Special regulations for University Library services
All University Library services have been reviewed and approved by the TU Berlin Data Protection Office, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations.
We only collect and store your personal data insofar as necessary to provide the requested service or as legally required. If you want to use library services, registration is usually required, during which we process your personal data. The University Library's General Regulations of Use serve as the basis for the collection and storage of your personal data. As a user, you agreed to the General Regulations of Use.
Library services requiring your personal data include
- Reserving, ordering, and borrowing books, journals, and other media
- Acquiring articles, books, and journals from other institutions for use in our library through inter-library loan or other document delivery services
- Accessing online resources
- Submitting purchase requests together with an initial borrowing request as well as digitization suggestions and requests
- Requesting information about our media holdings or other University Library services
- Using our public Internet/computer workstations to study or research
Your personal data are automatically deleted once the reason for their storage has lapsed. The deadline for automatic deletion depends on the respective service (see individual dates below). Your personal data will also be deleted upon request provided that there are no legal grounds preventing deletion. Please note that you will be unable to use various services once your personal data are deleted.
You have the right to information, the right to complain, and the right to object, as well as the right to contact TU Berlin's data protection officer. Please also refer to the TU Berlin Data Privacy Statement.
University Library Internet-based services
You are required to sign in (authenticate) when using any Internet/computer workstations (including when accessing the Internet from your own laptop).
Registered users can search our catalogs as well as use our other media services, the Internet, and other services installed on the computers.
We store your login and logout times for a period of 4 weeks to prevent misuse and to be able to sufficiently investigate technical problems accurately. By using the authentication procedure, you consent to this.
Alma library system services
University Library accounts are stored and managed in the Alma library system. The system allows registered users to access the library's media services (using Primo). TU Berlin lecturers can also create reference lists for their courses (using Leganto).
- Media services in the Primo Knowledge Portal
Our media services are accessed through the Primo Knowledge Portal, the user interface of our Alma library system. Non-registered users can also search in Primo; however, only registered users have access to our media services. As a registered user, you can reserve, order, and borrow books, journals, and other media, use inter-library loan and other document delivery services as well as access e-books and electronic journals. In addition, you can save media and search queries in Primo to be able to access them again later on. The information will be saved under your Alma user ID.
A record is kept of your search queries in the Primo Knowledge Portal. This record includes a session ID, your query, and the number of results your search elicited. Once you have completed your session, it is not possible to trace any data back to you. This also applies if you are logged into the Primo Knowledge Portal as a user when conducting your search. - Reference lists in Leganto
Leganto is an extension of the Alma library system. In Leganto TU Berlin lecturers can create and manage reference lists for their courses on ISIS/Moodle (TU Berlin’s electronic learning platform). To create a reference list, lecturers need both a University Library account and authorization in ISIS/Moodle to create a course. This authorization is linked to a specific role in ISIS/Moodle and needs to be verified when creating a reference list in Leganto. For this purpose, the login name, the ISIS/Moodle course role, and the ISIS/Moodle course ID are transferred to Leganto from ISIS/Moodle.
We process your data partly via order processing. This has been reviewed by the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information as well as the TU Berlin Data Protection Officer (in cooperation with the data protection officers of the other Berlin universities).
Your personal data in our library system will be deleted 24 months after your last login or upon your request provided that there are no legal grounds preventing deletion. Such opposing reasons may be, in particular, the existence of outstanding claims regarding loans (cf. Section 18 General Regulations of Use). With the deletion of your data, your status as a user of the library expires and you can no longer use the media services.
Inquiries and book and digitization requests (help desk)
We use forms on our webpages to enable you to submit a contact form, suggest a book, and submit digitization suggestions and requests. If you contact us through the use of such web forms and provide your email address, the information provided in the form will be stored by our help desk to process your inquiry.
Our help desk uses a ticketing system. A ticket is closed after your inquiry has been answered. Tickets are deleted after six months to allow staff to process any follow-up questions.
Chat support
Chat support is offered through a LibraryH3lp tool. Chat inquiries are transmitted to an external EU server and recorded there for quality assurance. Any personal data (IP address) are automatically anonymized daily. The University Library deletes chat conversations once a day. If a team member is unable to answer your inquiry, it will only be forwarded via internal email to other members of the chat support team with your consent.
Web applications
The University Library uses web applications for several services:
- Affluences visitor number software to provide information about the current occupancy of work spaces in the library. This information is integrated into the Primo Knowledge Portal. The Google Analytics tracking tool is not used by Affluences in its configuration at the University Library.
- Actionbound learning software to introduce users to the library and its services
The University Library does not collect any personal data when you use web applications.
If you download the apps of the web applications (via App Store or Google Play) and use services of the University Library via these, be aware that the privacy policies of the respective providers of the web applications apply.
