line between "You are a liar" and "Your recent post was a lie." The former is a violation of the TOS. The latter is not.
- Personal attacks include name-calling. Name-calling is not restricted to pure insults (e.g., "asshole"), but also ones that imply both a personal and a content problem (e.g., "liar," "Nazi").
Good Advice
- Use common sense. Be polite. Think before you post.
- If you're upset by something or someone, try to calm down before responding.
- Discussions can become heated and passionate. Don't forget that the person on the other side is human.
- Remember that LibraryThing Talk is a public space; don't say anything to others that you wouldn't want a room full of people to overhear.
- Avoid quoting or otherwise exposing private communication. While this does not necessarily violate the Terms of Service, you should consider whether it qualifies as a personal attack or a disclosure of private information.
- Consider the context before posting. A political or religious dispute does not belong in a knitting group.
How to Deal with Abuse
- If you come across an abusive post, click the "flag abuse" link. The flag will be visible only after it has been flagged twice. After four different users have flagged a post, it will be deleted.
- Please do not flag posts as "abuse" simply because you disagree with what is said, or if someone criticizes your favorite book, author, or idea—that's not abuse, it's a difference of opinion. We welcome differences of opinion!
- LibraryThing staff do not review all flags. Severe abuse should be reported to LibraryThing staff.
- One violation of the Terms of Service will not be considered to justify another one.
- Reasonable people can disagree about what constitutes abuse, but flagging is not a weapon. Clear misuse of the flagging feature—either to flag or counter-flag—is itself a manipulation of the system and a violation of the Terms.
How LibraryThing Deals with Abuse
- As stated, members are encouraged to report abuse, not merely to flag it. Email info@librarything.com.
- When reporting abuse be as specific as possible.
- Avoid responding to abuse with abuse. It will not be excused.
- LibraryThing staff are empowered to admonish, warn, suspend, and ban users for violations of these terms. We are happy to talk things through, but our decisions are final.
Advertising and Spam
- LibraryThing is not an advertising medium. Egregious commercial solicitation is forbidden.
- No matter how great your novel, this does apply to authors. (See Tips and Guidelines for Authors.)
- Authors caught manipulating the system have had all their books permanently marked with a spam and manipulation warning. You don't want that, believe me.
- Do not spam member comments or group invitations. Inviting people in your town to a new group is okay; inviting hundreds of members is not.
Your Own Words
- You may not post any content that violates the law, including copyright and other intellectual property law.
- Do not plagiarize another member's content.
- LibraryThing prohibits members from posting AI-created content (for example, produced by ChatGPT), unless clearly and prominently labelled as such for the purpose of discussion. All such content is prohibited in book reviews and summaries, even if labelled. AI-generated or edited author photos are also prohibited. This prohibition does not extend to the use of AI-generated cover images, as long as they are the actual cover images, or to cataloging material created by AI.
System Integrity
- Do not subvert or misuse site features.
- Do not set up "shell" or "sock puppet" accounts for any purpose whatsover.
- Common Knowledge, covers and other core, shared bibliographic data must be edited in good faith.
- LibraryThing is for your books—books you own, have read or want. It would not be appropriate to fill your LibraryThing catalog with all the books in your local library or Project Gutenberg.
- Except by permission or through an authorized API, you may not add to or query your library automatically. See our APIs. See also Automated Access, Scraping, and Data Use, below, which applies to all users whether or not logged in.
Other Rules
- Do not repost flagged content in Talk. If you believed you were flagged unfairly, go ahead and discuss the issue (without getting personal). You can discuss it, with short selections. But you may NOT repost it. If people want to read it, they can; Talk allows you to click something to see the flagged content.
- Do not disclose sensitive private information about another member.
- Do not create "pointless," "meaningless" or "random" groups or topics. We give all groups the benefit of the doubt, but the creation of multiple, duplicative and contentless groups is against these terms.
