User Experience Librarian

at  University of Derby

JOB DETAILS

Responsible to
User Experience Manager
Location
Kedleston Road, Derby Campus
Closing date
Sunday 1 December 2024
Salary
£37,756 to £40,920 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £51,878 per annum).
Job grade

MPS 1

Reference
0480-24
Contract type
Permanent
Post type
Full-time
Adaptive working type
Onsite
This role will be based on site, primarily in the named location.
About the University
We have one simple promise – to make a positive impact. Through our ground-breaking research, teaching excellence and commitment to sustainable living, we are changing lives for the better.
The University of Derby is a modern university with a modern outlook. Everything we do is driven by delivering excellence and opportunities for our students, our staff and our region.
We have some of the best university facilities in the UK and achieve outstanding results for our teaching and research and have been awarded Gold in the prestigious Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 – making it one of the top universities in the country recognised for its outstanding student experience and student outcomes.
Financially strong and seriously ambitious we offer our employees an inclusive culture that centres itself around staff wellbeing, where you can be confident you will receive all the help and encouragement you need to build a rewarding career with lots of opportunities to enhance your skills.
About the College/Department
The University of Derby Library is seeking to appoint a User Experience Librarian, a critical role that helps us to deliver conspicuously against the University’s purpose and strategic aims.
Our Library is one that supports our communities to realise their ambitions by opening up new areas of knowledge & understanding and through fostering applied creative thinking.

At the centre of our approach is a high-quality student experience, outstanding student outcomes and supporting an excellent research environment. With this in mind, our teams deliver against three core strategic themes:

• Community - The original missions of libraries were not about repositories of books or as gatekeepers to knowledge, but about fostering communities of scholars. With that in mind, our focus is on how the Library supports the wide range of communities we have, fostering connection and empowering academic culture.
• Confidence - There is a fundamental role for the Library to ensure all students become confident, independent learners and researchers. We shall support students to develop confidence and applied creative thinking through our academic skills provision and an industry relevant skills offer that enhances performance whilst at university as well as into their chosen future.
• Content - Exploration and access to scholarly content is critical to the process of learning, teaching, research, and knowledge exchange. The Library plays a significant role provisioning scholarly content, working with our academic colleagues and students. We shall work to ensure that relevant content is delivered in a sustainable way and that we leverage technology and metadata expertise that enables our students and academics to explore and access the scholarly record.

About the role
As the User Experience Librarian, your role centers on managing and enhancing the library’s user experience services. You will oversee daily operations, ensuring that library spaces and services are designed to optimise support for learning and research for both students and academic staff. A critical part of your role includes leading a team of specialized staff who provide essential first-line support to users, creating a welcoming and resourceful environment. Additionally, you’ll conduct user experience and usability studies to gather insights, using this data to refine and improve the library’s services, ensuring that the user journey is seamless, intuitive, and supportive of academic success.
About You
To excel as a User Experience Librarian, you will bring a strong blend of self-motivation and teamwork skills, working effectively across departments to drive user-focused services that align with the University’s strategic goals. Your experience in managing and inspiring teams will enable you to foster a supportive environment where staff feel motivated to deliver high-quality service. You understand the specific needs and discovery behaviours of both students and researchers, allowing you to tailor services effectively and ensure seamless access to information.
A proven track record of managing library environments ensures you can uphold reliable, continuous services, meeting the expectations of the academic community. Emphasizing continuous quality improvement, you are committed to refining the user experience based on regular feedback and evolving needs. You also have experience in developing and supporting team members by identifying skills gaps, overseeing training initiatives, managing performance, and nurturing talent.
Your collaborative approach and ability to build positive, productive relationships with colleagues across different functions are essential in creating a cohesive, responsive library service. This combined expertise supports the library’s mission to deliver a robust, adaptable, and user-centered experience that directly benefits the academic and research community.

