Email Account Form

Complete this form to sign up for your free PALS hosted email account.

Prairie Area Library System (PALS)
Email Code of Conduct
(Member Libraries)

Prairie Area Library System (PALS) provides the staff and trustees of its member libraries (hereafter known as users) email service in order to facilitate their provision of services to their patrons and to communicate electronically with PALS and take advantage of the other services and programs available through PALS.  Users of the PALS email service are responsible for using email appropriately. To that end, PALS has established the following Email Code of Conduct.

Member libraries that choose to utilize the PALS email service agree to this Email Code of Conduct on behalf of all the users of the PALS email service at their institution.  It is recommended that member libraries develop their own policies to cover issues pertinent to them. Such policies should not contradict material in this document.

Email services are only available to full members of PALS.

PALS staff will provide for the administration of this service.

*To have an email account removed, please contact exchangemail@palsnet.info

Acceptable Email Use

Users' email use should be for official purposes. The PALS email service may be used for personal purposes, but such usage must remain subordinate to official usage and not interfere with the operation of the PALS email service. Users are to use the PALS email service in an effective, ethical, and lawful manner.

Unacceptable Email Use

Users are prohibited from using the PALS email service to disrupt operations, sabotage PALS or other organizations, and/or interfere with others' productivity. The provisions of the "Computer Crime Prevention Law" (720 ILCS 5/16D-1 et seq) and other appropriate laws must be observed as well in the use of the PALS email service.

Appropriate Content

Users are responsible for the content of all text, audio, and/or images they transmit over the PALS email service. Fraudulent, harassing, menacing, obscene, or otherwise objectionable messages are prohibited.

Electronic messages should include the user's name. No messages may be transmitted under an assumed name. Users may not attempt to obscure the origin of messages.

Information transmitted via the PALS email service should not violate or infringe upon the rights of others.

PALS strives to prevent and/or remove inappropriate content, such as, but not limited to, spam and viruses, on the PALS email service, but the nature of the Internet makes it impossible to achieve complete effectiveness in this area.

Copyright Adherence

Copyrighted materials may not be transmitted by users. Users are not permitted to copy, transfer, rename, or edit copyrighted material without permission of the owner. Copyright infringement may result in legal action by the copyright owner.

Privacy & Security

PALS strives to offer privacy and security in its email service that is provided to its member libraries. It is important to remember, however, that email messages are public communication and are generally not secure and private as they travel across the Internet.

PALS reserves the right to access and monitor all messages and files on the email service as deemed necessary and appropriate. All electronic communications, including text and images, can be disclosed to law enforcement or other third parties without prior consent of the user who sent or received the information. PALS will exercise its best judgment in the disclosure of such information.

Each director (or authorized representative) of a library that utilizes the email service will be given, upon written request, access to all email accounts for that library.

PALS does not deliberately remove emails and files from its email service. Users of the PALS email service should be aware that this makes these emails and files available for possible disclosure.

Harassment & Discrimination

The provisions of the "Cyberstalking" (720 ILCS 5/12-7.5), "Harassing and Obscene Communications Act" (720 ILCS 135/1), and other appropriate laws must be observed in the use of the PALS email service.

Violations & Disciplinary Action

Users who violate the PALS Email Code of Conduct may lose access to the service. Criminal conduct of any type would be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Accounts not accessed for six months will be deleted.