Staff Development Weekly Update
ALN Staff Development Update #52 – 11 December 2024
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 with Nicky and Andy at: academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk
Events
January 2025
Transforming Library Spaces: a journey through User Experience and Impact
Hosts: ALN UX CoP, Learning Spaces SIG and Service Engagement & Impact SIG
Date: Thursday 23 January 2025, 10.00-4.00
Format: Online via Teams
February 2025
ALN Innovation Fund 2024 Celebration
Hosts: ALN EDI Action Group
Date: Thursday 6 February 2025, 10.00-11.30
Format: Online via Teams
** New ** Skill up with ALN! - An Introduction to Partnerships Work
Hosts: Partnership Development CoP co-chairs
Date: Thursday 13 February 2025
Time: 10.00 - 11.00am
** New ** The library and wellbeing
Hosts: ALN Mental Health & Wellbeing Advocacy Resource team
Date: Tuesday 18th February 2025
Time: 12.00 noon - 1.30pm
See below call for contributions
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Call for Contributions
The library and wellbeing event
It is a difficult time for higher education. It is stressful for everyone. Libraries continue to play a key role in promoting wellbeing and mental health, for both students at staff.
Could you contribute?
Are you doing something novel or very successful to promote mental health and wellbeing? Could you share your experience with the wider ALN community? You can choose to speak about your experiences however suits you best - with slides or without, for 5 mins or 20 etc.
Please get in touch with the group, outlining your contribution idea, via academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk.
Who is the event aimed at?
It will be of interest to all staff with an interest in or responsibility for mental health and wellbeing.
The event will be recorded (with the permission of our speakers) so if you are interested but can't attend on the day, please register and we will make sure you receive the recording.
You can find more information about the ALN Mental Health & Wellbeing Advocacy Resource here:
https://www.academiclibrariesnorth.ac.uk/mental-health-wellbeing-advocacy-resource
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Job Opportunities
Customer Services & Corporate Support
Location: British Library (Boston Spa)
Salary: £22,464 per annum per annum
Contract: Fixed Term for 12 months
Closing Date: Sunday 15 December 2024
We have an exciting opportunity to join our Customer Service team at the British Library.
We are looking for a self-motivated and organised person to deliver a high-quality customer service support, across several key business areas of the library. The role will involve dealing with enquiries, managing multiple workstreams and providing significant administrative support.
We are looking for demonstrable skills in using MS Office and a professional manner in all forms of internal and external communication. The ability to pay attention to detail is essential, while also managing a varying range of tasks, often to tight deadlines. We are passionate about putting the users at the heart of everything we do so we want to find someone with the same values and drive to help us innovate for the future of the British Library.
Customer Services Supervisor
Location: University of York
Grade/Salary: Grade 4 - £28,081 - £31,387 per year
Contract: Open - Full-time
Closing Date: Sunday 15 December 2024
Looking for a new challenge? Ready to take the first step on the path to staff supervision? Passionate about the services provided by the Library, Archives & Learning Services? We’re looking for a talented Customer Services Supervisor to join our team to champion high quality services for our user communities.
About the role
Working with a wide range of individuals and teams, you’ll take a proactive role in the supervision of library front line services as well as actively contributing to the management and maintenance of library spaces. You’ll be responsible for ensuring resources are organised and deployed effectively. You’ll be highly committed to supporting staff and customers through taking a proactive approach to resolving problems and offering a creative approach to troubleshooting.
About you
Alongside experience of delivering excellent customer service you’ll have strengths in the following skill areas:
- Effective organisation including the ability to document processes and procedures
- Effective prioritisation, allocation and delegation of work
- Problem solving under pressure and working to tight deadlines
- Excellent oral communication skills including facilitation, influencing and negotiating skills with a high degree of tact and diplomacy
- Ability to use and learn digital tools and technologies
- Ability to work independently and as a member of a team
- Ability to drive and holding a clean driving licence
Equally important is your ability to self motivate, be resilient when under pressure, learn quickly and take a collaborative approach to achieving results.
