The service processes personal information in order to manage and administer Library services either directly or jointly with partners and commissioned private and third sector providers. 

This includes:

• providing access to services in libraries, the Mobile Library and digital library services
• providing volunteering and work experience opportunities in Libraries
• planning and improving Library services
• preventing or detecting fraud or crime
• research using anonymised personal data. If we wish to use your identifiable personal data, we will seek your permission

The service processes personal information which is relevant to individual cases which may include, but is not limited to, the following personal data:

• your personal details including name, address, date of birth, home and mobile phone numbers, email address, emergency contact name and number
• library card number
• gender
• school name 
• alternative contact details and meeting location for groups

We may also process some special category (sensitive) information, which is relevant to individual cases and may include some of the following but is not limited to:

• health or learning difficulty or physical disability
• ethnicity

The legal bases for processing this personal information are:

• contract for the supply of services
• compliance with a legal obligation
• tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
• consent for research questionnaires

We may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you with partner organisations where relevant to the individual and/or their service provision. 

These include but are not limited to:

• other Worcestershire County Council services as appropriate including Legal Services
• Voluntary Agency Partners
• National Regulators and Agencies
• Funding Bodies 

Information will only ever be shared when it is strictly necessary to help us provide effective services and you may have the right to refuse. We will not pass it onto any other parties unless required to do so by law or if in all reasonable circumstances, the disclosure is fair and warranted for the purposes of processing or subject to a data protection exemption.

We have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party, for example, to prevent crime.

We retain your personal information for 2 years after your membership of the library ceases. Inter library loan request forms are disposed of as soon as the loan request has been fulfilled.

The standard retention periods for records relating to Adult Education is 6 years after the academic year in which your enrolment occurs

More information about our retention periods can be found in our summary Disposal Schedule (Excel file).

Please note stated retention periods may be subject to any legal holds imposed under the Inquiries Act 2005 that may concern the information and override standard retention periods.

You are entitled to a copy, or a description, of the personal data we hold that relates to you, subject to lawful restrictions.  Please go to our Make a Data Protection Request webpage to find out how to make a request.

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis. Please in the first instance contact CBrown@worcestershire.gov.uk, Head of Libraries, Archives and Archaeology, to exercise these Information Rights, or call the main Worcestershire County Council; contact telephone number: 01905 765765.

Please see our overarching Privacy Notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review, and we will place any updates on this web page. This Notice was last updated on 4 February 2022.