- As a library- and literary resource, browsing LibraryThing is generally allowed within school networks that disable other social sites. We are not, however, a place for students to share "unblocked" or "proxy sites" for getting around their institutional internet restrictions. Posting links to such sites is prohibited.
- No purely "personal" groups (groups with fewer than two members).
- Do not upload X-rated or otherwise highly objectionable pictures.
- Do not upload suggestive images of minors or seeming minors.
- LibraryThing rarely removes book covers, but will do so in cases where we believe the cover image may violate the law.
- You may not impersonate another person, or other entity, on LibraryThing.
- Your member name may not be pornographic, or an insult, either general or specific. Sheesh!
- We may remove accounts with no books after three months. (But we have never done so.)
- LibraryThing may not be used for any illegal activity.
- LibraryThing may not be used to injure, threaten, stalk, impersonate, or harass someone.
Other Members' Information
Sometimes using LibraryThing means another member shares personal details with you—most often a mailing address, for programs like SantaThing or Early Reviewers, or in a private message. When that happens, please treat it with care: use it only for the purpose it was shared, don't store or repost it, and let it go once you're done. You're responsible for what you do with another member's information, and under data-protection laws like the GDPR you act as its controller once it's in your hands.
Early Reviewers
LibraryThing Early Reviewers ("LTER") gives LibraryThing members the chance to receive and review advanced reader editions of upcoming books from select publishers.
The mailing address and email information you provide for this program will only be used to send you books. If a program ever involves handling another member's address, see Other Members' Information, above.
Recipients of books who submit reviews to LibraryThing hereby grant LibraryThing, the book's publisher, and its author perpetual non-exclusive permission to use of the review, together with their first name and city/town of residence, for purposes of entertainment, advertising, promotion, or publicity without additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. LibraryThing, the publisher, and the author reserve the right to edit reviews for clarity or language or to use only excerpts from them. Neither LibraryThing nor the publisher is under any obligation to publish a review.
For more rules and conditions see your profile.
Pay-for-Review Schemes
LibraryThing encourages members to participate in our book give-away program (Early Reviewers). We forbid reviews from "pay-for-review" schemes.
- Reviewers must be free to write what they think. They may not be required or rewarded to write positive reviews, or punished for writing bad ones.
- Reviewers must own and control their reviews, granting other parties only a non-exclusive license.
- Reviewers must act on their own volition, cross-posting their review when and where they want. Companies that sell services based on how many sites get reviews are explicitly forbidden from using LibraryThing.
- Reviewers must not be paid for their reviews, except in free books and similar non-monetary perks.
Member Recommendations
In adding a Member recommendation to any given work page, you are expected to make good-faith, disinterested recommendations. You can only make three recommendations per book, and cannot recommend the same book more than five times overall. Recommending your own book is strictly forbidden. Members can rate the validity of other member recommendations from the Rate Recommendations page. You are free to recommend books already listed by others or by LibraryThing itself.
Emergencies
If you encounter a genuine emergency on LibraryThing—for example, a member who has threatened to harm themselves or others—please tell us right away. Email info@librarything.com and tim@librarything.com, and put EMERGENCY in the subject line. If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. For how LibraryThing handles these reports—and the limits on member privacy in an emergency—see Emergency Situations, below.
Terms of Service
EU Members and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
LibraryThing abides by US law. We also intend to voluntarily follow the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies to EU citizens and residents. We must therefore identify who is and who is not covered by the GDPR.
As of May 25, 2018, LibraryThing has assigned EU status to members based upon their IP address at sign-up, or, where that is not available to us, recent usage. This status does not change unless changed by the member.
To change your EU status, go to your Member Privacy Center. Choosing the incorrect legal status is a violation of LibraryThing's Terms of Service.
Data Protection Officer
Per the GDPR, LibraryThing's Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Tim Spalding. Our DPO can be reached at tim@librarything.com.
The GDPR's Defined Roles and the Handling of Data in LibraryThing and TinyCat
Under the terms of the GDPR, LibraryThing operates as either data controller or data processor, depending on whether the service is provided to users directly, or to organizations which have their own users.
