Staff Development Weekly Update

ALN Staff Development Update #95 – 1 April 2026

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

ALN Events

May 2026

** Date for your Diary ** Marking Mental Health Awareness Week
Hosted by: ALN MH&W Team
Date: Tuesday 12 May 2026
Time: Starting at 1pm
Platform: Online via Teams
More information to follow soon.

Systematic Review Event (sponsored by Covidence)
Hosted by: Newcastle University
Date: Thursday 14 May 2026
Time: 9.30am – 4.30pm
Location: Newcastle University
Please note: there is no longer a cap on the number of people who can attend from one institution.

June 2026

SHU Teachmeet – Reaching every learner: Engagement strategies for teaching library and academic skills
Now open for bookings!
Hosted by: Sheffield Hallam University
Date: Thursday 4 June 2026
Time: 9.30am – 4.00pm
Location: Sheffield Hallam University

** New ** ALN Data Showcase Now open for bookings!
Hosted by: ALN Service Engagement & Impact Group
Date: Wednesday 17 June 2026
Time: 10.00 – 3.00pm
Platform: Online via Teams

Call for Contributions

** New ** Setting up EDI Working Groups
Hosted by: ALN EDI Action Group
Date: Thursday 25 June 2026
Time: TBC
Platform: Online via Teams

We are hoping that this event will provide you with the opportunity to hear the experiences of colleagues in other ALN institutions who have set up EDI Working Groups at their home libraries. They will share the good, the bad and the ugly of creating and maintaining these groups.

We’re likely to have 3 or 4 short presentations and an opportunity for Q&A/group discussions.

Please contact us at academiclibrariesnorth@sconul.ac.uk if you could contribute your experiences to the event – we’d love to hear from you!

ALN Skill Up Series

New series – Skill Up with ALN!
Have you seen that we introduced a new series last academic year called Skill Up with ALN? These hour long sessions offer an opportunity to learn about different roles and areas of library life and aim to demystify areas of the library service. We have already run two sessions this year and have some more topic ideas for the 2024/25 academic year but if you have any ideas, please do share them with us.

ALN SD Offer Infographic

Do you think you know all that ALN offers to support your staff development? Why not check out our Staff Development Infographic to see the full list of activities. Let us know how you got on. Did you get all of them?

Frontline Forum 2025/26

The provisional date for the next forum is Tuesday 2 June 2026, 2.00 – 3.30 with a theme of supporting neurodivergent students (to be confirmed). More information, including how to book your place, to follow soon!

The latest forum of 2025/26 took place on Wednesday 25 March 2026, 10.00 – 11.30am with a theme of Encouraging responsible use of Spaces. The forum had a specific focus on proactive activities and campaigns to support busier periods around exams and assessments. Please get in touch if you’d like to see the presentations shared at the forum.

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About the Forums

The Frontline Forum is an online discussion and development space for teams working directly with students and users. The forums are an opportunity to share best practice, engage with other ALN activities and learn about different service models and delivery types offered by different universities. The forum is aimed at staff who work on frontline desks and provide the first line of support to students and other library users.

ALN Conference 2026

Booking for #ALN26 is now open! 

Grab yourself a place at the online day or the in-person day – or both! We have an early bird offer as well as a bulk booking option (further details on the website).

Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal to present at the conference. We got a great number of submissions and we’re excited to see how they translate into the programme for the two days. The team is busy reviewing the submissions and will be meeting later this month to make some decisions and to start to pull a programme together. We will share this as soon as we can.

As a reminder, the theme of our conference is ‘Reimagining Openness in Academic Libraries’ and will be looking at what “open” really means in academic libraries today. We are confident that the theme will appeal to a broad spectrum of library staff and we would love to receive submissions on scholarly communications, digital preservation, teaching and learning, metadata, collection development, or community engagement – and any other area of the library service to see how you’re grappling with openness in practice.

Dates for your diary:

Online Day – Wednesday 24 June 2026 – we’re delighted to announce that Professor Stephen Pinfield, Professor of Information Services Management at the University of Sheffield, will be our keynote speaker at our online day.

In-person Day – Monday 6 July 2026 (Dalton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University) – we’re also delighted to announce that Caroline Ball, Community Engagement Lead for the Open Book Collective (OBC), will be our keynote speaker at our in-person day.

If you have any queries about the conference, please contact ALNConferenceTeam@gmail.com.

