The library will be closing at 1pm on Wednesday the 16th of September for an event. Dismiss

Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Burns Night
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • Nat 5 and Higher poems
    • Dyslexia-friendly lesson plans
    • Poems in Scots for schools
    • Rannan Chloinne / Children’s Verses
    • Nua-Nòs Gaelic Resources
    • Poems in English for schools
    • Scots poems for bairns
    • Posters
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Organising a cultural event at the SPL
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
  • Shop
    • SPL Shop
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • FAQs
    • Company papers
    • Jobs & Volunteering
    • Find us
    • Contact us
    • Making a complaint
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Privacy Policy
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Privacy Policy

The Scottish Poetry Library is committed to safeguarding your privacy. The following statement explains how we collect information about our users and how we use that information.  This policy will evolve to reflect changes in technology so please check this statement from time to time.

Introduction

The Scottish Poetry Library is a unique national resource and advocate for the art of poetry, and Scottish poetry in particular. We are passionately committed to bringing the pleasures and benefits of poetry to as wide an audience as possible, whether in person within the Library itself or online via our website or social media platforms.

Any information that you’ve entrusted us with in order to improve your experience of our services is held securely. We will never sell or rent your data to other businesses for marketing purposes. Our Privacy Policy details when and why we collect your personal data and the limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others.

We trust this policy will be comprehensive and contain all the answers to questions you might have, but should there be anything you are uncertain about, you can contact our Director, Asif Khan at reception@spl.org.uk

Analytics

When someone visits our website, we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This is important because it allows us to see what works and what doesn’t, and which times of the year are best suited to certain activities that will ultimately benefit users. This information is processed so that it doesn’t identify anyone. We don’t make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of our website’s visitors. 

We may occasionally share data from Google Analytics with partners in order to enhance our service. 

WiFi

The SPL offers visitors the use of our WiFi free of charge. When you use it, we collect data about your device, the volume of data that you use, the websites and applications that you access, and your usage by time, frequency and location. As a mark of the seriousness with which we take the safety of our systems, we change our WiFi password daily.

Our E-newsletter

Every fortnight, the Scottish Poetry Library publishes an e-newsletter that features the Library’s latest news, events, podcasts, and more. In order to be able to send you the e-newsletter, we need to collect your email address. Once we have your email, we’ll send you our regular e-newsletters.

We use a third party provider, Mailchimp, to deliver our fortnightly e-newsletter. You can withdraw your consent to receive the e-newsletter at any time. Emails can be removed from the mailing list either by clicking a link at the bottom of each newsletter that reads ‘unsubscribe from this list’ or by emailing the Director at reception@spl.org.uk and asking for your details to be deleted or amended.

Buying tickets to SPL events online

When you purchase a ticket to an event at the SPL, we collect your name and email address through the third party website, Eventbrite.

We may contact you about similar events to the one you’ve purchased a ticket to in the future if you supply us with this information, but we shall use that information sensitively.

If you attend the Scottish Poetry Library in person, we can help you buy tickets without supplying your email – just your name.

Information may be shared with partner organisations if you take part in a project run by two organisations, or attend an event that the Scottish Poetry Library has partnered on. However, these organisations will not be able to contact you about unrelated projects and events without your consent. We will never share sensitive information or your payment details with other organisations.

Ordering from our online shop

We will use your name and address to fulfil any orders for e.g., books that are made via our website. Payment is completed using Paypal. The SPL does not store or have any access to your credit or debit card details. For some orders, the book will be sent to you on our behalf by book wholesaler Gardners. We will supply your name and postal address to Gardners for this purpose only. Payment and payment details are not shared with Gardners: these remain with Paypal.

What to do if you are unhappy with our use of your data

You are entitled to view, amend or delete the personal information that we hold. Email your request to our Director, Asif Khan at reception@spl.org.uk

The Director has overall responsibility for implementing, monitoring and reviewing this Policy. It will be reviewed formally at least every three years, to reflect organisational changes, best practice, operational experience and legislative updates, and in order to maintain its effectiveness.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, please address them to:

The Director,
Scottish Poetry Library,
5 Crichton’s Close,
Edinburgh EH8 8DT.

  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2026.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library
Manage Consent

To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

We use privacy-focused tracking technologies to help us understand and improve the experience of our visitors. We track activity, not users, but you can still object to this tracking via our cookie policy.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}