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
• for selected pilot schools only - auto-enrolment into the library service

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
• library card number
• people captured through CCTV monitoring/recording
• gender
• school name
• alternative contact details and meeting location for groups
• borrowing history
• print usage
• marketing consent

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, learning difficulty or physical disability
• ethnicity

The legal bases for processing this personal information are:

• Consent (UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(a)) – the individual has given clear consent for research questionnaires
• Contract (UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(b)) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party
• Legal obligation (UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(c)) – processing is necessary to comply with the law outlined in:
  • Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964
• Public task (UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(e)) – processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest

The special category condition for processing is:

• Legal claims and judicial acts (UK GDPR Article 9 (2)(f)) – processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity
• Reasons of substantial public interest (UK GDPR Article 9 (2)(g)) – processing is necessary for preventing or detecting unlawful acts (condition 10 of Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018), protecting the public against dishonesty etc. (condition 11 of Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018) and insurance (condition 20 of Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018)

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
• the Police
• 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 14 May 2025.