Staff Development Weekly Update
ALN Staff Development Update #61 – 26 March 2025
This weekly update is intended to keep you up to date on ALN's staff development programme; to highlight interesting initiatives being undertaken by ALN or its members; and to promote job opportunities in our member libraries.
If you have any queries or any content you'd like to include, please get in touch at: academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk
Events
March 2025
Frontline Forum 3 - Use of spaces and handling issues
Date: Thursday 27 March 2025
Time: 10.00 - 11.30
Format: Online via Teams
Please see below for further information and how to register.
April 2025
Cataloguing with Confidence
Date: Thursday 24 April 2025
Time: 10.00 to 4.30pm
An in-person workshop presented by Will Peaden, University of Coventry, and Emma Booth, University of Manchester (using materials by Victoria Parkinson, Kings College London, and Tom Meehan, UCL). Hosted in partnership with CILIP's Metadata and Discovery Group at the University of Manchester. Attendees will learn about the theory underpinning current cataloguing standards (AACR2, MARC21, RDA) and gain practical knowledge in cataloguing. The focus will be on developing your cataloguing skills with practical, hands-on sessions using hard copy print books. 10 free places for ALN members - please contact events.mdg@cilip.org.uk by 4th April 2025.
May 2025
** New ** Advocacy and Institutional Alignment in Challenging Times
Hosts: ALN Steering Group
Date: Thursday 15 May 2025
Time: 2.00 - 3.30
Platform: Online via Teams
June 2025
Innovative marketing and social media engagement in Academic Libraries
Hosts: University of Hull
Date: Wednesday 4 June 2025
Time: 10.30 - 12.00
Platform: Online via Teams
** Date for your diary ** Sheffield Hallam TeachMeet
Hosts: Sheffield Hallam University
Date: Thursday 5 June 2025
Time: TBC
Format: In-person
** New ** Turning up and tuning in: strategies for student engagement with library sessions
Hosts: Northumbria University
Date: Wednesday 11 June 2025
Time: 9.30 - 11.30am
Platform: Online via Teams
** Date for your diary ** Supporting and encouraging authors to publish Open Access Monographs with no REF2029 mandate
Provisional Date: Thursday 12 June 2025 TBC
Provisional Time: 10am - 12 noon TBC
See below Call for Contributions for how you can get involved!
July 2025
** New** GenAI: Collective Knowledge and Shared Progress
Hosts: Academic Librarians CoP
Date: Wednesday 2 July 2025
Time: 9:30am - 12 noon
Platform: Online via Teams
See below Call for Contributions for how you can get involved!
** Date for your diary ** Communicating with students (Title TBC)
Hosts: Edge Hill University
Date: Friday 18 July 2025
Time: 10.00 - 12.30pm
Platform: Online via Teams
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Call for Contributions
Supporting and encouraging authors to publish Open Access Monographs with no REF2029 mandate
Provisional Date: Thursday 12 June 2025 TBC
Provisional Time: 10am - 12 noon TBC
We're looking for contributors to join our upcoming ALN webinar, where we'll explore how libraries are making the case for Open Access Monographs in the absence of a REF mandate. In August of last year REF confirmed that the 2029 Research Excellence Framework will not have a mandate for Open Monographs, instead open access requirement for submission of longform outputs will be in place for the next assessment exercise, with implementation from 1 January 2029. Whilst this has delayed a sector wide transition to OA Books, there is still a need to support and encourage authors to publish open access monographs to encourage culture of Open Research and ensure the sector is ready for the 1st of January 2029.
In the context of these announcements, we are seeking contributors to deliver a 10-15 minute presentation, sharing their experiences and strategies in encouraging and supporting authors to publish OA monographs.
Potential topics for presentations include:
- Approaches to promoting Open Access monograph publishing within your institution
- Challenges and successes in supporting authors through the OA publishing process
- Case studies demonstrating the impact of OA monographs on scholarship and readership
- Collaborations and partnerships that have facilitated OA monograph publishing
Please contact Tom Morley with expressions of interest by the 31st of March: t.morley@lancaster.ac.uk
GenAI: Collective Knowledge and Shared Progress
Hosts: Academic Librarians CoP
Date: Wednesday 2 July 2025
Time: 9:30am - 12 noon
Platform: Online via Teams
We are inviting you to share your experiences in a 15 minute talk/presentation (including Q&A) that give us a look into how GenAI is impacting the sector, and particularly our profession. How is GenAI changing your working practice? Is it? Share your practical advice and tips, research findings, the challenges your are experiencing or a question you have been exploring. The ALN community would love to hear it.
