Job Description

About Us

King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.

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

This role is based within the newly created Collections Transformation team, which oversees projects and tasks to ensure that library collections are managed in line with research and teaching needs, maximise economic and physical resources, and contribute to the delivery of King’s Strategic Vision.

As our Collections Coordinator, you’ll work across teams to coordinate the management and preservation of the library’s print and electronic resources, overseeing life-cycle collection management procedures around digitisation, processing, storage and the sustainable withdrawal of items.

If you’re highly organised and looking to apply your organisational skills towards the practical management of library collections and resources, this will be an exciting opportunity for you. Supporting the Collections Manager(s), you’ll contribute to ongoing projects to transform the way our collections are stored and made available. You’ll also develop skills in collection management (physical and electronic), delivering key projects and working collaboratively across teams.

All Libraries & Collections staff are encouraged to take responsibility for their own performance and development, through agreeing clear objectives, maintaining professional awareness, participating in professional networks and reflecting on own performance. We expect all colleagues to role-model a positive, proactive, flexible and committed approach that encourages others.

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

This is currently a hybrid working role with both work from home and on campus. The role will be based in our department, currently on the Strand campus.

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. It is a part-time post and we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours.

This is currently a hybrid working role with both work from home and on campus. The role will be based in our department, currently on the Strand campus.

Key responsibilities

• Work independently to resolve a range of sometimes complex problems and provide guidance across Libraries & Collections in relation to Collection Management
• Supervise Senior Library Assistants and Library Assistants in their operational duties to deliver high quality services
• Role-model a positive, proactive, flexible and committed approach that inspires others
• Facilitate an environment of continuous improvement, through open communication and constructive feedback
• Deliver training to a range of audiences, providing demonstrations and explanations
• Coordinate, interpret and apply the implementation and use of Business Intelligence to steer operational service planning and decision making, identifying gaps and barriers to success and ensuring workflows are effective and efficient
• Support the Collections Manager(s) in delivering milestone collection projects, ensuring objectives are met on time and within budget
• Update procedural manuals with up-to-date information relating to Collection Management workflows and ensure their implementation

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Please clearly address how you meet the essential criteria in your application, and where possible how you meet the desirable criteria as well.

Essential criteria

1. Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of work and educational experiences will support you in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in a library or in a busy administrative or customer-facing role. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training
2. Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present information to different audiences
3. Ability to work to a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
4. Experience of proactively resolving problems in a customer-focused environment
5. Experience of supervising staff
6. Ability to work independently in a fast-changing environment and to meet deadlines
7. Ability to work effectively and proactively with own team, other teams and with our stakeholders to provide a high-quality service
8. Demonstrable IT skills, including MS Excel to compile and input data
9. Commitment to equity, equality, diversity and inclusivity in your own learning and ways of working
10. General understanding of the current and future challenges facing academic libraries in research-intensive universities

Desirable criteria

1. Educated to degree level and/or professionally accredited library/information/archives qualification
2. Experience of coordinating projects and/or service improvements
3. Up-to-date knowledge of data protection and copyright legislation
4. Basic understanding of MARC21 cataloguing in RDA

Further Information

Please submit a personal statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website:  https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying

If you are a student or alumni of King’s there are resources from  [King’s Careers & Employability](King’s Careers & Employability) to support you in your application and interview.

Interviews will be held in person and will consist of a scenario-based assessment and competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here.

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities.