Far North District Libraries Privacy Statement
Far North District Libraries takes its privacy obligations very seriously. We do this through adhering to the requirements of the Privacy Act, 2020 and the privacy guidelines set by the Libraries IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations).
Our collection, use, storage and disclosure of your personal information adheres to the requirements of the Privacy Act and the IFLA. You can find details of your rights at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (https://www.privacy.org.nz/).
Far North District Libraries is part of the Far North District Council. The council’s privacy statement can be seen here.
Far North District Libraries is part of the Kotui consortium of public libraries in New Zealand. Kotui manages the Sirsi-Dynix system database and online catalogue that Far North District Libraries provides. Kotui does not share Far North District user data with any other library network. The privacy statement of Kotui will be publicly available in 2021 and we will provide a link to the statement when it is published.
Your personal information
We collect personal information when you register as a library member including:
- Name
- Address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Date of birth
As you use the library services, we collect information about your overdues, fines, claims returned and lost items.
We also maintain a history of your reading over a three-year period for your convenience. This record is available to you when you log in to our catalogue website (https://farnorth.kotui.org.nz) or when you ask a staff member for this information. This feature can be disabled if you ask.
Collection of this data enables us to:
- Communicate with you
- Record borrowing and return of items and any fees associated with this service
- Provide you with access to our range of electronic resources
- Provide library services to you as efficiently as possible.
We only collect personal information that you agree to give us or have authorised someone else to give us on your behalf. If you choose not to provide any required personal details, we will be unable to provide you with library services. We will only use the information for the reason it was provided.
We also have CCTV in our libraries to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of all customers. Images from our CCTV may be viewed by library staff or provided to police in the event of an incident.
We collect email addresses for the purpose of sending library information, including overdue notices and holds notices. Occasionally, we will use email addresses to contact all library users if there is a major service interruption. You can request we remove your email address from your library record by contacting us at Libraries@fndc.govt.nz.
We only keep personal information if you are an active library member. If you have not used the library service for a continuous period of seven years, we will delete your membership record and all associated data.
Membership number
In order to allow you to use many of our services, we issue you with a membership card with a number (a unique identifier). This membership number is created by Far North District Libraries and will only be used by us for library related purposes and will not be disclosed to other agencies, except where required by law.
Disclosure of personal information
We will only disclose personal information if required by New Zealand law.
Access to your information
The Privacy Act gives you rights to request access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you. There are some exceptions outlined in Principle 6 of the Privacy Act. You can usually see the personal information we hold by logging into our catalogue website (https://farnorth.kotui.org.nz). You can also request a copy of any personal information we hold about you or request a correction to that information by contacting the library (Libraries@fndc.govt.nz).
Security of your information
We take all reasonable steps to safeguard the personal information we collect so it is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any misuse and we will exercise due care regarding system security.
Only Far North District Library staff and the Kotui technical support team can access your information. Your information is only viewed for library related purposes that include:
- Borrowing library items
- Returning library items
- Issuing of library notices, including holds, lost and overdue notices
- Your borrowing history
- If there is an issue with your library account, and we are required to fix that issue so you can use the library services.
All library user and transaction data are securely stored by Kotui in cloud storage at Christchurch.
External links
Our websites contain links to other sites. These links are provided for your convenience. We can’t guarantee that they are kept up to date and we are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please note that this includes eBook and other vendors who may be overseas and are not subject to the same privacy provisions that apply in New Zealand. We do, of course, attempt to deal only with reputable vendors.
Your devices
We do collect usage information when you use our websites and apps, but this is strictly for the purposes of analysis and does not contain any personal information. This may include the type of browser you are using. Although our websites and apps establish contact using IP addresses, we do not retain or use any IP address information.
We also capture the frequency and length of use of WiFi at all our libraries, but this is strictly for statistical analysis and does not contain personal information.