For TinyCat customers—excepting free, personal members—LibraryThing is assumed to be in the position of data processor, and the customer in the position of data controller, managing the data of their data subjects. The same may apply to LibraryThing customers using LibraryThing's "lending" feature or otherwise providing LibraryThing to others.
It is the data controller's ultimate responsibility for controlling their patron or student (i.e., data subject) data, and ensuring GDPR compliance for their data subjects, including collecting consent, managing consent-revocation, enabling access, etc.
Copyright
By posting content to LibraryThing, you grant—and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, represent and warrant—LibraryThing a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, omnipotent, royalty-free, fully-transferable and sublicenseable right to display, use, analyze, aggregate, modify, adapt, publish, translate, transform, create derivative works from and perform in any venue or media, online or offline, as well as
"In Painting, Sculpture, and rapt Poesy, / And arts, though unimagined, yet to be." (Shelley, Prometheus Unbound)
We do NOT assert copyright over the things you post to LibraryThing. The phrase "non-exclusive" above means you can post your content elsewhere. By posting something to LibraryThing you let us use it, but you do not restrict what you can do with it. We love it when people post their reviews on their blog, on Amazon and other sites!
As stated above, LibraryThing will not sell any personally-identifiable information to any third party.
You can control whether your reviews will ever be made available to libraries or others. Click here to edit your profile and change your preference.
Automated Access, Scraping, and Data Use
This section governs how LibraryThing, its content, and its data may be accessed and used. It applies to everyone who accesses LibraryThing.com or its associated domains (including LibraryThing.nl, LibraryThing.es, and LibraryCat.org/TinyCat), by any means, whether or not you have an account and whether or not you are logged in. By accessing the site or its content in any way—including by automated means—you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, you are not authorized to access the site or its content.
The LibraryThing Database
This section is about the LibraryThing Database as a whole—the way millions of records are selected, coordinated, and arranged—and not about any single fact or contribution. It does not change the rest of these Terms. Individual members continue to own the content they post; LibraryThing claims only the non-exclusive license described under "Copyright," above; and we still do not claim any copyright in non-copyrightable facts such as book titles, author names, ISBNs, or publication dates. Those belong to everyone. What LibraryThing does assert is its right in the database as a compilation—the selection, coordination, and arrangement that LibraryThing and its members have built together—and only where the law grants such a right.
In other words: LibraryThing.com and its content are made available for personal, non-commercial browsing and for the member features described elsewhere in these Terms. The site as a whole—including the selection, coordination, arrangement, organization, and compilation of book records, work and author pages, series and tag data, Common Knowledge, recommendations, ratings, reviews, cover images, and other materials (together, the "LibraryThing Database")—is a protected compilation. LibraryThing, Inc. claims the rights it holds in the LibraryThing Database as a compilation, including compilation copyright under United States law and, where applicable, sui generis database rights under the laws of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other jurisdictions.
No Scraping or Automated Access
Except through an interface we expressly authorize (such as a published API used in accordance with its terms—see "Authorized Access," below) or with our prior written permission, you may not, and may not permit, enable, or assist any person, tool, agent, or service to:
- access, crawl, spider, scrape, harvest, extract, index, cache, copy, or download any part of the site, the LibraryThing Database, or any content on it by automated or systematic means;
- collect or compile any content from the site into a database, dataset, index, or other work, whether for your own use or for distribution, resale, or any other purpose;
- access the site using any automated system, bot, headless browser, scraping tool, AI agent, or similar means, other than (a) a conventional web browser operated by a human, or (b) a search-engine crawler that obeys our robots.txt and that we have not blocked; or
- use the site, the LibraryThing Database, or any content on it for any commercial purpose, or to build, train, populate, benchmark, or improve any product, service, dataset, or model that competes with, substitutes for, or reproduces LibraryThing or its data services (including our Enrichment Services).
