While privacy is a core value of librarianship, privacy standards differ by library and library vendor. These types of guidelines are necessary and useful, but understanding them can be overwhelming. Academic libraries increasingly rely on third-party, cloudbased vendors to manage their systems and to provide access to their collections. When selecting library systems, library staff must understand privacy issues and be aware of how vendors use data. However, libraries do not always have the staffing, time or knowledge, and vendors are not always interested in upholding library values. The project examines the content of privacy policies for popular library systems used by Canadian academic libraries. The research aims to help librarians better understand the policies, to help them make informed decisions about their own library systems. The process used to code the privacy policies and the results of the coding are included alongside recommendations for vendors and library employees. Building on two seminal privacy studies, the methodology is revised for a Canadian context and updated with today's terminology and context, making it adaptable for other libraries and context around the world.