Drop us a short proposal – just a quick overview of your talk to l.speakman@lancaster.ac.uk AND/OR l.smith53@uclan.ac.uk by the deadline 16th April 2025
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Frontline Forum 3
The next Frontline Forum will be held online on Thursday 27 March 2025, 10.00-11.30.
The theme for this forum will be use of spaces and handling issues. The discussion will focus on some of the reoccurring challenges in libraries, such as expectations around food and drink, noise and behaviour. There will be opportunity to share how you manage these challenges and learn from others about what works for them.
The plan for the morning is available here.
The forum is aimed at staff who work on frontline desks and provide the first line of support to students and other library users. The forum is an opportunity to share best practice, engage with other ALN activities and learn about different service models and delivery types offered at different universities.
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ALN Conference 2025
Sustainable Innovation: moving forward in challenging times Conference Registration now open!
Online via Teams - Wednesday 18 June 2025; In-person - Friday 11 July at the Business School, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Book yourself a place today! Ticket prices can be found on the ALN Conference 2025 website. Bulk discounts are available for 5 or more people attending in-person. See the Eventbrite page for how it works. Details of the full programme will follow shortly.
We know our members are rising to the challenge of continuing to thrive while across the sector, finances and staff time is tight. How do we choose what to focus on, what to drop, and how we manage our teams to get them through difficult times?
This conference asks how we might continue to move forward, to innovate, and to share the positive changes we’ve made in these challenging times. Further details of the conference theme and sub-themes can be found here.
If you have any queries about the conference, please contact alnconferenceteam@gmail.com.
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ALN EDI Innovation Fund - Apply today - Deadline 10 April 2025
The ALN Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Group is delighted to announce that the 2025 ALN EDI Innovation Fund is now open! The fund aims to provide small grants to ALN institutions (up to a max of £1000), to support a project, event or activity which will improve, enhance or develop approaches to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
Bids should ideally be submitted in collaboration with another ALN member or ALN group, to help support the collaborative ethos of ALN. An 'Ideas Bazaar' will be held on the 18th March (10.00-11.00) if you would like to discuss your idea in an informal setting or find another institution to pair up with. Further details of how to join the session are available from academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk.
Lone bids are also welcome if valid justifications or evidence attesting to their relevance to the ALN EDI mission can be provided.
The following criteria are used to assess the bids:
- Is it a collaborative project including 2 or more ALN members?
- Does it outline what the expected impact of the project will be?
- Does it demonstrate how the outputs and learning of the project will be shared and disseminated across the breadth of the ALN community, e.g. a conference presentation, an online resource etc?
- Are the costs of the project up to £1000 and does it outline how the money will be spent?
Your bid should be submitted via this form by Thursday 10 April 2025.
Could you partner on an EDI project?
One of our members is applying for the ALN EDI Innovation Fund and is looking for a collaboration partner to work with them on the project, the details of which are below. Could this be you?
If you are interested in collaborating, could you reply to this email by the end of Tuesday 1 April?
Full details here:
Objective: Investigate the habits, preferences, and motives of undergraduate and postgraduate master’s students regarding university reading lists and academic reading preferences. Develop an evidence base to enhance retention, progression, and completion rates, with a particular focus on students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Key Drivers: This project aims to evaluate the role of reading lists in driving collection development, contributing to the Library and Cultural Services content plan for educational resources. It will investigate how students use reading lists and engage with academic materials, enhancing the effectiveness of the library’s reading list workshop. It will have a strong and particular focus on examining the diversity and representativeness of reading list materials from Black and Asian authors and its impact on students.
Over the last four years, the library has focused considerable time and energy diversifying and decolonising reading lists and library collections through various initiatives. This project will determine whether students recognise these efforts in their reading lists and identify ways to further support staff and students in this area. The project will also identify enablers and barriers to digital engagement, improving the accessibility and usability of digital academic resources to support better academic outcomes.
Methodology: Insight will be gathered using a combination of techniques, leveraging recent UX work that demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. A series of thematic in-person, polls will be conducted incorporating qualitative and quantitative questions, followed by more intensive focus groups. Thematic topics will include reading list usage patterns, preferences for digital vs. print resources, enablers and barriers to accessing materials, motivations behind reading choices, impact on academic performance, accessibility, and representation in reading lists. Student Partners (students employed by the library) will refine the thematic areas, generate and test questions, and assist in conducting the research.
Collaboration: Partnering with another ALN institution would be ideal to enhance the scope and impact of the project. Partnering with an institution that has similar goals and challenges would provide valuable insights and resources, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of student reading habits and preferences. It will enable us to benchmark our findings. This collaboration can also facilitate the sharing of best practices and strategies for diversifying and decolonising reading lists, ultimately supporting our EDI efforts more effectively.
Timeline: Preparation will occur in the summer, with insight gathering in semester one (Sept – Dec, 2025). Focused interviews with staff and students will be conducted based on the initial data gathered.