General-purpose search engines are welcome. Nothing in this section is meant to discourage ordinary search engines from indexing LibraryThing so that people can find us. Operating a search-engine crawler—such as Googlebot or Bingbot—to index the public site for inclusion in general search results is permitted, so long as the crawler identifies itself honestly, obeys our robots.txt, respects our rate limits, and has not been blocked. This permission is limited to indexing for search results; it does not extend to text and data mining, AI training, or building a competing product or dataset, even by an operator that also runs a search engine.
These restrictions apply regardless of whether the content is behind a login, and regardless of whether you obtain it directly or through a third party (including a third-party scraping or "web agent" service acting on your behalf—you are responsible for what such services do for you).
No Text and Data Mining or AI Training
You may not use the site, the LibraryThing Database, or any content on it for text or data mining, or to develop, train, fine-tune, evaluate, or ground any machine-learning or artificial-intelligence model or system, except with our prior written permission. LibraryThing expressly reserves all rights in its content against text and data mining, including the reservation permitted under Article 4 of the EU Digital Single Market Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/790) and any equivalent right in other jurisdictions. This reservation is made in machine-readable form, including through our robots.txt and any other technical signals we publish, and accessing the content does not grant any text-and-data-mining or AI-training right.
No Circumvention
You may not bypass, circumvent, disable, or interfere with any technical or security measure we use to control, limit, or monitor access to the site or its content—including rate limits, access throttling, IP or account blocks, CAPTCHAs, robots.txt directives, bot-detection or anti-automation measures, or authentication controls. Using rotating IP addresses or proxies, falsifying or omitting a user agent, using credentials or accounts to evade a block, or otherwise disguising automated access in order to defeat these measures is a violation of these Terms and may also violate applicable computer-fraud, anti-circumvention, and trespass laws.
Authorized Access
The only permitted means of programmatic or bulk access to LibraryThing data are (a) an API or data feed we expressly provide, used strictly in accordance with its published terms and any applicable license or agreement, and (b) any other access we grant in writing. Information about authorized interfaces is available at our APIs page. Authorized access remains subject to these Terms, and we may impose usage limits, require attribution, charge fees, or revoke authorization at any time. Any use outside the scope of an authorization we have granted is unauthorized.
Suspension and Revocation of Access
Your permission to access LibraryThing and its content is revocable. We may, at any time and for any reason, in whole or in part and with or without notice, limit, suspend, block, or terminate your access—including by blocking IP addresses, ranges, networks, accounts, or tools, and including access that would otherwise be permitted. Any continued access to the site or its content after we have blocked it or notified you (by any reasonable means, including a notice to the operator of the relevant IP addresses or service) that your access is withdrawn is unauthorized and is access without authorization for purposes of applicable law.
Remedies
You acknowledge that a violation of this section may cause LibraryThing and its members immediate and irreparable harm for which monetary damages would be an inadequate remedy, and that LibraryThing is therefore entitled to seek injunctive or other equitable relief, in addition to any other remedies available at law or in equity, without the need to post a bond. These remedies are cumulative. Our failure to enforce any provision of this section in any instance is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
Governing Law for This Section
This section, and any dispute arising out of or relating to access to or use of the site or its content, is governed by the laws of the State of Maine and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Portland, Maine for any action seeking to enforce this section or to obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, and you waive any objection to venue in those courts. Nothing in this section limits any right or remedy available to LibraryThing under applicable law.
Get off my lawn, you kids!
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) severely restricts what information can be collected from children under 13. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also severely restricts what information can be collected from children under 16. For these reasons, all children under 13 are prohibited from using LibraryThing, and, unfortunately, all European Union children under 16 are prohibited from using LibraryThing. In light of Australia's new Online Safety Amendment, we are also prohibiting Australian children under 16 from using LibraryThing. Au revoir mes petits choux!
LibraryThing's age minimum does NOT apply to TinyCat customers providing TinyCat to others. TinyCat libraries are, in this case, the data controller/s and are responsible for ensuring GDPR compliance for their patrons. TinyCat does not provide messaging or social networking features to patrons.
