The Library Service enables individuals to access services hosted from any of our 24 library branches, either as library members or as members of the public seeking to use our facilities (such as hiring meeting rooms). Members may also access digital resources that we subscribe to, or the Home Library Service, if eligible.
Borrowing items from us and using our public computers requires a membership.
The purposes we use your personal information for
We collect and process your personal information to provide library services to you.
The data we collect, process and retain, is for this purpose and includes:
- registering you as a service user and to manage our relationship with you
- providing you with access to our resources, such as borrowing, requesting items, booking rooms, or electronic devices
- providing access to a range of electronic resources many of which are through our partnership with LibrariesWest
- responding to enquiries
- for administration purposes such as the collection of fees for overdue loans.
- delivering specific activities and services such as bookable events and the Home Library Service
The personal information we collect and use
We only obtain and use the information we need to provide our services to you. This will include:
- name and guardian name (where required)
- address
- date of birth and age
- telephone number
- email address and other contact details
- health condition/disability (where provided or required)
- emergency contact details (for those using the Home Library Service or for children’s accounts/activities)
- access arrangements (for those using the Home Library Service)
- membership Number and PIN
- date and time of reserving, borrowing, renewing and returning library stock (where applicable)
- details of stock reserved, borrowed, renewed and returned, including e-resources (where applicable)
- date, time and amount of any fines and other charges paid to the library
- date, time and amount of any refunds made by the library
- usage of Public PCs including location, time and date
- notes of conversations and any correspondence with Library staff concerning any aspect of Library services
We also hold details of members of other Authorities joined into the LibrariesWest partnership as these records are stored on a shared Libraries Management System.
You can view the LibrariesWest Privacy agreement.
The law we use to process your personal information
Statutory legislation
The main legislation that provides us with the statutory basis to deliver our services is the Public Libraries and Museum Act 1964.
In addition, Councils are required by statute to uphold the law and protect the public funds they administer. We may therefore share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for crime prevention, detection and fraud, in managing anti-social behaviour and for auditing purposes.
The GDPR and DPA conditions we meet
The conditions that we use to process your personal information are:
- public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
Who we may share your information with
The data you provide is accessible to our Local Authority, LibrariesWest partners and the suppliers of our library management systems.
The suppliers of our Library Management System and the software supporting the provision of public pc’s have committed to handling data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and will only do so to the extent that is required to maintain the systems.
Your data may also be shared with the local authorities’ service delivery partners (for example, the Royal Voluntary Society, who deliver the Home Library Service on behalf of the council. When sharing your data with these partners, we will only do so where we have a data sharing agreement in place and only for the purpose of delivering more effective public services to you.
E-services
E-Services (eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers or eMagazines) are made available through the LibrariesWest partnership. The third parties who provide these services have access to the data we hold to enable access and are bound by UK data protection legislation.
Transfers Abroad
To provide and maintain an effective library service to customers it may be necessary to transfer customer data to our LMS supplier's data centres hosted in Europe. This data will only be securely transferred when necessary due to technical issues in the UK based data hosting centres.
Anonymised data
Anonymised data from our systems may also be shared with:
- contracted partners to analyse and evaluate the impact of our programmes
- government departments (Department for Culture Media and Sports), or their contractors, for reporting and statistical purpose
- external programme funders
- programme delivery partners
- internal reports
How long we keep information about you
Our library management systems hold data for up to two years after your last transaction with us to meet audit requirements.
However, if you have unreturned items or outstanding debt your data may be retained for a further 2 years.
After this, your information will be deleted or archived.
Information relevant to Volunteer placements may be kept for up to 6 years.
Information obtained in relation to specific events/services such as the Summer Reading Challenge or Home Delivery will only be held until up to one month after the event/service has finished and then be anonymised for statistical purposes.
Information kept in relation to meeting room hire is stored for 6 months after booking ends.