eResources and Serials Information Assistant - Library Services - 55559

INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

Position Details

Library Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £22,050 to £23,535, with potential progression once in post to £28,631.

Band 400

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to February 2023.

Closing date: 21st August 2022

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do. 

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.  We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. 

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.  With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. 

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.  We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. 

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.  In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. 

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.  On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. 

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham .

Background

The Collection Management and Development division works to acquire and give access to resources purchased in support of teaching, learning and research across the University.  The team obtains various formats of material, including printed books, e-books and DVDs, in a variety of languages; and processes reading lists supplied by academic staff to support their teaching.  The team obtains and manages print serials and electronic resources, and makes them accessible to users.   The team play a key role in the delivery of Library Services’ core purpose of obtaining and making accessible content to the University community and beyond. The Collection Management team has responsibility for managing the life cycle of Library Services’ printed collections, including their procurement, cataloguing and classification, storage, review, relegation and disposal.

Role Summary

Depending on the team in which they are based, the post holder will undertake a number of duties in support of the acquisition of serials, electronic resources and monographs (both print & electronic).   In addition, Acquisition Team Information Assistants will have responsibility for adding resource lists to the Talis Aspire Reading List System and eResources & Serials Information Assistants for ensuring access to electronic resources and journals via library discovery systems. Collection Management Information Assistants will have responsibility for duties relating to the management of the Library’s printed collections. 

Main Duties

The post holder will undertake a selection of duties from the list below depending upon the team in which they are based, although they may be asked to undertake duties listed under other teams as the need requires. Please note this role is for the eResources & Serials Team.

• Process electronic resources and journals by:

• Creating title and collection records via the Library Management System and related, supporting systems, ensuring standards are maintained and consistently applied.

• Editing existing records ensuring amendments are accurately made and aligned to required standards.

• Dealing with electronic resource access issues, breaking down and analysing problems, identifying and implementing solutions.  This will often require checking and discussing with third party vendor support platform and processes.

• Acting as key point of communication for academics and library services colleagues, answering e-access enquiries, handling and owning issues from initial contact to resolution.

• Sharing solutions with colleagues to ensure service improvements are implemented.

• Liaising with suppliers, academics and other Library Services staff as appropriate, in order to facilitate the acquisition of information resources ensuring they become discoverable by library users. 

• Chasing orders and claiming missing serials issues.

• Receipting periodical issues onto the library management system.

• Accurately checking and coding invoices according to the University’s financial procedures and adding invoices to correct order records on the library management system.

• Updating, amending and closing holding statements

• Advice is available but most work is done independently.  The post holder will be expected to manage his/her own time, anticipating and prioritising his/her own workload to meet deadlines and ensure both the required standard and continuity of service.  As part of this they will balance the need for accurate and professional work against the need to meet targets.

• Post holders will be expected to handle regular queries from Library Services colleagues or from University staff, students and external library users in relation to the normal duties of the post

• Assess and analyses problems and identifies solutions from experience, precedent or training, for example, sorting equipment problems by liaising with colleagues in other parts of the University as appropriate.

• Post holders would be expected to keep their line managers informed of decisions that required judgement (normally based on past practice or precedent) taken in their absence

• Where post holders are working without the immediate supervision of their line manager, they would be expected to take responsibility for sorting out minor equipment problems and for liaising with colleagues in other parts of the University as appropriate.

• Dealing with complex issues without received practice or precedent which need the assistance of a more experienced or professionally qualified team member.

• Where post holders have suggestions for improvement or amendment to work of Collection Management and Development, they would be expected to discuss with their line manager and, if appropriate, they could then assist with its implementation.

Person Specification

• 2 A-Levels or equivalent qualification or substantial relevant experience

• Good numeracy, literacy, classification skills

• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills

• Ability to understand and use complex and specialist systems e.g. ALMA, external library holdings databases, in house IT applications for stock management

• Good level of IT literacy, and a willingness to further develop skills in this area 

• Ability to work with accuracy to required standards and deadlines and demonstrate attention to detail

• Ability to work independently to required standards and deadlines in using complex and specialist library systems, processes and databases

• Good organisational skills

• Demonstrable ability to work both independently and as part of team

• Ability to work reliably and flexibly in a busy environment

• Excellent and demonstrable customer service skills

• Experience of receiving and resolving customer enquiries and the ability and willingness to adopt a friendly customer orientated approach in a busy service environment. 

• Knowledge or experience of library work, the book trade or publishing industry

Informal enquires to Mark Cook, email: [email protected]

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.