Senior Library Assistant (Subscriptions & Access)

About King's:

Libraries & Collections comprises four departments: Education & Learning, Research & Impact, Service Design & Delivery, along with Business Operations. We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, which manages the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond.

About the role:

The role is based in the Open Research team, which is an innovative and growing area of service provision. Senior Library Assistants within the Subscriptions & Access wing of the team support users with access to a wide range of print and electronic Library resources for their education, teaching, and research needs.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in the area of subscriptions, eresources and interlibrary loans, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in problem-solving complex queries, working with data, and explaining information to service users. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in liaising with suppliers, administering the lifecycle of subscription resources, including financial administration and usage data, and updating library metadata to support resource discovery.

The main focus of the role will require working on data checks, with spreadsheets and updating library metadata for resources, and would particularly suit those who enjoy working methodically with good attention to detail. 

All grade 4 staff are assigned a placement brief within a particular team but may be moved across to a different placement brief elsewhere within Libraries & Collections to support service needs or your development.

You will be required to participate in frontline services as required, including contributing towards a rota for evening and weekend working.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

Essential criteria

• Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in a Library, Publisher, or University. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present information to a range of different audiences.
• Ability to work to a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Experience in positively and proactively dealing with routine problems
• Experience of working in a customer-oriented environment and delivery high quality services
• Ability to work effectively and proactively with own team, other teams and with our stakeholders
• Ability to work under pressure and meet challenging deadlines
• Commitment to equity, equality, diversity and inclusivity in your own learning and ways of working
• Experience of working with a database (e.g., financial, admin) or a library/e-resources management system
• Awareness of scholarly subscriptions matters - such as: e-resources and e-book acquisition models, big journal deals and transformative agreements, issues related to subscription access management, access over ownership.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of e-resource discovery tools or library management system.
• Knowledge of information resources provision and working with scholarly metadata

Please submit a supporting statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications.

Interview date: w/c 26th May 2025.

 We are not able to offer sponsorship for candidates who require the right to work in the UK.

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