Job Description
The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. 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.
Within Libraries & Collections, we aspire to be leaders in enabling access to the knowledge and information fundamental to the success of King’s community and society. We proudly deliver library and evidence services for the NHS as part of King’s Health Partners.
We are excited to recruit for the Head of Clinical Library Services role. We are looking for a candidate passionate about the role of libraries in supporting clinical care, education, and research. This is an excellent opportunity to grow your leadership and service development skills within a large and diverse organisation.
The purpose of the Head of Clinical Library Services is to oversee library and evidence services delivered by King’s College London for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust & King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust. As Head of Clinical Library Services, you will be a Libraries & Collections Senior Management Team member. You will contribute to our overall strategic direction, provide operational leadership across our service, and lead the Clinical Library Services team in developing and delivering clinical-specific services, including knowledge mobilisation, current awareness, and mediated searching. You will ensure that our clinical library services are regularly reviewed to incorporate user feedback and reflect trust priorities and national initiatives - including Knowledge for Healthcare and the Quality Improvement Outcomes Framework.
You will work closely with our Head of Learning Design & Delivery to evaluate and expand our suite of information literacy and skills programmes to the NHS and with our other Heads of Service to ensure that all our collections and spaces reflect the requirements of our NHS partners. You will be the primary liaison point with our NHS trusts and develop strong relationships with Health Education England and across the clinical libraries sector.
We particularly welcome applications from black and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Libraries & Collections at this level. We also encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.
All Libraries & Collections staff are encouraged to take responsibility for their performance and development by identifying clear objectives, maintaining professional awareness, participating in professional networks, and reflecting on their performance. We expect all senior managers to adopt a positive, proactive, flexible, and committed approach that inspires and motivates others.
You will be expected to participate in frontline services, including contributing towards a Manager on Duty rota for evening and weekend work.
This is primarily a campus-based role, with some home working available. The post holder will mostly work from our Denmark Hill campus but will maintain a presence across all King’s Campuses.
This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.
This is a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours .
Key responsibilities
- Proactively keep up to date with developments and changes in the NHS, both nationally and locally, maintaining a strong professional profile and engagement with sector groups
- With the Associate Director, lead on developing and managing our service level agreements with NHS partner trusts.
- Build strong relationships with our Trust partners to understand their needs, raise our services' profile and explore collaboration opportunities.
- Increase knowledge of the work of clinical library services and the needs of our trust partners across Libraries & Collections and the wider university.
- Lead on the delivery and evaluation of our clinical libraries service catalogue, ensuring alinement with the aims of national strategies and frameworks.
- Gather and utilise data and diverse user feedback to continuously improve and develop our clinical library services.
- Collaborate as part of the Senior Management Team to deliver our Libraries & Collections strategy, ensuring the needs of our NHS users are factored into all strategic and operational planning.
- Co-ordinate a visible view of team priorities, providing transparency, focus and opportunities for collaboration.
- Create a common culture of empowerment where staff are supported to drive continuous service improvement and develop their skills and knowledge.
- Ensure consistent and effective line management practice through clear objective setting and active commitment to the Performance Development Review process.
The above list of responsibilities is not exhaustive. 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.
- Professionally accredited library post-graduate qualification or suitably qualified by experience.
- Experience developing and managing clinical library services within higher education or healthcare settings.
- Experience developing and managing healthcare and information literacy training programmes.
- Ability to clarify complex ideas and facilitate constructive discussion to influence key stakeholders.
- Highly organised and skilled in managing and delivering projects and initiatives with an understanding of the role of business planning and business intelligence in effective service delivery.
- Ability to develop and evaluate new services for the NHS, particularly around knowledge and evidence to support clinical practice and decision-making.
- Experience in managing and motivating a team of staff to a high level of performance.
- Experience successfully applying change management principles in leading others through continual change.
- Strong knowledge of healthcare policy and its implications for clinical library services
- Understanding of the current and future challenges facing academic libraries in research-intensive universities
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.
If you are a student or alumni of King’s there are resources from King’s Careers & Employability to support you in your application and interview.
Interviews will be held using Microsoft Teams and will consist of 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.