Acquisitions Information Assistant - Library Services - 8305 - Band 400 Birmingham, England
Job description
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, Permanent
Closing date: 13th April 2023
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 Acquisitions Team is part of the Collection Management and Development division which 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.
Main Duties
Purchase new book material by:
Carrying out preparatory bibliographic checks using a number of publication sources, specialist bibliographic databases and vendor platforms
Checking current holdings and ebook licences
Searching specialist databases for appropriate catalogue records and, using knowledge and experience, selecting the best available resource against agreed standards
Creating orders using specialist library systems and vendor platforms
Using book supply databases and purchasing platforms to check for ebook availability and to place orders
Track order progress by:
Liaising with suppliers, academics and other Library Services staff as appropriate, in order to facilitate the acquisition of information resources
Chasing orders and entering reports from suppliers on specialist library systems
Deal with incoming, newly purchased material by:
Receipting new material onto the library management system and putting it through the sortation machine
Creating invoices on the library management system and attaching orders
Accurately checking and coding invoices according to the University’s financial procedures
Process resource lists by:
Creating new resource lists and editing existing lists using the reading list management system
Using the reading list management system to review lists to identify new orders
Reviewing titles against current holdings in the library catalogue to ensure sufficient access
Checking for new editions and e-book availability and ensuring materials are purchased as appropriate
Applying agreed formulas to decide how many copies to purchase
Inter-library loans (borrower requests)
Receive, process and fulfil inter-library loan requests from University of Birmingham staff and students, and external library members (in-loans) by:
Process in-loans received via the Resource Sharing function of ALMA.
Ensuring requests are compliant with relevant copyright legislation and responding appropriately.
Searching local catalogues to check if there are already local holdings of requested materials.
Search relevant catalogues for UK and overseas locations, using judgement and experience to inform decisions on appropriate lines of enquiry.
Using knowledge of specialist systems and processes (e.g. library management system, British Library Document Supply Service, OCLC WorldShare, RapidILL), send requests via the most appropriate route to satisfy user requirements.
Monitoring updates to requests on a regular basis, updating customers and responding to their queries
Receipting fulfilled requests from 3rd party suppliers either in electronic or print format and sending on to requester using encryption and file transfer software as appropriate
Processing returns from loans of printed material and returning to fulfilling library
Recording accurate and comprehensive metadata and statistics relating to material requested for analysis by team managers
Monitoring the Document Supply Mailbox, forwarding electronic articles to patrons, dealing with queries/information from lending libraries and patrons/colleagues.
Test new products and systems for document supply under the guidance of the ILL Specialist as needed and provide feedback on potential for improving existing services
General
Assist with training new members of the team or other Library Services colleagues, and supervising casual staff as required.
Any other duties commensurate with the grade to support colleagues across Library Services.
Person Specification
Essential
2 A levels or equivalent qualification or relevant experience
Good numeracy and literacy
Excellent interpersonal skills
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
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
Ability to work both independently and as part of team
Ability to work reliably and flexibly in a busy environment
Knowledge and substantial experience of using IT systems
Desirable
Knowledge or experience of library work, the book trade or publishing industry
Knowledge and experience of library management system, reading list management system, online ordering platform)
Informal enquiries to Francesca Tondi email: [email protected]
View our staff values and behaviours here
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 .
