Senior Library Manager, Student and Academic Services

Weekly Working Hours: 24

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The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

The Senior Library Manager (Student and Academic Services) provides a pivotal role within the Library, managing the relationship with one of our four faculties, and leading a key service area.

We work in partnership with the whole OU community to design and deliver a Library service which continually improves to meets the need of the University. Key to this is proactive relationship management with faculty colleagues to ensure we understand the needs of our community, and align our services appropriately.

Working within a matrix management structure, the Senior Library Managers collaborate on the provision of services to support the University. Alongside faculty relationship management, the post holder is responsible for the strategic leadership of a key service area. Key services include synchronous and asynchronous training, real-time help and support, and embedding library content and skills into the curriculum.

Key Responsibilities

Faculty Relationship & Collection Management

• Initiate, build and lead strategic relationships with senior stakeholders within the designated faculty, to gain insight and understanding of strategic priorities and foster collaboration.
• Develop an understanding of faculty needs in relation to library content to ensure that the University obtains value for money for the collections to which it subscribes, and that these meet the changing teaching, scholarship and research needs.
• Work with Content, Licensing & Intellectual Property colleagues to ensure appropriate subscriptions and licensing arrangements are in place for faculty-based collection development.
• Manage the Information Resources Budget (IRB) to respond to changing curriculum and research needs.

Strategic Service Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership in specialist areas of expertise to support the development of innovative services.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Library to deliver a coherent joined up service in line with key priorities, ensuring team workloads are appropriate.
• Work with the team to identify and articulate the value and impact of the key service area.
• Clearly and quickly communicate decisions and keep people up to date with institutional and sectoral change and opportunities.

Library Leadership

• Direct, inspire, motivate, engage and challenge the team to deliver responsibilities to agreed performance and quality standards, deadlines and budgets.
• As a member of the Extended Leadership Team contribute to strategy development, ensure a responsive and customer-oriented approach to service development and delivery, with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Create, manage and analyse data to inform decision-making; working collaboratively with colleagues to exploit business intelligence to shape the strategic development of Library Services.
• Lead, performance manage and motivate staff assigned; including recruitment and annual appraisal, personal development planning and objective setting through the appraisal process.
• Participate in external networks, and otherwise to keep abreast of current and likely future developments, using this intelligence to ensure that the Open University Library is sector leading.

Additional Requirements

All staff are expected to:

• Undertake any other duties which may reasonably be required.
• Take reasonable care of the Health and Safety of themselves and that of any other person who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work.
• Attend appropriate staff development events and undertake appropriate training where necessary to improve skills.

About You

Essential: 

• Educated to degree level in librarianship or information science (or equivalent professional experience).
• Expert and up-to-date professional knowledge of library resources, modern teaching and learning methods, and the delivery of library services at a distance.
• Experience of developing and implementing library strategy, planning associated services and leading change.
• Experience of leading cross-functional activities and managing workloads in a complex environment i.e. working across unit teams and leading projects where there is no formal line management responsibility.
• Experience of building and maintaining strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and colleagues, with expertise in negotiating and the proven ability to influence outcomes.
• Excellent people management skills, with experience of successfully developing teams and individuals.
• Demonstrable organisational, planning, risk management and problem-solving skills, with a flexible approach to meet challenging deadlines.
• Proven ability to work with qualitative and quantitative data in order to understand and improve library services.
• Excellent communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills, varying approaches to match situations and using networking opportunities to maximum effect.
• Ability to apply inclusive and fair practices in the delivery of the role. 

Desirable:

• Experience in project management and planning, applied to own work and the work of others.
• Experience of working in the Higher Education sector.
• Professional accreditation, e.g. Fellowship of Advance HE (FHEA), Chartered Librarian or equivalent.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Working Location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes Office, it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. As a member of the Library Extended Leadership Team you will take part in our Duty Manager rota, being on-site at least once a month to support our in-building Library services. Full-time working based from our Milton Keynes site is also supported if this is preferred by the candidate. Expenses associated with travel to our Milton Keynes site are not reimbursable.

Working hours and pattern are open to negotiation with the successful candidate.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interview dates are still to be confirmed.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents:

• CV
• A Supporting Statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential criteria for this role as detailed above.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.