LibraryThing is a warm and welcoming community, and almost everyone is nice. But younger members, and members of all ages, are warned not to provide profile information without weighing the risks and benefits, and never to provide their phone number, address, or other critical personal data online.
DMCA
If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify LibraryThing as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ("DMCA"). For your complaint to be valid under the DMCA, you must provide the following information in writing:
- An electronic or physical signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
- Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and where it is located on the Service;
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit LibraryThing to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and, e-mail address;
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law; and
- A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate, and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
The above information should be submitted to the following designated agent:
Tim Spalding LibraryThing, Inc. Attn: DMCA Notice 286 Spring Street #2, Portland, ME 04102 Phone: 207-899-4108 Email: infolibrarything.com
UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE MATERIAL IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY AND CIVIL PENALTIES, INCLUDING MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS' FEES.
Please note that this procedure is exclusively for notifying LibraryThing and its affiliates that your copyrighted material has been infringed. The preceding requirements are intended to comply with LibraryThing's rights and obligations under the DMCA, including 17 U.S.C. §512(c), but do not constitute legal advice. It may be advisable to contact an attorney regarding your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws.
Please also note that we laugh off requests to remove books you don't like on DMCA grounds. Book titles and author names are not copyrightable. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
HIPAA Compliance and Patron Privacy
If you're a health industry organization considering TinyCat and LibraryThing for tracking patrons and lending data, please be advised that LibraryThing does not ensure full HIPAA compliance.
Consider these tips to maintain patron privacy within TinyCat and LibraryThing:
- Do not share your admin login with anyone unless you expect them to have access to all of your library and patron data.
- Do not add patron information, such as names and phone numbers, but use only patron barcodes or IDs.
- If you have Simple Circulation enabled, go to your Patron Accounts Settings, and select Barcode/ID under the "Patron list" setting. This will protect the privacy of your patrons' names.
- If you have Full Circulation enabled, go to your Patrons Settings and make sure that all patron fields except "Barcode/Patron ID" are set to Admin only. Set the "Barcode/Patron ID" field to Patron can see, if you prefer.
What Information Do We Collect?
This section covers the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) LibraryThing collects, as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) we collect for all site users may include:
- Security and abuse-monitoring data, including:
- IP address
- Browser/OS version
- Personally Identifiable Information (PII) we collect for LibraryThing members may include:
- Account basics
- User name
- Content members provide voluntarily including:
- Your name
- Profile information
- Public lists of other social-media accounts
- Book collection and associated metadata, including ratings, reviews, and lists.
- Social interactions, including friend lists, forum posts, and member-to-member comments.
- Location (for public display)
- Non-required, non-public information members voluntarily provide to access certain site features or programs, including:
- Email address
- Location
- Mailing address
- Billing Information
- Links to social media accounts
- LibraryThing smartphone app data, including
- Device OS/version
- Device ID
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) we collect from TinyCat customers may include:
- Content members provide voluntarily, including:
- Main contact's name
- Non-required, non-public information members voluntarily provide to access certain site features or programs, including:
- Main contact's email address
- Billing information
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) TinyCat customers and other data-controller customers may collect from patrons may include:
- Account basics:
- Patron barcode/ID number
- Content members provide voluntarily, including:
- Patron name (First, Middle, Last, Suffix)
- Non-required, non-public information members or patrons voluntarily provide to access certain site features or programs, including:
- Patron email address
- Patron phone number
- Patron mailing address
- Any custom patron data field you add and provide to us
- Patron lending history (checkouts, holds, etc.)
What Do We Use This Information For?
LibraryThing collects Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for these purposes:
- To provide, support, and improve the services LibraryThing offers.
- To collect and analyze usage analytics on our user base (see Analytics section below).
- To send members service and feature updates (including of planned outages, new features, and version updates), to communicate with members about their accounts, and to provide customer support.