ALN EDI Innovation Fund 2026

The ALN EDI Innovation 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. Lone bids are also welcome if you can provide evidence of their relevance to the ALN EDI mission is provided.

Timeline 2026 

The application process for this year’s ALN EDI Innovation Fund is now open! Please complete this form with your submission idea by Thursday 2 April 2026.

We will be opening the application process soon. These are the provisional dates for 2026:

• Deadline for bids: Thursday 2 April 2026
• Successful bids informed by: Friday 24 April 2026
• Projects start: May 2026
• Projects duration: 9-12 months

Successful projects will be expected to share information about their projects at the end of the project period in the form of, for example, a report, a conference presentation or an online resource. We run an event at the end of the projects to celebrate the successes, share information on the type of projects that were funded and to give inspiration to those hoping for funding for their project.

Criteria for funding

The following criteria are used to assess the bids:

• Is it a collaborative project including 2 or more ALN members? Or does it outline how the work of the project will enable collaboration?
• 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?
• You can apply for up to £1000 for your project (but you can also apply for less if you don’t feel you’ll need the full £1000). Please ensure you know how the money will be spent and your costs are fully explained in your submission.

ALN Group co-Chair Vacancies

We’re looking for co-Chairs for a few of our groups. It’s a great professional development opportunity – please get in touch if you are interested or would like to know a bit more about what it entails.

These are the groups with current vacancies:

• Leaders’ Network 
• Metadata and Linked Data Group
• Technology
• User Experience CoP

You can see more information here on what the groups do, along with videos of some of our current chairs talking about their experiences chairing a group, as well as our role overview, providing more details on the roles.

External Opportunities

• Creative Reflection Session – Thursday 2 April 2026, 2–4pm Led by Viki Whaley, Principal Lecturer in Undergraduate Nursing, this session uses reflective prompts, shared creative artefacts, and guided conversation to explore the cultural taboos surrounding death—topics often avoided in clinical settings and everyday life.

• We are more than one story, what’s yours? Tuesday 14 April 2026 2-4pm Join Helena Gosling and Sarah MacLennan for a thought provoking and interactive workshop. Together, they will share powerful insights from their research and creative dissemination work with past and present university students who have experience of the criminal justice system.

• Workshop: Out the Bag – Stories, Stitching, and Social Change – Tuesday 21 April 2026 (Two workshop sessions available) This workshop is led by Janette Porter, LJMU Lecturer with extensive experience working alongside communities affected by homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges.

• Workshop: Creating the Comic – Storytelling, Collaboration, and What Comes Next – 22 April 2026, 2–4pm This combined talk and workshop features Hannah Baumeister, Senior Lecturer at LJMU, who will share the process behind Drawing on Forced Marriage: Teaching Tough Topics Through Comics.

SCONUL webinar series on the HE Reference Models
HERMS Webinar 2: HE Reference Models as a tool for institutional transformation
Date: Thursday 21 May 2026, 14.00 – 15.30
The HE Reference Models are being used as a tool for those leading institutional restructuring and transformation programmes, often alongside, or integrated with other frameworks. This webinar will include a deeper dive into how the HE Reference Models are being used to inform institutional change processes. It will also introduce the new HE Service Reference Model which is being developed to help support this type of work. It will hear from Mary Millard, Executive Director of Faculty Operations at University of Bristol and sponsor of Bristol’s Professional Services Transformation Programme which has led the development of the institution’s service catalogue based on the HERMs; Iain McCracken, Director of Service Delivery at the London School of Economics. Iain is leading the development of the new HE Service Reference Model and he will set out the background to its development; share the alpha version of the Service Model and discuss how the SCONUL community can engage with this work.
More information to follow later on future sessions in this series.

External Calls for Contributions

• You work in a UK academic library with responsibility for the work of others.
• Your job title includes “Head of,” “Manager,” “Lead,” “Director,” or a reasonable equivalent.      

Job Opportunities

Deputy Director, Collections 
Location: Durham University
Contract: Open-Ended/Permanent, Full Time
Closing Date: Wednesday 1 April 2026

Durham University is seeking to appoint a Deputy Director, Collections, who will play a key leadership role in shaping, managing, and preserving Durham University’s unique and diverse collections. This position supports the Director in the strategic oversight of modern, heritage and cultural collections across our libraries, archives and special collections, and museums. You will serve as a key liaison among library, archival, conservation and curatorial staff bringing a ULC wide approach to all University collections, ensuring that our collections are managed responsibly, made accessible to diverse audiences, and leveraged in the advance of teaching, learning, research and community engagement at the University and beyond.