One full-time role is available, working 37 hours per week typically 08:00 - 16:00 or 09:00 - 17:00 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
For informal enquiries: Please contact Nathan William (nathan.williams@york.ac.uk)
E-Learning Support Officer
Location: University of York
Grade/Salary: Grade 5 - £31,387 - £35,880 per year
Contract: Open - Full-time
Closing Date: Thursday 19 December 2024
The Digital Education Team team is part of the Library, Learning, Archives & Wellbeing Services department, which is situated within the Student & Academic Services Directorate. Collectively the Directorate contributes to the experience and success of students and staff by:
- providing the support that students and staff need to deal with aspects of student life that can enhance learning and capability;
- promoting and facilitating students’ personal development and career planning;
- contributing to the assurance of academic standards and the quality of teaching and learning, and
- providing the administrative underpinning for the student life cycle.
The Digital Education Team plays an important role in helping academic departments in the design, delivery and evaluation of learning technology interventions at the activity, module and programme level. The team is responsible for managing the University’s Replay lecture recording service and Blackboard Learn Ultra Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and supports a wide range of other learning technologies, including technology-supported assessment, in-class technologies and collaboration out of class.
Role
You will provide first-line user support to staff and second-line support to students, responding to queries on the University’s Learn Ultra virtual learning environment, Replay lecture recording platform and other centrally-managed learning technology services. You will also develop guidance documentation and training resources on the supported tool-sets, in line with the latest releases of supported software. You will also assist with the evaluation of blended and distance learning modules, the management of service-level communications and updates to staff and students, and the organisation of dissemination events for academic staff, which focus on the sharing of e-learning best practices across the university community. This role will provide an opportunity for personal development in acquiring skills and experience in delivering learning technology training and support services to staff and students.
For informal enquiries: Dr Richard Walker, Assistant Director (Digital Education Team) (richard.walker@york.ac.uk).
Study Development Tutor
Location: York St John University
Salary: £33,882 to £39,105 per annum pro rata
Hours: 18.5 a week
Closing Date: Friday 3 January 2025 at midnight
Interview Date: Wednesday 22 January 2025
A standard working day is between 9am - 5pm, so the suggested working pattern is across 3 days of the week (either 2 full days and a half day, or 3 shorter days). Monday is an essential day in the working pattern to support student and team need, with a suggestion of Thursday and Friday as the other days subject to negotiation and agreement between successful candidate and Academic Services Manager.
Library & Learning Services supports learning and teaching across the University through the development and maintenance of the University’s library collections, and through engagement with students to develop their academic and digital skills. The service also supports the University’s research activity through provision of the University’s research output and research data repositories. Library and Learning Services also provides accessibility services, as well as expertise in accessibility and inclusive learning, to students and staff.
We are looking to appoint to the post of Study Development Tutor — an important role in our learning development offering to students. Working with others in the Academic Services Team (one of Library & Learning Services' three core teams), your focus will be to support student independence in learning and key academic skills, literacies and Englishes by providing teaching, online learning, and other study development opportunities to students.
The post holder will support the University’s curriculum through a blended approach of in person and online workshops and tutorials, as well as the development or adoption of appropriate online resources. Working in partnership with other Study Development Tutors, the Academic Liaison Librarians, and Digital Training, (and in support of other specialist teams such as Wellbeing, Disability Support and Inclusion), the post holder will provide the university community with expertise in study development and student learning. You will have the opportunity to participate in Library & Learning Services' contributions to University developments in inclusive and equitable teaching, anti-racist practice, and sustainable futures, and we will encourage and support you to engage in CPD and pedagogic/subject research.
The successful candidate will have a commitment to improving learning outcomes for students, with the ability to teach and support students inclusively in a variety of environments. They will also have experience of study development, academic skills or Academic English teaching in a Higher or Further Education environment.
For informal queries about the advert, the role, the department, or the application process, please contact Tom Peach, Academic Services Manager (t.peach@yorksj.ac.uk).
Academic Support Librarian 0.5FTE
Location: University of Salford
Salary: £37,999 - £45,163
Contract: Part Time, Permanent
Closing Date: Sunday 5 January 2025
Are you interested in working in a fast-paced University environment? Could you use your expertise to deliver engaging teaching sessions? Do you have experience of creating engaging and interactive e-learning material?
As 0.5 FTE Academic Support Librarian, you will bring your passion and experience to the design and delivery of teaching, support services and e-learning resources enable our students to develop the skills, competencies, and confidence to be successful lifelong learners. You will be an engaging communicator with a collaborative approach, always looking to build positive relationships with a diverse range of people. You will play a key role in managing relationships with academic colleagues, representing the Library across the University and beyond.
