Far North Libraries join Aussie data migration

Far North District Libraries will be one of 40 council-operated library services to use Australian-based data centres for customer records, library catalogues, and other library services from this month.

The change will boost data security and allow greater resourcing to be focused on service improvements. This change is being undertaken by a New Zealand-wide consortium of public libraries called Kōtui, which is managed by the National Library of New Zealand.

The National Library is part of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and made its decision to move data from Christchurch and Auckland data centres to Melbourne and Adelaide after first ensuring the systems and vendors were compliant with DIA security requirements.

The data transfer will include records of library members supplied when they joined the library. This consists of name, date of birth, email address, phone number, and home address.

Far North District Council’s Group Manager for Community and Engagement, Ruben Garcia, says the change will help libraries access future service enhancements while meeting ISO international standards for security and reliability.

“Library information will be accessed via an encrypted virtual private network and will not be exposed to the public internet. We are confident that library information, including membership data, will remain secure and hope this provides reassurance for our customers.”

Mr Garcia says that library members who do not wish for their data to be part of the move, will need to cancel their library membership by this Friday 10 May.

“Unfortunately, we cannot make exceptions. All library membership data will be included in the move.”

He says those who opt out of the move by cancelling their membership will no longer be able borrow library materials. However, they can still access many in-library services without being members.

The transfer to SirsiDynix Ltd data centres will begin at 8pm Wednesday 15 May and will be completed on Thursday 16 May. During this time, library users will be unable to access library accounts and electronic library resources.

Anyone wanting to cancel their library membership can do so by visiting their local library, by contacting the libraries team via email at libraries@fndc.govt.nz or by contacting them via their library Facebook pages.