Policy

Lost articles found in library premises are held for thirty days. Due to the volume of unclaimed items left at Central, retention time may be less than 30 days. Lost media articles and money are held for sixty days.

Rationale

Lost articles should be retained long enough to maximize the customer's chances of claiming their items, but not so long as to create a backlog of material at the branch. Lost media articles that may contain sensitive personal data may be checked for information that might assist in identifying the owner in a manner that helps protect library staff and equipment.

Procedure

General Lost and Found Articles and Money - on Library Premises

1. The staff member notes the date that the article was found and looks for owner identification. If possible, the owner is notified.
   • The item is held for thirty days.
   • After 30 days, send the item to OPS/Facilities where it will be donated to a local charity.

• Money that is found in the library is turned in to an Administrator who notes the amount, date found and any details of where it was found. The money is held for sixty days to see if it will be claimed.
  • If not claimed after sixty days, the money is processed like a cash donation with the weekly cash reconciliation.
  • Credit cards can be sent to OPS/Facilities for disposal. Send an email to lib-facilities@multco.us noting what you are sending. Library facilities staff will put items in the non-paper secure destruction bin maintained by Iron Mountain.
  • Money found by Sort Center staff should be sent in an envelope to Business Services (either Dalena Gagatko or Johnny Fang) where it will be treated as a donation.

Disposing of sharp knives, machetes, etc found on library premises

1. Report findings to library security and/or the police non-emergency number as appropriate.  Contact Lib-Facilities to assist with proper disposal.

2.  From Metro:  I recommend taking them to a metal recycler as they can usually recycle those items for free.  Please make sure to contact the metal recycler in advance as they often have specific instructions when bringing in sharp metal items.  Also, we don’t recommend adding sharp items to curbside garbage/recycling bins as they can be hazardous to the employees dealing with the waste.

Citizen or Police Reporting Found Articles, including Library Cards

1. If a citizen caller reports finding a lost Multnomah County Library card, please set the card to lost in Symphony.  We do not provide patrons with information regarding the account holder.  Follow the Circulation Manual procedure: If another person finds a library card, mark the card as lost. The library does not attempt to connect the patron with the person who found the library card.

2. If the citizen wants to know what to do with other items found along with the library card, suggest to the caller that they contact their local police department via the non-emergency number.
   From the "found property" portion of the Portland Police Bureau website:
   If you found property such as the items listed above, call the non-emergency number - 503-823-3333 and select "Situation that requires a police officer at your location, press 1." Remember when reporting found property you need to be within five minutes of the location of the property.
   If we have current account information and the caller simply drops the article(s) off at their closest neighborhood library location, we will do our best to try and contact the owner of the item(s).  If not successful, follow the procedure above for contacting the police via the non-emergency number.

   3.  For found passports:

   Please mail the found passport in a sturdy envelope, to:

   ATTN: CLASP
   U.S. Department of State
   CA/PPT/S/L/LE
   4th Floor
   1150 Passport Services PL
   Dulles, VA 20189-1150

   4.  If a Police Officer reports finding a library card in connection with a crime and requests information about the account holder, follow the guidelines in the Law Enforcement Requests for Information at Library Public Service Agencies policy.

Media Articles (Non-Commercial) That May Contain Sensitive Personal Data

1. Media articles are held for sixty days to see if they will be claimed, after which time Lost and Found media need to be 'sanitized' (wiped or destroyed). Media articles include: laptops, flash drives, personal USB drives, memory sticks, etc., (non-commercial) CDs and DVDs, diskettes, PDA memory disks; cell phones, cameras, iPODs, tapes from tape recorders, MP3 players, etc.
2. If the media potentially contains files/information that might identify the owner, staff may look at stored content. Two staff members must be present when looking at stored content. The two staff members must not routinely be the same pair of individuals.
3. Use a public pc, logged in to Pharos with a location guest card, to view USB files. If you use a computer lab PC, login with the "PUBLAB" account in order to view USB thumb drive files. If your location doesn't have CD/DVD drives to view that type of article, follow the article retention timeline and send the article for sanitizing.
4. If you leave a phone message or have to communicate by mail/email, include a date by which the owner must retrieve the item. Each location must create and maintain a written record of these attempts to locate owners, including the date found, staff members' names, presumed owner's identity, method of contact, date of attempt and whether or not the attempt was successful. A sample record is below, along with a link to a lost media articles form for printing and using at each library location.
5. Store the items in a staff-only area and store any high-dollar items in an area/space with limited staff access (e.g., a manager's file cabinet).
6. All media articles not retrieved by their owners will be sent for disposal. At least every month, forward the unclaimed media items via interoffice mail to OPS/Facilities. Send an email to lib-facilities@multco.us noting what you are sending. REMINDER - this is only for media items (or portion thereof) that may contain sensitive information (no car key fobs, whole cameras, etc). For example - remove the media/memory card from the camera and send the card for disposal; dispose of the camera by the usual donation route.
7. Library facilities staff will put items in the non-paper secure destruction bin maintained by Iron.

An example record:

Date item found: 12/1/09
Item description: memory stick
Possible owner identity: John Smith
Date attempted to contact owner: 12/3/09
Method used to contact owner: phone call
Result of contact & date sent to owner or county for disposal: he'll stop by tomorrow to retrieve item
Staff member names: Ann Brown & Cindy Jones