- To send members informational and promotional content for use of LibraryThing services, in accordance with their marketing preferences. Members can unsubscribe from our promotional emails using any of the links in the emails, or by updating their Privacy Center preferences.
- To participate in optional LibraryThing services that require mailing or emailing material to the participant, including Early Reviewers and SantaThing.
- To receive payments for LibraryThing services, including membership upgrades, subscriptions to TinyCat, orders from the LibraryThing Store, etc. We use PayPal for secure credit card transaction processing, and we send billing information to PayPal in order to process orders and credit card payments.
- To monitor and enforce compliance with our Terms of Service and applicable law, including automated spam and abuse detection.
- To respond to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
- To provide, support, and improve the services TinyCat offers. This includes sending systematic messages or updates to your patrons, either automatically or on your behalf (such as lending transaction confirmations, setting up checkout or overdue reminders, etc.), allowing you to communicate with your patrons about their account/s, and allowing you to provide patron support.
Emergency Situations
- LibraryThing takes member health and safety seriously.
- Members are encouraged to report emergency cases, such as when a member has threatened to harm themselves or others, to info@librarything.com and tim@librarything.com. Please put EMERGENCY in the subject line.
- LibraryThing cannot guarantee member privacy in emergencies.
Member Rights
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes certain rights for certain covered individuals, concerning their personally identifiable information. We intend to voluntarily comply with these provisions, except as limited under applicable law. These rights include:
- Right of access. The right to be informed about and access your personal data.
- Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"). The right to request that we remove your personal data.
- Right to rectification. The right to request that we rectify your personal data, or allow you to do so, where it is incorrect.
- Right to restrict. The right to ask that we temporarily or permanently stop processing all or some of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent. The right to object to us processing your personal data.
- Right to data portability. The right to request a copy of your personal data.
- Right not to be subject to automated decision-making. The right to not be subject to a legal or similarly significant decision based solely on automated decision making.
LibraryThing has created a Member Privacy Center (see above) which allows you to set preferences and exercise these rights. See Member Privacy Center section above for a full listing of what options are available.
If you have any questions about your rights under the GDPR, and how they relate to your LibraryThing data, please contact info@librarything.com, making clear your question and your status under the GDPR.
Automated Spam and Abuse Detection
Spam and abusive sign-ups are a rising tide: many new-account registrations are not real readers but spam or abuse. To manage this, LibraryThing uses automated tools to assess whether a new account appears to be spam or abusive. As part of this, the text of a member's public profile may be sent to an outside service provider that performs the assessment on our behalf. This processing:
- rests on our legitimate interest (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) in keeping LibraryThing free of spam and abuse;
- is a disclosure to a service provider that processes the data on our behalf, for that sole purpose. It is not a sale, and the provider may not use the data for any other purpose;
- where the provider is located outside the EEA, is covered by a data-processing agreement with appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses; and
- does not remove your rights. If your account is restricted or removed by automated spam and abuse detection and you believe that was a mistake, contact info@librarything.com and a person will review it (see "Right not to be subject to automated decision-making").
Cookies
"Cookies" are files with small amount of data that is commonly used as an anonymous unique identifier. These are sent to your browser from the website that you visit and are stored on your devices' internal memory. LibraryThing services may use cookies to provide automatic sign-in for certain features. You have the option to set up your device to accept or refuse these cookies, and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of this Service.
Third Party Cookies
LibraryThing uses third-party cookies from Google to anonymously track web usage and analytics (Google). These cookies are not essential to site functionality.
When users are not signed in, some LibraryThing pages include Google Adsense advertisements, which set cookies. These cookies are not involved in any site operation, and are not visible to LibraryThing. Google has some new privacy tools for this, debuting soon. For now, out of an abundance of caution, LibraryThing has decided to exclude all Google Adsense advertisements for users determined to be visiting from the EU. These cookies are not essential to site functionality.