As a member of the Senior Management Team within University Library and Collections you will provide senior leadership for all collections under the ownership and custodianship of ULC and associated staff including librarians, archivists, conservators and curators.

The role will include financial planning, budget development and tracking, administration, as well as organisational and staff development. Areas of responsibility include:

• Finance, budget planning and monitoring
• Risk, compliance and audit
• Human resources and staff development
• Strategic and business planning
• Policy development and procedures
• Data gathering and analysis
• Management and leadership of collections staff

ULC comprises over 160 staff working within our libraries, museums and galleries, archives and special collections. Staff are based in the Bill Bryson Library, Palace Green Library, the Oriental Museum, Museum of Archaeology, the Castle, the International Study Centre and at our external storage facility. ULC is an active partner in the teaching, learning, wider student experience, research and external engagement at the University. Our collections are an integral part of the research infrastructure at the University.

The role will be based in Palace Green Library but you will be expected to work across all ULC sites and locations as required. ULC supports flexible and hybrid working arrangements where possible. This role is expected to work on site for a minimum of 3 days per week.

For a chat about the role or any further information please contact Stuart Hunt, Director of University Library and Collections, University Librarian (stuart.w.hunt@durham.ac.uk).

Learning and Teaching Librarian 
Location: Open University
Salary: £38,784 to £46,049
Closing Date: Wednesday 1 April 2026
Contract Type: Full Time, Fixed Term Contract (10 months)

About the Role
The role of Learning & Teaching Librarian has three main purposes:

1. To support learning and teaching activities, including the development of students as independent learners, by providing advice and guidance on the access to and use of Library Services content, resources and services to meet the needs of students, learners and University staff.

2. To work in partnership across the OU’s Learner and Discovery Services (LDS) unit and with faculty colleagues to support the growing digital capabilities agenda and integrate library content systematically into the curriculum using new and innovative approaches as appropriate.

3. To support students fairly, consistently and in line with University policies.

Key Responsibilities
For full time roles the postholder will usually focus on three of the specialist areas below:

Enquiry Services
Provide expert assistance to students, staff, Associate Lecturers (ALs are off-campus module tutors) and researchers via a virtual helpdesk (email, webchat and telephone).

Academic Liaison
Cultivate productive working relationships across departmental boundaries, with a pivotal role in embedding digital capabilities and library content into modules and qualifications to enable student success.
Evaluate the value of digital capabilities materials and library content to identify practical improvements for the live curriculum.
Support qualifications and modules already in presentation to students.

Accessibility
Work with colleagues across the library to assess the accessibility of third-party content.
Work with library and faculty teams engaged in module and qualification production to ensure library content is accessible to all users.
Develop and maintain effective relationships with teams across the University, championing the library’s role in providing accessibility services.

Authoring
Work closely with the Academic Liaison and Live Engagement teams, to advise and agree on requirements for the integration of digital and information literacy skills into modules, qualifications and other forms of learning delivery.
Create, reuse and maintain accessible multimedia materials that teach digital capabilities, informed by best practice in technology-enhanced learning and learning design.
Update and maintain information, advice and guidance (IAG) content and library web pages and promote awareness of and engagement with the OU’s DIL (Digital and Information Literacy) skills framework (2022) and digital capabilities agenda.
Embrace innovative technologies to deliver skills training, increase accessibility and improve the student experience and showcase best practice.

E-resources Troubleshooting
Work closely with colleagues in a cross-Library team to ensure a high-quality experience of online content for OU students and the wider OU community.
Investigate and collaboratively resolve a wide range of content access issues.
Work closely with the wider team to address some of the underlying issues relating to content access.
Contribute to the development of a knowledge base to support this work.

Live Engagement
Design and deliver live training events for students and staff. This includes, but is not limited to, online and in-person events and training on a range of digital capabilities embedded in the curriculum.
Work closely with the Authoring and Academic Liaison teams to ensure digital capabilities are delivered in the most appropriate way to meet module/qualification learning design and student need.

