Thank you for visiting the websites of the Institute of Museum and Library Services ("IMLS Websites" or "Websites") and reviewing our privacy policy and terms of use.
Privacy
Maintaining the privacy of our visitors is important to us and our privacy policy is clear. We will collect no personal information about you when you visit our Websites unless you choose to provide that information to us.
Here is how we handle information about your visit to our Websites. As you can see, the information we receive depends upon what you do when visiting our sites:
I. Information Collected and Stored Automatically
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the Websites, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:
- The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "your school.edu" if you connect from a university) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our Websites;
- The type of browser and operating system used to access our sites;
- The date and time you access our sites;
- The pages you visit; and
- If you linked to an IMLS Website from another website, the address of that website.
We use this information to help us make our sites more useful to visitors and to learn about the number of visitors to our sites and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.
II. If You Send Us Personal Information
If you choose to provide us with personal information - by subscribing to our newsletter or sending us an e-mail comment - we use that information to register your subscription and/or respond to your comment, if appropriate. IMLS does not collect information for commercial purposes.
III. If You Use the Agency’s Grants-Related Online Resources
IMLS maintains several online systems for the convenience of the public and to assist the agency in carrying out its grant-making responsibilities. Use of these resources is voluntary, and the agency will use the information you submit solely for the reasons you provided it. If you apply online, we will use the information you submit to determine eligibility, assist reviewers in evaluating the application, select successful applicants, and administer the award program. Some of the reviewers will be outside the agency; we will take appropriate security measures to protect the information we share with them. The information otherwise will be disclosed only for a government purpose or as required by law. If you submit a report online, the information will be used for to evaluate your project or program and for related government purposes.
Cookies
"Cookies" are small bits of text that are either used for the duration of a session ("session cookies") or saved on a user’s hard drive in order to identify that user, or information about that user, the next time the user logs on to a website ("persistent cookies"). Your computer will only share the information in the cookie with the website that provided it and no other website can request it. The IMLS Websites may use persistent cookies. By default, we use cookies to enable more streamlined navigation and for statistical analysis to make improvements to our Websites. A few of our Websites may also make use of persistent cookies to remember you between visits so, for example, you can save your customized preference settings for future visits. Each IMLS site using persistent cookies identifies itself as doing so.
You can remove or block cookies by changing the settings of your browser. You can still use our Websites if you do not accept the cookies; however, you may be unable to use certain cookie-dependent features. Further information regarding the handling of cookies is generally available on the website of applicable third party providers. The Federal Government also has guidelines for the use of persistent cookies.
Disclaimer of Endorsement
Any references to commercial entities, products, processes, or services, or other nongovernmental organizations or individuals that are included on the Websites by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise are provided solely for your information. These references are not intended to reflect the opinions of IMLS, the United States Government, or their officers or employees or third party service providers concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, organization, or individual. Such references, including any that may relate to our initiatives and partnerships, are not official or personal endorsements or approvals, and should not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying endorsement or approval by IMLS or the Government.
Third-Party Websites and Applications
IMLS’s presence on any third-party website, including any social media platform, does not constitute or imply its endorsement of the site. Nor does IMLS endorse any social media provider when embedding media from a third-party site. IMLS’s presence on these sites enhances the public’s ability to access information about our programs and services and IMLS’s interaction with those interested in our work.
We do not use third-party websites and applications to solicit and collect personally identifiable information ("PII") from individuals, and we do not transmit or store any PII collected by third-party websites and applications. Unless required for law enforcement purposes or by statute, no PII will be disclosed, sold, or transferred to any entity outside IMLS without authorized consent.
External Links
We provide links from our Websites to external websites because they provide information that may interest our users. This is provided as a convenience only. External links do not constitute an endorsement or approval by IMLS of the information, opinions, products, or services presented on the external website, or of any websites linked to it.
We do not guarantee that external websites comply with the requirements of Section 508 (Accessibility Requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act. We are not responsible for the legality or accuracy of information on externally-linked websites or for any costs incurred while using such websites. We cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials in externally-linked websites and are not responsible for transmissions you may receive from such websites.
Once you link to an external website, you are subject to the privacy policy and terms of use of that website. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any website you link to from ours, especially if you share any personal information. Be informed. You are the person best qualified to protect your own privacy.
External links on our websites are intended to support IMLS’s mission. They are not intended to support private or commercial organizations or businesses. Links to .org, .gov, .edu, .mil or other non-profit websites that share interests inherent to IMLS’s mission are encouraged because of their general non-commercial, public-interest nature. Links to .com, .net, and other commercial domains are acceptable if supportive of users’ needs and relevant to IMLS’s mission.
We reserve the right to review links and add or remove links at any time for any reason consistent with Federal policy or IMLS guidelines. Links to external websites may be removed if the websites lobby or solicit the Federal government on positions of fiscal or political nature, or if they receive funds or revenue for volume of traffic delivered from IMLS to the external site where the site is not an official partner of IMLS. Except for partnerships, IMLS does not agree to reciprocal link arrangements.
Use of Plug-ins
The first time that you use an area of our Websites that requires software such as "Flash," you may see an invitation to go to the software manufacturer’s website so you may download software or plug-in needed to view the animation on our website. This prompt occurs because a script can tell whether your browser has the needed capabilities provided by these plug-ins. We do not use "cookies" to do this, nor do we read anything on your computer other than your browser’s capabilities. We do not endorse or guarantee anything about the product that you may download from a manufacturer’s website. If you choose to visit the manufacturer’s website to obtain the plug-in, please carefully review their policies for details about personal privacy and use of its software.
Copyright
Generally, content produced by Federal agencies such as IMLS are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. However, not all content appearing on IMLS Websites are in the public domain.
Images, text, recordings, multimedia content, and other materials on IMLS Websites may be protected by copyright laws and other restrictions and are provided with the permission of the intellectual property rights holder(s) for noncommercial uses and purposes consistent with IMLS’s mission. It is your responsibility to identify the intellectual property rights holder(s) and to receive their prior written permission before making use of protected content for any purpose other than fair use as defined by copyright law. We expressly prohibit the unauthorized copying or exploitation of any protected content on our Websites, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright law.
If you have any more information about an item you have seen on our Websites or if you are the copyright owner and believe our Websites have not properly attributed your work to you or have used it without permission, we want to hear from you. Please contact OGC@imls.gov with your contact information and a link to the relevant content.
Security
For site security purposes and to ensure that IMLS website service remains available to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.