Northern Care Alliance Library & Knowledge Service Privacy Policy
Information that we collect
We store certain personal information about you when you join the library. We store this information in our library management system, on software used to manage your OpenAthens account, and also on a secure local network accessible only by library staff.
In order to ensure that library staff can contact you and easily identify you in the system we store your name, home address, email address(es), phone number(s), organisation, department, work location, job title and role.
Sharing your information with others
We work with external organisations to:
- store and process your information
- develop the software and fix bugs
- manage email delivery for things like overdue notices
The external organisations that we work with are:
- Soutron who are the developers and suppliers of our library management system
- Eduserve who manage the OpenAthens system via which you are able to access our electronic resources
These organisations are provided with access to your information in order to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
Your information is also used by the library in order to deliver the services that you have requested from us. Often we will add or update your information (at your request).
Anonymised information will be used for reporting on usage of library services.
We will share your information with the Trust’s Finance Department and/or your university/college if we need to recover library property borrowed from this service.
We will share your information with others if required to do so by law. We will never sell your information to anyone, or share it in a way not described in this notice without your permission.
Further information about the lawful basis on which we process and share your data is available on request.
We will email you in order to communicate with you about services you have requested (including requesting your evaluation to help improve services). We may also contact you to check that the information we have is up-to-date.
You may choose to receive additional emails regarding library services and resources, and requests for feedback. Receiving these additional emails is based on opt-in consent that we will ask you to provide when you sign up for library membership. If you wish to change your preferences, please contact a member of library staff.
We may transfer your contact information from our Soutron software to another electronic library management system in order to communicate with you about services that you request such as document supply or book loans.
Information security
Technical safeguards, such as firewalls and antivirus software are used to help ensure that your information is kept safe and only disclosed to people who are authorised to view it. Any data transferred via email is encrypted if not sent via NHS email. We back-up your data regularly and we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorised access to systems.
We restrict access to personal information to library staff and other partners who need to know that information in order to process it for us (as described above). Staff at these organisations are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations.
Deleting your information
We will keep your information for as long as you are making use of NHS library and knowledge services and will delete your data after a maximum of seven years of inactivity. If you return to the trust after a period of time, you will need to re-register for membership of the library.
The system will only store as much information about you as is required, and will securely destroy any personal information about you when it is no longer of use.
Compliance and cooperation with regulatory authorities
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy and adhere to the UK General Data Protection Regulations.
Contact us
If you have any concerns related to this privacy policy, or have queries about the use of your personal information, please contact library@pat.nhs.uk.