In addition, all post holders are expected to:

Contribute to the development of efficient workflows and processes, to support all colleagues and stakeholders. (Occasional evening and weekend work may be required.)
Develop and maintain effective relationships with internal and external colleagues across faculties and units; championing the library’s role in providing the optimum services to students.
Keep abreast of external trends and developments, particularly in the Higher Education sector and learning technologies. Enhance and maintain professional expertise in order to contribute to strategy and facilitate continuous improvement.

Lead Engineer (Digital Library)
Location: University of Leeds
Salary: £51,753 to £59,966 per annum
Closing Date: Tuesday 7 April 2026
Contract Type: Full Time, Ongoing

This position is being re‑advertised following a change in circumstances with a previous candidate. We are pleased to reopen the opportunity and warmly encourage suitable applicants to apply for this exciting opportunity.

The interviews are expected to be held on 23 and 24 April 2026

This role will be based on the university campus with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner. We are also open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

We are seeking a dynamic and highly skilled Lead Engineer with extensive Python skills to lead the project work of a development team for Digital Library services. Are you an enthusiastic and driven individual with a desire to deliver high-quality IT solutions to support digital access to the Libraries’ Cultural Collections?

The University of Leeds is one of the top 80 universities in the world. We have a truly global community, with more than 39,000 students from 170 different countries and over 9,000 staff of 100 different nationalities.

The University’s Cultural Collections comprise hundreds of thousands of rare books, manuscripts, archives, art works and museum artefacts. Our collections offer a rich resource for researchers, students and the wider research community.

As the Lead Engineer you will lead the delivery of the technical infrastructure and services of the Digital Library Infrastructure Project (DLIP) during and beyond the project’s lifetime. DLIP is a cornerstone project to support the University in meeting the objectives set out in the Digital Transformation component of the Universal Values, Global Changes, University of Leeds Strategy 2020 to 2030. It implements the Digital Futures strand of the Libraries Vision.

The Digital Library Infrastructure Project will deliver a sustainable digital libraries research and education infrastructure; respond to the rapidly changing expectations of our students, staff, and partners and support the aims of the University’s strategy.

You will be a key project member of DLIP, leading the work of a small technical team in the implementation of:

An updated Cultural Collections website to improve user experience, access, and opportunities for digital creativity and cultures, featuring digital content presented in the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) standard;
A modern data platform to merge data from different sources into a linked data format (Linked Art) and, combined with a graph-based search engine, to improve search, discovery and analysis for research, and teaching;
Improvements to the process for storing and managing digital surrogates and digital born content to reduce risk and increase access in the Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) standard;
A foundational cloud infrastructure for digital humanities research and teaching.
You will utilise your skills, knowledge and experience to provide high quality and proactive application development. You will have extensive skills and experience in full-stack application development and implementation, using Python and MS SQL Server. You will be both ‘hands on’ in application development and provide support and guidance to a small team of Application Engineers.

You will engage in close liaison with internal stakeholders, with the project’s technical suppliers and consultants and with peer institutions with whom the project may collaborate or share expertise.

DLIP is implementing innovative approaches and, in order to apply appropriate technical solutions, you will develop and apply a strong digital library domain knowledge and an evolving understanding of the landscape, including the field of digital asset management and digital scholarship, use of data schemas and of interoperable standards such as IIIF (the International Image Interoperability Framework).

Working in a complex environment, your work will involve ensuring user documentation is developed and maintained in line with standard operating procedures to ensure alignment with industry best practice, IT standards and regulatory compliance.

Library Experience Advisor 
Location: University of Manchester
Salary: £25,804 – £27,319 per annum
Contract: Full Time, Permanent
Closing Date: Monday 13 April 2026

We’re looking for a Library Experience Advisor to join our friendly Library Experience Team. You’ll play a key role in creating a welcoming environment by offering friendly, user focused support across our library sites, helping ensure every visitor has a positive and productive experience.

About the Role

In this role, you will:

• Support library users directly, helping them navigate and confidently use library systems, databases and collections.
• Connect users with library services, resources and spaces.
• Provide clear, responsive and supportive help in person and online.
• Contribute to maintaining welcoming, accessible and well managed‑ library environments.

The role is campus based.

About the Library Experience Team

The Library Experience Team serves as the first point of contact, handling membership applications, customer enquiries as well as accessibility support. By providing excellent frontline services and maintaining library spaces, they help all visitors feel welcome, supported and productive.

Recruitment Process

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, whether you already work in higher education or come from sectors such as education, student support, hospitality, retail or community services.