Domain Cookies
We use our own domain-specific cookies to store:
- Session status
- Login information
- General site setting preferences, such as language, display preferences, login, and notification status
These cookies are not essential to using LibraryThing overall, but are essential to LibraryThing's "logged in" site functionality. Disabling them may prevent an individual from signing into the service, from seeing the content they want to see, from changing content, etc.
Analytics
In addition to Google Analytics (above), LibraryThing and TinyCat also collect and analyze their own usage data, to track usage and oversee the Terms of Service.
Sharing and Transfer of Information
LibraryThing provides Enrichment Services, including LibraryThing for Libraries (https://www.librarything.com/forlibraries) and Syndetics Unbound (https://proquest.syndetics.com), which dynamically enrich library catalogs and other book sites with data from LibraryThing and LibraryThing members. LibraryThing also provides access to the same information via data feeds.
Our Enrichment Services include aggregate, anonymous and anonymized metadata, such as popularity, average ratings, and tags. No personally-identifiable information is shared with this data.
Our Enrichment Services also include some member-provided reviews. Such sharing includes member names and the content of user reviews. Members can change their settings for the sharing of reviews (see Privacy Center, above), including options to share with no outside entity, with just libraries, or with all entities. Changing these settings in no way affect members' ability to use the site.
Reviews from members who elect to share reviews with all entities may be shared with PowerReviews, a review-aggregation service used by booksellers and retailers. Starting January 15, 2021, this data may include IP addresses, to be used for the sole purpose of PowerReview's fraud- and spam-detection algorithms.
Third Party Links
LibraryThing may contain links to other sites (such as Amazon, for example). If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site and subjected to their own terms and policies. Note that these external sites are not operated by LibraryThing.
Security
LibraryThing values your trust in providing us your personal information, thus we are striving to use industry-standard means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and LibraryThing cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Protection of Information
We use the following security measures and technologies to protect your data:
- Industry-standard firewalls
- Industry-standard encrypted passwords
- Pseudonymization of select personally-identifiable information
- Encrypted data transfer over SSL
- Secure data backups
- Servers located at secure locked facilities
Payment Information
LibraryThing's primary payment process is PayPal. LibraryThing does not receive, process, or store any payment information from PayPal, such as credit card numbers or PayPal receipt numbers.
Members can also pay for LibraryThing services with checks or money orders. We keep this information safe too.
Breach of Information
Despite our efforts, no security measure can be absolute, and there can be no guarantee that Your personal information will not be accessed through malicious means, inadvertent disclosure, or mistake.
In the case of a breach of data, as defined in the GDPR, we will notify affected members within 72 hours of our discovery, describing the breach in all appropriate detail, along with our mitigation actions.
Mobile Apps (Android and iOS)
Privacy Policy
This section covers the policies for the following apps: LibraryThing, LibAnywhere, FCPL Mobile, LINKcat, MtLaurelLib, and Unisa Library. These services are provided to the user as is.
This page is used to inform website visitors regarding our policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information if anyone decided to use our Services.
If you choose to use our Service, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation with this policy. The Personal Information that LibraryThing collects are used for providing and improving the Service. LibraryThing will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.
Information Collection and Use
For a better experience while using our Service, LibraryThing may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information, including but not limited to location information and access to pictures/camera on your device. The information that LibraryThing requests is retained on your device and is not collected by LibraryThing in any way, except if specifically uploaded by you (example: book cover photos uploaded to your books).
Log Data
LibraryThing wants to inform you that whenever you use our Services, in case of an error in the apps we collect data and information which is transmitted directly to our server in the form of Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your devices's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, operating system version, configuration of the app when utilising the Service, the time and date of your use of the Service, and possibly other anonymous statistics.
Cookies
Cookies are files with small amount of data that is commonly used an anonymous unique identifier. These are sent to your browser from the website that you visit and are stored on your devices's internal memory.
LibraryThing services may use "cookies" to provide automatic sign-in for certain features (example: the LibraryThing app). You have the option to set up your device to accept or refuse these cookies, and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of this Service.
