Senior Library Assistant

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 15 July 2025

The Role

This post offers an exciting opportunity to join our highly regarded Liaison and Academic Services Team. The team plays an important role in promoting the library's collections and services, as well as supporting the development of students' digital, information and academic skills. Primarily you will work with the Academic Liaison Librarians and Assistant Liaison Librarians, supporting them with a wide variety of student support, collection development, and marketing related activities. You will also work with Academic Skills colleagues in the team with the development and delivery of a wide variety of information and academic skills teaching sessions and learning resources.

We are looking for someone with a keen interest in supporting students in developing their information and academic skills. You will have excellent interpersonal, organisational, communication and IT skills. This role offers the right candidate a great opportunity to work with a wide range of students and colleagues, and to further develop their professional skills in a range of areas.

Hours of work are 37 hours per week. This role is suitable for blended working.

Key Accountabilities

• Assist with in-person and online delivery of teaching across Liaison and Academic Services’ remit for digital and information literacy, academic and research skills, including evaluating and editing learning material.
• Undertake information enquiry work, answering face-to-face, email, telephone, and online enquiries. This includes providing one-to-one support for students.
• Assist with collection development activities including monitoring expenditure related to orders, liaising with academics to acquire relevant library materials, ensuring appropriate availability of reading list materials, undertaking assessment of donations, as well as relegation activities.
• Supervise and participate in the processing of reading lists, addressing issues as they arise, while providing support and training to other Library staff involved in reading list work and academics who manage their own reading list system content.
• Develop and update content, including promotional materials, in a range of formats, and for delivery through a range of platforms, to include the library website, online subject guides, Canvas (VLE), and a variety of social media platforms.
• Coordinate and participate in promotional events for the library, for example, open days, School/ Faculty events, student and staff welcome events and induction.
• Supervise researchers working in the Special Collections reading room, responding to users’ needs by researching subject enquiries and retrieving material where necessary.
• Assist the Library’s Education Outreach Officers in delivery of the library’s outreach activities, including library tours and information skills sessions.
• Provide administrative support for the Academic Liaison Librarian(s) including organizing and minute-taking at meetings, collation of statistics and management information for review and evaluation of team activities.
• To represent Liaison and Academic Services on wider Library groups, committees, and projects such as Marketing and Communications or Learning and Development Forum.
• Be responsible for ongoing self-development including keeping up to date with best practice.
• Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required.

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• A good understanding of higher education and the role academic libraries have in supporting students to succeed.
• Relevant library experience or equivalent customer service experience.
• Up-to-date knowledge of library print and electronic information resources including well-developed skills in information searching and retrieval.
• Excellent IT skills including experience of Microsoft Office suite; social media and web-based tools and resources.
• Excellent interpersonal, organisational and communication skills.
• Experience of and enthusiasm for promoting and explaining services to customers, including producing guidance or promotional materials in a range of formats.
• Experience of planning and delivering training and/or library tours, including producing high quality training materials in different formats suited to different types of delivery (e.g. in person, online or blended).
• Good problem solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to work under pressure.
• Ability to work independently using own initiative and to work effectively in a team.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Embracing Change: Comes forward with new ideas and concepts. Anticipates change and prepares for it. Accepts change and 'runs' with it.
• Communicating: Tailors content of information to the audience, changing style, tone and format appropriately. Understands how best to appeal to the other person/group, correctly interpreting the right way to approach a situation.
• Team Working: Builds team spirit and working across teams. Confident in adopting a range of team roles.
• Planning and Organising: Identifies quickly what is important and prioritises accordingly. Plans workload and tasks in a systematic way.
• Gathering information: Has an eye for detail, spotting errors and ensuring accurate information.

Qualifications

• Educated to A level standard or equivalent.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.