Privacy Policy

Introduction

Academic Libraries North (ALN) is committed to protecting your privacy. The information you share with us means you will be able to use the services we offer.  We only collect the information that is necessary to conduct our business, provide the specific service you have requested and to keep you informed. Our privacy policy gives you details on when and why we collect your personal data and how we use it.

Collection of your personal information

The amount and type of information we collect from you depends on the nature of the interaction you have with us.  For example, we ask delegates to our events to provide their name, email, institutional affiliation and job role with us. In each case, we only gather as much information as is necessary to fulfil the service request.  In general, we collect the following personal information:

• Contact information including work address, telephone number and email address
• Organisational affiliation and role
• Information about your computer hardware and software is automatically collected by ALN. This information can include your IP address; browser type; domain name; access times; and referring website addresses.

How we use your personal information

The information we collect and hold on you will be used in various ways, including:

• To fulfil bookings for attendance at events
• To inform you of other events or activities available from ALN and its subgroups
• To process payments, e.g. fees for attendance at events, payment of invoices, etc.
• To facilitate discussion and sharing of knowledge through discussion lists and events
• To contact you to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered
• When you use the ALN website
• For analysis on the reach of ALN services and training

ALN will keep your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Data Privacy Policy and to fulfil our legal obligations. We will not keep more information than we need. The retention period will vary according to the purpose for which the data is collated.

ALN does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. In addition, ALN may share data with trusted partners to help us process payments, perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to ALN, and are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.  ALN does not use or disclose special category personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without seeking your explicit consent.

ALN will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on ALN or the site; (b) protect and defend ALN’s rights or property; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of ALN, or the public.

Security of Your Personal Information

ALN discloses personally-identifying information to its employees, contractors and affiliates in order to provide services (e.g. events, JiscMail etc) available from the ALN and its special interest groups/communities of practice. They will not use your data for anything other than the clearly defined purpose relating to the service that they are providing.

Please bear in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through ALN discussion groups or social media, this information may be collected and used by others.  ALN secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.  ALN secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

Third Party Services

ALN utilises third party services to assist in the delivery of some of our services (e.g. JiscMail, Eventbrite and SurveyMonkey).  When you interact with these sites you may provide information about yourself to those third parties. ALN is not responsible for how they collect, use and share your information. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of the websites you choose to link to from ALN’s site, so that you can understand how these websites collect, use and share your information.

Updating Your Personal Information

ALN endeavours to ensure the data we hold on you is correct and up-to-date. If you wish us to amend or remove the personal information we hold on you, please contact us by email (academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk). We will correct any inaccuracies or remove you from our records as soon as practicable.

For the ALN Special Interest Groups and Communities of Practice, institutional members nominate individuals to act as their primary contact. If you are nominated, we will use your personal information to provide the service to your organisation, including listing your name, organisation and institutional role on the website. You may request your information be removed; however we may require your organisation to provide a replacement contact before we remove you.  We will correct any inaccurate personal information as soon as practicable.

Website Visitors

Like most websites, ALN collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. We do this to maintain the quality of the service, to determine what aspects of ALN’s activities are the most popular, as well as providing general statistics regarding use of our website. The data may be gathered from our website hosts.

Use of Cookies

The ALN website uses cookies to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies.  Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience any interactive features of the ALN site or other websites you visit.

Statement Revisions

ALN will occasionally update this Data Privacy Policy to reflect user feedback, legal best practice advice and legislative guidance. ALN encourages you to review this statement periodically to remain informed of how ALN is protecting your information.

Contact Information

ALN welcomes your comments regarding this Data Privacy Policy. If you believe we have not adhered to this statement, or you wish to request further information concerning personal data information, please contact ALN using the website form or directly via the ALN Development Managers (academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk).

This statement was last updated on 8th September 2022.