4 x Customer Experience Advisor 
Location: University of Hull
Salary: £26,707.00 – £28,778.00
Contract: Fixed Term
Closing Date: Wednesday 15 April 2026

The University of Hull is seeking to appoint 4 Customer Experience Advisors to join the Customer Experience & Insight Team within the Brynmor Jones Library. The team is responsible for delivering all frontline services in a busy and dynamic environment that supports the academic, cultural, and social needs of students, staff, and visitors. The library also incorporates an art gallery and exhibition spaces.

This role is central to ensuring an excellent standard of customer service across the building. The post holder will contribute directly to the overall student experience by providing high‑quality support in the use of library facilities, collections, and IT resources.

Key Responsibilities
The post holder will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide a highly visible and proactive service throughout the Brynmor Jones Library. Duties will include, but are not limited to:

• Responding to customer enquiries across multiple communication channels, providing clear information regarding library services, procedures, and regulations.
• Offering guidance in locating and accessing print and electronic information resources.
• Assisting customers with IT equipment and standard Microsoft Office applications.
• Delivering tours, presentations, and general orientation activities.
• Providing information relating to the library’s art gallery, exhibitions, and public events.
• Using mobile technology to complete administrative tasks and deliver on‑the‑spot support.
• Supporting new colleagues and student volunteers through training, mentoring, and buddying.
• Maintaining the organisation and accessibility of printed collections through shelving, shelf management, and stock relocation.
• Monitoring the condition of facilities and equipment, reporting faults as required.
• Processing the borrowing and returning of materials.
• Completing a range of routine administrative duties.
  Supporting the maintenance of a clean and safe environment by upholding building policies.
• Contributing ideas and feedback to service improvement initiatives and participating in project groups.
• Assisting with fire safety and evacuation procedures when necessary.

Additional Information
These roles will involve working one weekend day, which will be the same day each week. The nature of the role requires flexibility and the ability to work throughout the library building without direct supervision.

These vacancies are for fixed term contracts which are anticipated to be required from October 2026 – May 2027 approximately.
For an informal discussion about this vacancy please contact Jon Brooke, Customer Experience Team Leader: J.Brooke@hull.ac.uk

Content Acquisition Operations Manager
Location: British Library (Boston Spa)
Salary: £20,106 Per annum (FTE £40,212)
Contract: Part Time, Permanent
Closing Date: Sunday 26 April 2026

An exciting opportunity has arisen to job share as Content Acquisition Operations Manager and lead in all aspects of policy, process and best practice development in relation to acquisitions processing across all the Library’s formats. The post will work in tandem with the opposite job holder to lead multidisciplinary teams and also work effectively with a wide range of relevant internal stakeholders, North and South.

If you have acquisitions expertise, strong leadership skills, and the ability to navigate evolving workflows and organisational change – we’d love to hear from you.

About the role

Working closely with the counterpart job holder, you will lead and coordinate resource planning and delivery of effective processes and workflows across print and digital content acquisition operations at Boston Spa. You will ensure all acquisition related functions and throughput meet required quality standards and are delivered in line with agreed policies, KPIs and SLAs. Leading on change management activities, you will maximise opportunities to improve acquisition workflows in collaboration with colleagues across processing teams in the North and South to support consistent, coordinated service delivery.

About you

We’re looking for someone with:

• Demonstrable experience in a relevant professional capacity, including some direct experience of workflow and resource operations management within a library or content management environment.
• Track record of effective management and prioritisation of resources, including developing effective monitoring and reporting, and the ability to improve performance and deliver efficiencies.
• Proven leadership, interpersonal and human resource management skills, including change management, team-working, participation, delegation, coaching, conflict resolution, performance management and recognition.
• The ability to write and deliver papers, option appraisals, briefings and presentations to senior colleagues and other internal and external stakeholders.
• Good analytical, reasoning skills and problem-solving skills, including the ability to adapt to changing situations and to weigh options and implement solutions that overcome problems in the workplace.

This is a great opportunity to take on a leadership role, shape team practice, and contribute directly to the Library’s mission to preserve and provide access to the national collection.

The role is intended to offer a development and succession-planning opportunity that could be a standalone part time role or combined with an existing role. Interested candidates are encouraged to discuss how the job share will work from an operational point of view with Adele Lavery, Head of Metadata or Kevin Foody, Digital Print Operations Manager.

Due to the nature of the role, management of staff and related workflows, the successful candidate would be required to work predominantly on site.