Coromandel, Hauraki library membership data moved offshore

The Hauraki District Council service centre and library at Ngatea in 2021.

Library membership data across the Coromandel is being moved offshore next week.

Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki District councils are among 41 local authorities in New Zealand adopting the changes as part of a national consortium of public libraries called Kōtui.

Library membership details are currently held in data centres in Christchurch and Auckland.

From Thursday next week the data would be moved to data centres in Melbourne and Adelaide and some library services could experience disruptions.

The changes have been supported by the National Library of New Zealand and the Department of Internal Affairs.

Hauraki District Council said the changes would allow them to continue to provide a modern library experience while “strengthening the security of library and customer information”.

Thames-Coromandel District Council said: “The change is to ensure that we can continue to offer modern library services and maintain robust security of library and customer information.”

The information stored in library customer records includes, name, date of birth, home address, phone numbers, email address and borrowing history.

In Hauraki, access to library accounts and electronic resources would be unavailable from 8pm on May 15 until around 8am on May 17 while the changes are being made.

While the look and feel of some services may alter slightly, the user experience would not significantly change, Hauraki District Council said.

In the Thames-Coromandel District, starting from 8pm on May 15, access to library accounts and electronic resources would be unavailable for approximately 36 hours while the changes are being made.

“In the constantly evolving and fast-moving world of technology services, it’s really important that our library management systems are future-proofed,” Thames-Coromandel District Council said.

“In addition to continuing to provide a secure service to our customers, making these changes now also means that our systems will benefit from future enhancements.”

From May 17, library membership information in both districts would be stored in data centres in Australia.

Both councils said the new data centre had met international standards for security and reliability.

Library information held there would not be exposed to the public internet.

The councils said it would make no individual exceptions to library membership information being moved to the Australia-based data centre.

People could opt out of their library membership ahead of the move, however borrowing was not possible without membership.

Some in-library services would remain available for those who wanted to opt out.

Libraries in both districts would remain open during the transition period.