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About Your Borrowing History
Jump directly to the Frequently Asked Questions
Note that this page has been edited to update the timeline from January 2025 to March 2025.
Whenever an item is checked out from and returned to the library, our systems record the history of that transaction, including a reference to the person who checked out the item and which copy of the material was borrowed.
To protect your privacy, starting March 1, 2025 the Libraries will be anonymizing all borrowing history data that is older than six months. This process will de-identify the individual associated with the loan transaction. After anonymization, the Libraries will retain a record of the loan for internal collection analysis purposes, but will no longer be able to connect a specific patron to that loan transaction.
What do you need to do?
If you do not want to maintain your full borrowing history, there is nothing you need to do. Starting on March 1, 2025, if your account has history older than six months, that older information will be anonymized, removing any connection it has to your account.
If you want to maintain your full borrowing history, then you need to follow the instructions below prior to March 1, 2025.
Opting In Required to Maintain Full History
If you want to maintain your entire borrowing history, prior to March 1, 2025 you will need to log in to https://loanhistory.library.wisconsin.edu/ and opt in so that your history is preserved for your use.
If you decide later that you do want your borrowing history anonymized, you can go back to that URL and opt out.
If you have opted in to maintain your full borrowing history, you can view your borrowing history from within your Libraries Account.
NOTE that any accounts that do not opt-in by March 1, 2025 will have their borrowing history reduced to the prior six months, and borrowing history older than that will be anonymized and not recoverable.
Exporting Your Borrowing History
Once you opt in, if you want to download your history, you can export it by using the Download link in the borrowing history service. This will download a text .csv file you can store offline or use in your personal applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
For Madison patrons, login to your Library Account and click on BORROWING HISTORY in the upper right. Your account will show one of three situations:
Situation 1 – You have not opted in
Under Borrowing History, your account will indicate that it is not set to save your borrowing history. To opt-in to save your entire borrowing history, visit UW System Library Borrowing History.
Situation 2 – You have opted in and have borrowing history
Under Borrowing History, your account will show materials you have returned, and the side column will indicate that your borrowing history is being saved. To stop saving your entire history, visit UW System Library Borrowing History.
Situation 3 – You have opted in and have no borrowing history
Under Borrowing History, you will not see any materials listed, but the side column will indicate that your borrowing history is being saved. To stop saving your borrowing history, visit UW System Library Borrowing History.
Most borrowing history records from UW-Madison, other University of Wisconsin campuses, and other academic institutions will be anonymized 6 months after the item is returned. However, archival and special collection loans will be anonymized 10 years after the item is returned to comply with mandated record retention schedules.
Active loans for physical materials that are still in the possession of library patrons do not show up in your borrowing history. Any materials that have been checked out and not yet returned will still show up in your library account but will appear in your borrowing history once they are returned to the library.
If you opt in to have us retain your full history, it will contain the item’s title, author, loan date, and other publication information. The borrowing history will not have a record of any digitization requests – only physical material loans.
Opting in to retain your entire history means that the Libraries will maintain a record of everything you have borrowed. The simple fact of retaining data increases the risk of exposure of this data to a security breach. The Libraries take our cybersecurity role to limit that risk very seriously, but improper and illegal access is always a risk no matter how securely a system is protected.
Your borrowing history is protected under Wisconsin state statute §§ 43.30 and the Libraries are not permitted to share your information with anyone besides you or your legal guardian. However, under rare circumstances, a library may be compelled by court order to release your circulation data to law enforcement as part of a criminal investigation.
While the libraries may use anonymized circulation data when making collections decisions, we do not utilize the individual personal circulation data in any way, unless requested by the patron or if needed to resolve a specific internal circulation question.
We do not share personal borrowing history, although opting in will allow you to see your own borrowing history. Wisconsin state statute §§ 43.30 protects this information such that we would not disclose this information to anyone else except through a court order.
If this data is important to you, we strongly encourage you to download a copy of your borrowing history before your relationship with the university ends.
When a patron loses their NetID access, they will no longer be able to access their borrowing history. Furthermore, after a patron leaves the UW, their record is purged from library systems and their borrowing history will be purged and not recoverable.
The option to retain your borrowing history is only available to Universities of Wisconsin students, staff, and faculty. If you would like a record of your borrowing history going back to 2015, please contact Circulation Support prior to March 1, 2025.