Western Libraries Privacy Statement and Notice of Collection
The University of Western Ontario is committed to protecting the privacy of individuals. For general information on Western’s privacy policies and initiatives, refer to the Information and Privacy Office website at www.uwo.ca/privacy/index.html.
Under the authority of the University of Western Ontario Act, 1982 (as amended), Western Libraries collects some or all of an individual’s name, home contact information, employee/student number, education information, employment information, and/or reasons for requesting borrower privileges in order to maintain an accurate record of who can borrow materials and, in the case of members of the public and faculty and students from other educational institutions, to determine eligibility for borrowing privileges. This information is normally collected from the Office of the Registrar (for students), Human Resources (for Western faculty and staff), Information Technology Services (for faculty and staff of affiliated institutions) and directly from members of the public and faculty and students from other educational institutions.
Western Libraries uses this personal information to provide research and reference assistance, to identify who has specific items in circulation, to notify patrons of the status of their account, to collect overdue materials or outstanding fines, and to administer enhanced services, such as individual study rooms, interlibrary loans or virtual reference. It may also be used to contact patrons to assess their level of satisfaction or to inform them of upcoming events or new programs and services. In addition, staff responsible for supporting library computer systems and administrative services may have incidental access to some personal information when conducting routine system maintenance or addressing specific issues. Western Libraries also uses Google Analytics to provide information on user interactions to support planning and to improve services.
Personal information may be shared with the libraries of the university colleges affiliated with Western in order to provide requested services and with the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) in order to provide access to services associated with Scholars Portal, including inter-library loan and virtual reference. It may also be shared with the Office of the Registrar if it is necessary to seal a student’s academic record due to overdue materials or outstanding fines and with Information Technology Services and/or Campus Community Police if it appears that Western’s code of behaviour for the use of computing resources (http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/mapp/section1/mapp113.pdf ) may have been contravened.
For more information about the collection and use of personal information by Western Libraries, contact us.
Updated September 6, 2012