Output: The research process and output will be shared with other ALN members.
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Member Library Events
University of Manchester Open Research Conference 2025
Date: Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 June 2025
Location: Alliance Manchester Business School
The event will showcase the latest innovations and practices in Open Research, bringing together researchers, PGRs and research support professionals across disciplines, to explore bold ideas and practical solutions for reshaping how we conduct and share research.
Call for Abstracts
We welcome submissions for presentations and posters from anyone interested in, researching, or working in Open Research. Contributions can include research projects, methodological innovations, or case studies showcasing Open Research practices.
Key Details
• Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 March 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: Mid-end of April 2025
• Submit your application via this form: https://forms.office.com/e/TEwBCrRrvm [forms.office.com]
Presentation Format
• Talks: 15-minute presentations on your work and contributions to Open Research.
• Posters: Posters will be displayed throughout the event, with a dedicated session to discuss your work with attendees.
Event Information
The conference is a collaborative initiative led by the Office for Open Research (supported by the Research Lifecycle Programme), the School of Engineering Open Research Lead, the UK Reproducibility Network, and the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute.
Contact
If you have any questions about the conference or abstract submissions, please contact the team at openresearch@manchester.ac.uk.
New free Open Access publication: ‘Career Readiness: Meeting students where they are: Case studies in strategy and practice’
This new publication is an edited compendium offering insights into the ways in which universities have taken data-informed approaches to Careers and Employability strategy and operations based on the Career Readiness/Careers Registration (CR) approach. Initiated by Bob Gilworth and his team at the University of Leeds in 2012, the Careers Registration process collects Career Readiness data with the aim of understanding where students are on their career development journeys, at organisational scale, and meeting them where they are with appropriate careers and employability engagement and support. Since 2012, CR has been the subject of national learning gain projects in the UK and Australia and has been adopted by many universities in the UK and by universities in Ireland, Portugal, Australia, and New Zealand. CR continues to be developed and adapted with many developments being discussed within the CR+ group, a mutually supportive network of international institutions exchanging insights from their experience of CR. Drawing on this community of practice, the book shares examples of innovative strategy and practice through case studies contributed by a variety of practitioners in UK and Australia. Any questions can be directed to university.press@hud.ac.uk.
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Job Opportunities
Open Access Manager Grade 7
Location: University of Liverpool
Salary: £39,105 - £45,163 pa (Pay Award Pending 1 March 2025)
Closing date: Friday 28 March 2025
University of Liverpool is looking for the right person to join us as Open Access Manager in Libraries, Museums & Galleries (LMG). We have a pivotal role in leading and supporting open access developments, driven by a strong team supporting open access developments and open research more widely.
Reporting to the Head of Open Research, you¿ll take the lead on LMG¿s support for scholarly publishing and open access to research publications. You will be managing and monitoring our open access budgets, delivering training and advocacy, responding to queries while building strong relationships with academic and Professional Service colleagues, developing our services, and providing line management for our wonderful team of Open Access Principal Library Assistants.
This is an exciting time to join the team as the UK sector prepares for major negotiations and developments in the world of Open Access.
The role is offered on a permanent, full-time basis, hybrid working with an expectation of 60% of your time on-campus. If you have further questions, please get in touch with Martin Wolf, Head of Open Research: Martin.Wolf@liverpool.ac.uk.
This role is available from 1 May 2025 onwards. Interviews are anticipated to take place week commencing 14th April 2025, subject to change.
Head of Customer Experience (Grade 8)
Location: University of Liverpool
Salary: £46,735 - £59,139 pa
Closing date: Monday 31 March 2025
The University of Liverpool is seeking a Head of Customer Experience to lead and enhance our Libraries' customer-facing services.
This key post involves leading a dedicated team to deliver exceptional front-line services, ensuring a high-quality experience for students, colleagues and the wider academic community.
Reporting to the Associate Director, you will develop user-focused services, manage 24/7 operations, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. A member of the Libraries, Museums and Galleries Senior Leaders Network, you will collaborate with various stakeholders, to adapt services to meet evolving user needs while maintaining safety and compliance across our library spaces.
About You
The ideal candidate will have demonstrable experience in a senior service delivery role, strong leadership capabilities, and a commitment to delivering customer service excellence.
A degree (or equivalent experience) and ongoing professional development are essential.
Interviews are anticipated to take place between the dates of 28 April and 9 May 2025, subject to change.
Research Associate: Heritage Collections
Location: University of Liverpool
Grade/Salary: 7 - £39,105 pa (pay award pending March 2025)
Closing date: Tuesday 1 April 2025
This is an incredibly exciting time to join the University of Liverpool Libraries, Museums, and Galleries (LMG).