Library, Careers & Enterprise is a place to learn and share ideas, a virtual hub for research and discovery, a team of friendly faces delivering excellent customer service, and a community of experts playing an important role in teaching, learning, research, employability, and enterprise at Salford. At Salford, we are creating an inclusive culture for all staff and students. As part of a determined approach to build a diverse workforce and address under-representation of colleagues from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds, and disabled people, we encourage applications from the widest talent pool.
Lead Curator, Digital Mapping
Location: British Library (Boston Spa or St Pancras)
Hours: Permanent – Full time
Grade/Salary: Grade: A - £37,538 (BPS) / £40,950 (STP) per annum
Closing Date: Monday 6 January 2025
In this role, you will lead in managing the collections and services for born-digital maps and mappable data created from our collections. You will take a leading role in developing the national collection of contemporary digital maps, and in the continuing development of tools, methods and policies to ensure that these collections are used for research now and available for research and consultation by future generations.
This post is located within the Contemporary British Collections team, and you will work closely with a wide variety of collections, including the UK Web Archive, News, Emerging Formats (e.g. publications delivered as apps), as well as our world-class collections of Maps, Plans and Topographical Views. Innovation is a significant element of this role, and you will work with our Digital Scholarship team, map curators in other Legal Deposit Libraries, and research teams and cultural organisations in the UK and internationally to support new services and research using our data.
You will have a sound knowledge of contemporary cartography, in particular as related to digital maps. Experience of use of digital maps and/or mappable data at first degree level is required. You should have strong skills and experience in managing change, influencing and persuading and in motivating teams across disciplines and organisational structures. Contemporary British Collections represents the diverse range of experience and culture in the UK, and we welcome applications from candidates that help us broaden our own experience within the team.
Library Digital Services Coordinator
Location: Liverpool Hope University
Grade/Salary: Grade 6 - £32,296 - £36,924 (pro rata to hours worked)
Closing Date: Friday 10 January 2025 by 5.00pm
Interview Date: January 2025 - date TBC
Reporting to the Head of Library Services, this is an exciting new role responsible for the management and ongoing development of our digital library services in support of the Teaching, Learning and Research activities of Liverpool Hope University.
It will include oversight and development of the Library Systems portfolio including the Library Management System, Digital Collections software, repository, discovery and reading list systems. It will also develop the Library’s data capability and co-ordinate training and support of digital services. The successful candidate will have well developed digital skills, excellent communication and analytical skills, with proven experience of managing systems and data.
You will be joining a University which prides itself on its values-led approach and commitment to a high quality student experience. Liverpool Hope University values and promotes diversity and inclusion and we welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds.
This post is based at The Sheppard-Worlock Library at Hope Park, but you may be required to work at different sites. It is a permanent role, subject to the normal probationary period of 12 months. The selection process will include a presentation followed by an interview.
Learning Developer
Location: University of Manchester
Salary: £36,924 to £45,163 per annum, depending on relevant experience
Employment type: Permanent
Closing Date: Thursday 16 January 2025
The University of Manchester Library is one of only five National Research Libraries and the third largest academic library in the UK. Our vast and rich collections (both print and digital) help us to deliver a world class library and information service for the University of Manchester. We sit at the heart of the University experience for both learning and research and are fully committed to widening access to our expertise, collections and services to individual researchers, local schools, and others in the community.
A key role of the Library is supporting students and staff at the University of Manchester and in the wider community to access, analyse and explore its collections, resources and expertise. The Teaching, Learning and Students team leads the way on Library teaching activity and student support and is the home of the My Learning Essentials, Specialist Library Support and Widening Access programmes. The TLS team is part of the Directorate for Education, Experience and Strategic Insights and works closely with colleagues in Customer Services and Engagement, in addition to teaching staff throughout the Library and University.
We are looking to appoint a Learning Developer to work within the TLS team. This post focuses on teaching and student support, with an emphasis on academic and information literacy skills. Any successful applicant for the post will be expected to evidence and demonstrate their ability to teach, develop teaching materials and work as part of a collective and collaborative culture, using our inclusive and accessible guidance and teaching and learning principles.