New: Keep a History of Items You’ve Borrowed from the Library
You asked for it, and now we’ve got it! Starting today, you can opt in to keep a record of your borrowing history in your account on the library website.
To start using borrowing history:
- Sign in to access the new Borrowing History section of your account.
- Click the Turn On Borrowing History link.
- Wait until you return an item you’ve borrowed. As soon as the item is checked in at the library, it will show up in your borrowing history.
Important points to note:
- You must opt in to start keeping track of your borrowing history. The library doesn’t keep a record of items you have borrowed unless you turn on this feature.
- Borrowing history starts on the day you opt in. We don’t have a record of items you borrowed before you started using this feature.
- Borrowed items will only show in your history after you have returned them. While you still have them checked out, they appear in the Checkouts section of your account.
- eBooks are not included. You can find your eBook borrowing history in the OverDrive site or app.
- A few other types of library items (magazines, uncatalogued paperbacks) aren’t included, mainly because the records don’t have enough detail to be useful.
- Once items appear in your borrowing history, they can’t be deleted.
See Borrowing History help for more information about how this feature works.
15 thoughts on “New: Keep a History of Items You’ve Borrowed from the Library”
Who asked for this useless feature? I’m genuinely curious.
Hi John,
Borrowing history has been our most frequently-requested feature for the past few years. We’ve heard from people who want it for a variety of different reasons – to help them remember what they’ve read or watched, to keep track of materials used in research or for a project, to see their children’s reading progress, etc.
Sandra has already replied aptly but I’m a librarian with TPL and I can second her response! Library users ask me to tell them their borrowing history at least once a week. I tell them we don’t keep a history (mainly for their own privacy) and they sometimes are very upset that we don’t! Many people will be very happy to see this is a new feature available to them.
This is great! I understand the privacy arguments, but I am thrilled with this-opt in feature for too many reasons to mention.
I did. Exactly as it was implemented (opt-in feature).
I second Jgoldstein58. I’ve wanted this feature for some time, and I’m very glad that it’s finally been added to the TPL website.
happy to have it use it
If we opt in to the borrowing history feature, can’third parties, such as police or government agencies with a search warrant or illegal hackers, also access our borrowing history? In fact, can’they access it now, before one opts in?
Hi Christina,
The Borrowing History FAQ has a section that may help answer your question:
Are there any circumstances where the library would make this information available to a third party?
If you have not opted in to use the borrowing history feature, the library does not keep a record of the items you check out after you have returned them.
Having items in the Borrowing History won’t stop us from being able to borrow the same items again, will it?
Hi Jocelyn,
No, definitely not. One reason many people are interested in borrowing history is to help them remember items they borrowed in the past in case they want to check them out again.
Thank you for adding this feature! I’ve been wondering if it would be possible for years and it’s finally here! Thank you!
Really impressed by the stream of improvements that the library has implemented over the last few years. Congratulations to all those involved and supporting change.
I’ve been asking for this feature for years. Love it. Thanks, jcharny
It’s about time. All other libraries in other regions do this. Can’t believe it took this long. Thanks for this feature.