Request By:
James A. Nelson
State Librarian
Department of Library and Archives
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether registration and circulation records of public libraries are mandatorily required to be open to the public under the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884.
It is our opinion that they are not.
KRS 61.878(1)(a) reads as follows:
"The following public records are excluded from the application of KRS 61.870-61.884 and shall be subject to inspection only upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction:
(a) public records containing information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. . ."
The wording of this statute calls for a weighing of an individual's right of privacy against the public interest in the transaction involved. Wine Hobbies U.S.A., Inc. v. U.S. Internal Revenue Service, 502 F.2d 133 (1974).
We think that the individual's privacy rights as to what he borrows from a public library (books, motion picture film, periodicals and any other matter) is overwhelming. In fact we can see no public interest at all to put in the scales opposite the privacy rights of the individual.
We would point out, however, that Kentucky has no privacy statute and that the exceptions to mandatory disclosure of public records are permissive and no law is violated if they are not observed by the custodian.
In summary, it is our opinion that the custodian of the registration and circulation records of a public library is not required to make such records available for public inspection under the Open Records Law.