Job summary
- Main area
- Administration
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (Short Term Project)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 197-H-RF7508-A
- Employer
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital
- Town
- Woolwich
- Salary
- £38,682 - £46,580 per annum plus HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 20/01/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 11/02/2026
Employer heading
Knowledge and Library Specialist
Band 6
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.
Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.
We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here
Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.
LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.
We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
Job overview
We are seeking a self-motivated Librarian/Knowledge Specialist to be part of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust's Knowledge and Library Services team for a 12-month period. This is a great developmental opportunity for an experienced librarian looking to broaden their knowledge and skills.
Working with the Knowledge and Library Services Manager, you will need to be a qualified, experienced librarian, who is passionate, skilled and ready to help our service on its developmental journey. We are looking for a keen and flexible information professional, who can showcase their skills by supporting service development, including virtual and self-service provision, as well as contributing to the day to day running of the service.
We expect your style to be in line with the Trust values, and the successful candidate will have opportunities to expand their professional knowledge and experience in an NHS setting.
If you are looking for your next challenge, or a steppingstone in your career, and you have excellent skills, as well as credibility and experience, this is a great opportunity for you.
Main duties of the job
- Accountable to the Knowledge and Library Services Manager
- The postholder will play a major role in supporting the Knowledge and Library Services Manager to meet the Trust’s objectives, developing and promoting the service and ensuring the smooth day to day running of the library service
- Working in conjunction with other site trainers, the postholder will be responsible for all library related training across trust sites, designing, promoting, delivering and evaluating training, particularly in relation to literature searching and critical appraisal skills
- The postholder will be responsible for maintaining and developing the library websites, seeking out and testing suitable resources.
Working for our organisation
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
- Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
- Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
- Improving the experience of staff with disability
- Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
- Making equalities mainstream
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Assist in maintaining and managing the library premises. Supervise and support library staff. Participate in the daily running of the service, answering enquiries and assisting users to find information.
- Manage the day to day running of the service, dealing with staff and users concerns and complaints, problem solving as required. Ensure that any faults regarding premises, equipment or software are dealt with effectively.
- Supervise the workload of support staff. Ensure cycles of work are completed; eg shelving, inter-library loans and membership records. Resolve any cataloguing queries.
- Cascade training for library staff in using current and new electronic resources.
- Manage the administration of Athens accounts and link-resolver, including the adding and removal of resources as required.
- Devise and deliver library searching skills training, both in house, to external clinical teams, and as part of outreach training to primary care and mental health staff, where contracted to do so.
- Work collaboratively with other site trainers to devise and lead targeted training programmes of critical appraisal and literature searching skills to support research and professional development.
- Support the training needs of staff groups across the Trust, seeking out opportunities to develop and deliver training to groups locally to meet user needs as required.
- Manage and provide an enquiry service for users, including highly complex literature reviews for staff, evaluating results for relevance and obtaining materials/information.
- Provide an information service, including current awareness alerts via KnowledgeShare.
- Develop library collections and resources in the appropriate format according to user requirements.
- Represent and promote the library service at Trust staff induction. Provide tours and presentations as required for Library inductions to groups of users.
- Actively seek opportunities to improve the service for users eg through surveys, interviews, stock and user audits. Market and promote the service to existing and potential library users, targeting particular aspects of the service to specific staff groups, including those working in the community.
- Lead the development of a range of publicity materials in various formats, such as guides, instruction leaflets, posters and training support materials to promote the library and its services.
- Lead the continued development of the library web pages on the Trust internet and intranet sites, seeking out and developing material for internal and external users.
- Assess the competing demands on the service, including the impact of national developments. Analyse needs against available resources and develop the service to meet changing requirements.
- Analyse policy changes, both local and national and how they might affect the users, the LMS and the web pages, in particular. Discuss changes with library staff and other relevant groups.
- Contribute to strategies and annual plans, particularly QIOF, that support the organisational aims and objectives, meet the requirements of stakeholders, support local, regional and national learning and education initiatives and contribute to the development of patient care, education, learning, clinical governance and continuing professional development and research and development within the healthcare community.
- Provide information to the Knowledge and Library Services Manager to evaluate and enhance different aspects of the service for users e.g. statistics on usage and membership, evaluation of training programmes, analysis of qualitative and quantitative surveys. Provide statistics as required for internal and external returns and surveys and to ensure service level agreements are met.
Person specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential criteria
- Postgraduate qualification in librarianship or equivalent
Desirable criteria
- Chartered member of CILIP (or working towards chartership)
- Training qualification
- Evidence of continued professional development
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience in a library setting
- Experience of working in a team
- Experience of training users; 1 to 1 or in groups
- Experience of supervising staff
Desirable criteria
- Experience in an NHS or academic library
- Experience of deputising for more senior staff
- Experience in designing training courses and materials following analysis of user needs
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent verbal and written skills
- Excellent presentation and facilitation skills
- Good analytical skills
- Good negotiating and influencing skills
- Good IT literacy using different application systems, databases and the internet
- Experience of relevant information sources and providers of healthcare information, including databases, content management providers, internet sites
- Experience of training users to use computer-based resources effectively
Desirable criteria
- Experience of consortium-based library management systems
- An understanding of the NHS and the information needs of its staff
- Awareness of the key knowledge/library and educational issues in the NHS
- Experience of website design and maintenance
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
- Able to work on own initiative
- Able to manage time effectively to meet competing deadlines
- Must be able to work proactively, to meet changing service demands, local and national
- Must be able to work with a wide variety of staff and users
- Carry out all duties in accordance with the Trust’s Equal Opportunities Policy and to implement this policy in all aspects of the work of the department
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Violet Meier
- Job title
- Knowledge and Library Services Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 020 8836 6748
- Additional information
Please submit queries via email in the first instance.
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