Principal accountabilities

• Working collaboratively, develop and manage operational support for library spaces and overarching user experience, delivering against operational plans and placing strong focus on continuous improvement to align with university priorities.
• Manage the user experience across allocated library sites, ensuring they are welcoming, safe and accessible, delivering agreed service models and business continuity and resolving issues through problem solving across these locations.
• Manage the delivery of a responsive library enquiry service that supports the University’s students and staff, ensuring optimum user experience and providing specialist advice for escalated queries associated with library spaces and community initiatives, as required.
• Leveraging agreed circulation strategies, manage the delivery of circulation services across allocated library sites, implementing and enhancing provision, and problem solving to resolve issues as required.
• Ensure allocated library sites comply with relevant legal and regulatory requirements associated with the operations of physical spaces, including, but not limited to, Health & Safety, accessibility and safeguarding.
• Maintain current awareness and knowledge of pedagogically effective library environment and user interaction provision, synthesising this understanding to optimise the user experience and develop library environments.
• Build positive and effective relationships with colleagues across the University, to promote and support library experience services, to establish and maintain parity of user experience and to nuance services according to site needs.
• Provide specialist advice and guidance across the University in respect of the user experience associated with library experience services, pedagogically effective library environments and resource circulation, leveraging specific knowledge and experience of core audience demographics connected with allocated library sites.
• Manage the capture, collation, analysis and reporting of data in respect of library spaces and user experience, in accordance with defined measures and benchmarks.
• Contribute towards the design of the Library’s physical and digital environments, working in partnership with students and academic colleagues, and manage the delivery of agreed designs, as appropriate, to ensure an excellent user experience for education and research.
• Working collaboratively, ensure communication and promotion plans are enacted across allocated library sites to promote service developments across a range of user interaction mechanisms including, but not limited to, synchronous and asynchronous enquiry services, qualitative feedback loops, web and social media presence.
• Working collaboratively, manage allocated library site contributions towards the University’s civic priorities, coordinating identified opportunities, engaging with colleagues and partners and overseeing development and implementation as appropriate.
• Working with colleagues across the Library, undertake regular user experience and usability studies and utilise learnings derived to plan, implement and monitor any required changes to continuously improve user experience of the Library’s physical environments, user interaction mechanisms and the pedagogical effectiveness of library spaces.
• Actively participate as a member of working groups across the Library and, where relevant, the wider University to develop and implement policies and procedures, contribute towards decision-making, resolve issues and implement assigned projects.
• Contribute towards the development and implementation of operational plans associated with the Library’s user experience services.
• Provide line management to reporting colleagues as appropriate, defining agreed objectives, securing effective performance management and fostering inclusive approaches to service development.
• Actively promote and support inclusion through operational activities undertaken through the role.
• Actively seek opportunities for library experience services teams to support cross-library projects.
• Undertake continuous personal and professional development in support of the role.
• Be flexible with working pattern and in working at different University sites and supporting other library teams, as required.
• Ensure compliance with relevant University policies and procedures.

Person specification

QUALIFICATIONS

• Undergraduate qualification or equivalent relevant professional experience.

EXPERIENCE

• Experience of managing and delivering user-focussed services with an emphasis on continuous quality improvement.
• Experience of successfully managing physical library environments, ensuring adequate business continuity of service.
• Experience of managing and motivating people and teams, including identifying skills gaps and training needs and performance management.
• Experience of building positive relationships and working productively in collaboration with a wide range of colleagues.
• Experience of managing and delivering successful projects in a professional context.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & ABILITIES

• Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion with the ability to role model, adhere to and advocate the University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.
• Knowledge of legislation and regulations relevant to the operations of physical spaces.
• An understanding of user experience research techniques to formulate conclusions for service improvements.
• Knowledge of developments and best practice in library circulation strategies and technologies relevant to academic success.
• An understanding of space design and pedagogically effective library environments in the context of academic libraries.
• Knowledge of user interaction and communication methods within a library service context.
• Ability to resolve unexpected issues, through problem solving techniques, escalating where required.
• An understanding of the information requirements and discovery-seeking behaviour of students and researchers.
• Ability to plan, prioritise and organise work and people to achieve objectives on time.
• Ability to support teams through change.
• Confident in approaching new technologies and flexible approach to change.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to work across all University sites, as required.
• Ability to be flexible within the working pattern to meet the business needs, including working evenings, weekends, or extended hours.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Postgraduate or additional relevant professional qualification.
• Membership of relevant professional bodies.

