Interlibrary Loan Data Retention Policy

Date Approved: 8/6/26

Effective Date: 8/6/26

Responsible Position: Vice Provost and Lindseth Family University Librarian and the Associate University Librarian for Collections, Research, and Engagement Services

Responsible Office/Department/Team: Access and Resource Services Department, KSL

Related Legislation/Policies:

Policy Review Period: 5 years

Date of Last Review: 8/6/26

Relates to: All past, present and future patron borrowers of Interlibrary (ILL) materials through the Kelvin Smith, Mandel School of Social Sciences and Law libraries of CWRU and includes lending and borrowing institutions outside of the CWRU system.

Policy Statement

CWRU is committed to protecting patron privacy while maintaining compliance with U.S. Copyright Law (Section 108). This policy governs the lifecycle of data within the ILLiad system to ensure records are kept only as long as legally required or operationally necessary.

Purpose of this Policy

The policy ensures compliance with university records retention requirements, protects the privacy of scholars, students, faculty, and staff, optimizes the use of electronic storage space, minimizes the costs associated with record retention, and establishes procedures for the timely destruction of outdated and unnecessary records.

Definitions

Anonymized Transaction: A filled transaction request that is not associated with a user account or a lending library account.

ILLiad: A complete resource-sharing software suite for libraries, which includes components to manage interlibrary loan requests.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): A research materials acquisition service at Kelvin Smith Library that facilitates short-term borrowing and lending of materials, both digital and physical, from partner institutions within the ILLiad system, including institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Lending Library Accounts: Contact information for libraries that have the ability to lend materials through interlibrary loan.

Retention Period: The length of time a record is stored in the ILLiad database.

Retention Schedule: Dating parameters by which records are anonymized or deleted.

Stub accounts: Accounts with usernames but no first or last names created when a user logs in using SSO but fails to complete registration.

Transaction History: The log of borrowing and lending requests associated with individual ILLiad user accounts.

Fiscal Year (FY): The fiscal year runs 7/1 until 6/30 of every calendar year at Kelvin Smith Library.

The Policy

Retention Schedules

Data, not just transactional or user accounts, but all corresponding database entries associated with an account will be managed according to the following terms:

Borrowing: Transactions and associated data with a creation date older than 5 years at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1st, will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, the following statuses: Request Finished and Canceled by ILL Staff.
Document Delivery: Transactions and associated data with a creation date older than 5 years at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1st, will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, the following statuses: Request Finished and Canceled by ILL Staff.
Lending: Transactions and associated data with a creation date older than 5 years at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1st, will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, the following statuses: Request Finished and Canceled by ILL Staff.
Anonymization: At the 3-year mark, all transaction records will be anonymized, excluding lending records to peer institutions. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) will be removed, leaving only high-level metadata (e.g., Department and User Status) for longitudinal research and reporting until the 5 year mark at the beginning of the fiscal year when they will be removed, including both Lending and Borrowing data. This cycle of anonymization occurs annually at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1st.
User Accounts: User accounts with no activity (requests) for 3 years will be removed. Account removals will be performed through Atlas queries. Lending Library accounts will be retained indefinitely. Lender address records without transactions will be removed at the discretion of staff with a goal of maintaining current and accurate contact, billing, and delivery information.
- Atlas Systems, as hosting provider, may be contacted for clean up and removal as deemed appropriate.
- Staff will merge and edit user and lender accounts at their discretion.
System Logs, Administrative & Back End: Technical logs and administrative back-end data will be cleared after 1 year.
Stub accounts: Deleted nightly alongside regularly scheduled database maintenance jobs.

Disposition of Records

Once every fiscal year, ILLiad records will be purged in accordance with the retention schedules outlined in this policy by ticketing Atlas staff to run the addendum script by Atlas registered, approved, hosted server contacts. When the retention period for a record has expired, the record will be isolated and securely deleted using automated deletion software, however, in some cases, ILL staff may request reports prior to this deletion.

If institutional needs require that a specific type of record be retained longer than the established retention schedule, the library department will recommend an extended retention period for review and approval, including receipt of that data.

Retention periods may be revised due to changes in law, audit requirements, or other factors. Any such revisions supersede the requirements listed in this policy, and the policy website will be updated to reflect current standards.