Security
LibraryThing values your trust in providing us your Personal Information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and LibraryThing cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Links to Other Sites
This Service may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by LibraryThing. Therefore, I strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. I have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Children's Privacy
See the COPPA section.
Changes to This App Privacy Policy
LibraryThing may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. You are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. LibraryThing will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately, after they are posted on this page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions about LibraryThing's App Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us.
Social Apps
LibraryThing allows members to connect to various apps, like Facebook and Twitter, that require application authorization. We will not use this for any purpose other than explicitly agreed to. The data we collect from these apps is used only for authentication purposes, and to post to the services as directed. It is not displayed, transferred, or shared in any way.
LibraryThing does not store any information for Facebook and Twitter except the keys necessary to perform API requests. In other words, all that stuff that Facebook gave companies like Cambridge Analytics, and which they misused, we have never stored and don't store now. We reserve the right to store your Facebook "name."
As Is
We work hard to keep LibraryThing useful, accurate, and online, but we offer it "as is" and "as available." We don't make formal warranties: we can't guarantee the site will always be up, error-free, or exactly what you need, and we don't warrant that book data, recommendations, covers, or other content are perfectly accurate. We do try, though—and we love it when you help us fix things.
The Limits of Our Liability
LibraryThing is made by a small company, offered to you in good faith. We can't promise perfection. To the fullest extent the law allows, LibraryThing and its staff won't be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of—or inability to use—the site, such as lost data, lost profits, or a catalog gone sideways.
If, despite all this, we are ever found liable for something, our total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid us in the previous twelve months, or $100 if you haven't paid us anything. Some places don't allow these limits, in which case they apply to you only as far as the law there permits.
Covering Our Backs
If something you post or do on LibraryThing lands us in a dispute with someone else—say, you post something that wasn't yours to post, or you break these terms or the law—you agree to cover the reasonable costs we run into as a result, including reasonable legal fees. We'll let you know promptly if this ever comes up, and honestly we'd much rather sort it out together than ever need this paragraph.
Governing Law and Disputes
LibraryThing is a Maine company. These terms, and any dispute about them or about your use of LibraryThing, are governed by the laws of the State of Maine and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. If a dispute can't be worked out in a friendly way—and we really will try first—it belongs in the state or federal courts located in Portland, Maine, and you agree to that.
This general rule sits alongside the more specific terms in Automated Access, Scraping, and Data Use, above, which continue to govern that section. And while we're here: we're not fans of forcing anyone into mandatory arbitration or stripping away the right to a day in court, so we don't.
Odds and Ends
A few standard housekeeping points, kept short:
- Severability. If a court decides any part of these terms doesn't hold up, the rest stays in force.
- The whole deal. These terms—together with the policies they link to, like the Community Rules and Privacy Policy—are the complete agreement between you and LibraryThing about using the site.
- Waiver. If we don't enforce a rule right away, that doesn't mean we've given it up.
- Assignment. You can't hand your rights under these terms to someone else, but we may transfer ours—for instance, if the company is ever sold—as long as the new owner honors them.
We Take It All Back
These terms and conditions are subject to the usual change-at-any-time rule that websites put on their terms and conditions and which seem so unfair. ("What, I have to submit a DNA sample?") We have edited them as new situations have come up, but we promise not to change any of the core principles, particularly with regard to sale of information, copyright and death rays. We promise to make all changes openly, with tracking and with the opportunity for users to withdraw their accounts.
BY USING LIBRARYTHING.COM DIRECTLY OR THROUGH A MEDIUM LIKE A COMPUTER WITH A KEYBOARD AND MAYBE A MOUSE ATTACHED YOU AGREE TO TAKE THESE IMPORTANT AND CONSEQUENTIAL TERMS OF USE SERIOUSLY EVEN THOUGH, OR EVEN BECAUSE, WE HAVE ONLY ONE SENTENCE AT THE END IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
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Employment
LibraryThing is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, ethnic origin, age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy status, parental status, marital status, veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
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