LMG and the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) are working together to facilitate research into the University¿s links to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, colonialism, and their legacies. Working with community groups, the purpose of the Research Associate role is to make this important history widely shared, investigate ways for the community to co-create projects in response, and support curators to transform their own practice, taking a more critical approach to issues of race, identity and colonial history.
LMG is home to diverse and significant collections that trace the history of the University and the many different communities that have shaped that development.
CSIS supports and shares leading research about human enslavement and its legacies and furthers the study of memorialisation, and of the interpretation of slavery as part of a wider public history agenda.
You will be responsible for engaging with the local community, including hosting community conversations and events, and delivering and supporting research. You will also work with curators to open up the collections with new interpretation. You will be based in the Sydney Jones Library but work closely with teams across campus.
We are looking for someone with a knowledge of Liverpool¿s history and its relationship with historical slavery, and experience of working with community organisations as a practitioner or facilitator. You will be able to work and manage projects with multiple strands and stakeholders, and build positive meaningful, equitable relationships with a wide range of people.
Formal qualifications in the libraries, museums or heritage sector are not essential for this role as our priority is experience in working with diverse communities.
We encourage those interested in the role to contact us for an informal discussion to find out more about the role and the workplace.
Overnight Library Attendant
Location: University of Newcastle
Working Pattern: Part Time, term-time only
Salary: £24,344 per annum (pro rata)
Closing Date: Tuesday 1 April 2025
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.
The Role
Library Attendants are essential to the running of the University libraries. You will provide excellent customer service, and ensure that the library is opened safely and securely during periods of limited staffing. You may be required to work at any of the out of hours sites, and duties will vary in emphasis depending on the shifts that are worked.
Previous experience of working in a customer service focused environment is essential. You will possess good interpersonal and customer care skills and the ability to work accurately and with attention to detail.
Mobility and physical fitness consistent with the need to push trolleys, carry parcels and move equipment is essential. You will also be required to undertake mandatory health and safety training relevant to the role.
There are three posts available:
2 x 24 hours a week, term time only. The work pattern will be:
Sunday 00:00 am – 08:00am Monday
Monday 00:00 am – 08:00 am Tuesday
Tuesday 00:00 am – 08:00 am Wednesday
1 x 16 hours a week, term time only. The work pattern will be:
Friday 00:00 am – 08:00am Saturday
Saturday 00:00 am – 08:00am Sunday
Informal enquiries can be addressed to Laura Potts: Laura.Potts@newcastle.ac.uk
Library Services Coordinator
Location: University of Newcastle
Contract Type: Open Ended; Full Time/Part Time
Salary: £26,642 to £27,344 with progression to £28,879 per annum, pro rata
Closing Date: Wednesday 2 April 2025
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.
The Role
Newcastle University Library is a multiple-award winning service. We are the only University Library in the UK to have received the Charter Mark five times and now hold the Customer Services Excellence award which replaced it. This award illustrates our dedication to delivering a friendly, professional and efficient service to all our customers and putting them at the heart of everything we do.
This is a place-based role in a busy vibrant campus. You will play a key role in ensuring the delivery of high-quality frontline customer focused services across the Library’s extensive opening hours. We are looking for people who can co-ordinate and supervise colleagues as well as take responsibility for the secure operation of our Library services across all library sites.
Ths post is open-ended, based in the Philip Robinson Library, part-time, 28 hours per week
Specific hours for this post are:
Monday 4 pm to Midnight
Tuesday 8 pm to Midnight
Saturday 4 pm to Midnight
Sunday 4 pm to Midnight
The work patterns of this post will include some evenings, weekends and some Bank Holidays. Hours may vary during some University vacations.
Academic Services Librarian
Location: Liverpool Hope University
Contract Type: Permanent; 35 hrs per week
Salary: £32,546 - £37,174 (Grade 6) per annum
Closing Date: Wednesday 16 April 2025
Liverpool Hope University is seeking to appoint an Academic Services Librarian to join our Academic Services Librarian team, supporting the University’s Teaching, Learning, and Research activities. This role reports to the Head of Library Services.
Applicants will be educated to degree level, with either a professional qualification in library/information studies or equivalent experience. The post holder will have excellent communication and digital skills with experience and enthusiasm for learner support activities in one-to-one and group settings. Experience of working in an academic library would be an advantage.
You will be joining a university that takes pride in its values-driven approach and dedication to providing a high-quality student experience. At Liverpool Hope University, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse community where everyone is valued and supported. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds.
This post is based at The Sheppard-Worlock Library at Hope Park, but you may be required to work at different sites.
Following shortlisting, interviews are expected to take place in early May 2025.
This post is permanent, subject to the 12-month probationary period.