This notice provides details of what information we collect from you, what we do with it and who it might be shared with when you are in contact with our museum collections and archives team.

We collect your name, contact details (which may be a postal address, email address, and/or phone number). We also keep copies of your communications with us and our responses.

We also collect and retain information relating to museum and archive collections, acquisitions, loans, donors, depositors, researchers and users. This may include biographical and contact information relating to creators, previous owners, finders, donors, depositors and copyright holders associated with archive documents, photos, artefacts and other collection items.  Information relating to individuals identified within collection items may also be recorded, for example people named or identified in photographs. 

We also collect limited demographic and service-use information, such as age range and type of enquiry, for statistical monitoring and service planning purposes. 

The information is being collected for the following purpose/s:

1. To deal with your Museum Collections or Archives request.
2. To allow us to manage access, copyright issues and adhere to our Acquisitions Policy.
3. To keep records of donations, transfers and loans of the museum and archive collections and items in the care of the Council, including information required for collections management, provenance and security purposes.

We collect information from you or a third party acting on your behalf, for example, a carer, a parent or guardian if you are under 16 years of age, a solicitor, a councillor, another family member.

If you want to use our Museum and Archive services we need to know the information set out above. Information regarding items allows us to develop the knowledge and understanding around the items in our care, in turn helping us provide more support for users. For researchers this will aid the efficiency of your time spent using the collection.

We may share information with IT System administrators and suppliers for the purposes of upgrading and maintaining systems.

We may also share your information if we are required to do so by law or with the Scottish Information Commissioner (freedom of information), the Information Commissioner (data protection), the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (complaints) and the Health & Safety Executive (accidents).

The Council has a duty to protect public funds. We may check your information within the Council for verification purposes and/or for the prevention of fraud. We may share your information with other organisations where we are required to do so for the purposes of the prevention or detection of crime.

In rare cases we may share your details with another museum or archive should we need to decide to transfer items to their collections in the future. If this were to happen all reasonable efforts would be made to contact you.

Almost all information is kept in the UK. Our museum collection management software provider is based in New Zealand. The archive also uses the Access to Memory (AtoM) collections management and catalogue system, which is hosted and supported on behalf of Falkirk Council by a third-party provider using UK-based servers. These systems contain collection management and accession information, including limited personal information relating to donors, depositors, and individuals associated with the collections.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including collections management, provenance, security, legal, operational and archival purposes.  Retention periods vary depending on the type of information involved.

Some information relating to museum and archive collections, including donor, depositor and accession records, is retained permanently as part of the long-term management and documentation of collections.

Further information on our retention periods can be found in Falkirk Council's retention schedules and records management policies.

This notice was last updated in March 2022.