EXPERIENCE

• Experience of working within an academic library.
• Experience of working with library management systems.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, AND ABILITIES

• Knowledge of marketing techniques to promote library services.
• Knowledge and understanding of the post-16 education environment.

Benefits

• Generous annual leave entitlement of 38 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Suite of holistic wellbeing benefits and support including family-friendly policies, generous sick pay provision and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to a variety of staff discounts at high street retailers
• Discounted onsite gym
• Discounted access to Devonshire Spa
• Holiday purchase
• Cycle to Work scheme
• A flexible working environment
• A commitment to personal and professional development

Find out more about rewards and benefitsFind out more about rewards and benefits
Key contact
For further information and informal enquiries regarding the role, please contact Clare Towle, User Experience Manager via c.e.towle@derby.ac.uk
For enquiries regarding your application and for sponsorship eligibility, please contact the recruitment team via recruitment@derby.ac.uk.
Don’t miss your chance – join the team and make a difference today

• Working collaboratively, develop and manage operational support for library spaces and overarching user experience, delivering against operational plans and placing strong focus on continuous improvement to align with university priorities.
• Manage the user experience across allocated library sites, ensuring they are welcoming, safe and accessible, delivering agreed service models and business continuity and resolving issues through problem solving across these locations.
• Manage the delivery of a responsive library enquiry service that supports the University’s students and staff, ensuring optimum user experience and providing specialist advice for escalated queries associated with library spaces and community initiatives, as required.
• Leveraging agreed circulation strategies, manage the delivery of circulation services across allocated library sites, implementing and enhancing provision, and problem solving to resolve issues as required.
• Ensure allocated library sites comply with relevant legal and regulatory requirements associated with the operations of physical spaces, including, but not limited to, Health & Safety, accessibility and safeguarding.
• Maintain current awareness and knowledge of pedagogically effective library environment and user interaction provision, synthesising this understanding to optimise the user experience and develop library environments.
• Build positive and effective relationships with colleagues across the University, to promote and support library experience services, to establish and maintain parity of user experience and to nuance services according to site needs.
• Provide specialist advice and guidance across the University in respect of the user experience associated with library experience services, pedagogically effective library environments and resource circulation, leveraging specific knowledge and experience of core audience demographics connected with allocated library sites.
• Manage the capture, collation, analysis and reporting of data in respect of library spaces and user experience, in accordance with defined measures and benchmarks.
• Contribute towards the design of the Library’s physical and digital environments, working in partnership with students and academic colleagues, and manage the delivery of agreed designs, as appropriate, to ensure an excellent user experience for education and research.
• Working collaboratively, ensure communication and promotion plans are enacted across allocated library sites to promote service developments across a range of user interaction mechanisms including, but not limited to, synchronous and asynchronous enquiry services, qualitative feedback loops, web and social media presence.
• Working collaboratively, manage allocated library site contributions towards the University’s civic priorities, coordinating identified opportunities, engaging with colleagues and partners and overseeing development and implementation as appropriate.
• Working with colleagues across the Library, undertake regular user experience and usability studies and utilise learnings derived to plan, implement and monitor any required changes to continuously improve user experience of the Library’s physical environments, user interaction mechanisms and the pedagogical effectiveness of library spaces.
• Actively participate as a member of working groups across the Library and, where relevant, the wider University to develop and implement policies and procedures, contribute towards decision-making, resolve issues and implement assigned projects.
• Contribute towards the development and implementation of operational plans associated with the Library’s user experience services.
• Provide line management to reporting colleagues as appropriate, defining agreed objectives, securing effective performance management and fostering inclusive approaches to service development.
• Actively promote and support inclusion through operational activities undertaken through the role.
• Actively seek opportunities for library experience services teams to support cross-library projects.
• Undertake continuous personal and professional development in support of the role.
• Be flexible with working pattern and in working at different University sites and supporting other library teams, as required.
• Ensure compliance with relevant University policies and procedures