Librarian

About Us

Our rich archive and library collection contains around 7 million items and is of outstanding national and international significance. Our Archive and Library strategy sets out our ambitions for our collections to be the best in the world in our fields: well-understood, well-housed and accessible (physically and digitally) and used effectively by us and others for research, display, learning and pleasure.

We are committed to documenting our collections, making them available to more people than ever before and transforming customer service. The Science Museum Librarian role based at the Science Museum Library in London is fundamental to this by ensuring access and engagement with a wide range of audiences.

Our rich archive and library collection contains around 7 million items and is of outstanding national and international significance. Our Archive and Library strategy sets out our ambitions for our collections to be the best in the world in our fields: well-understood, well-housed and accessible (physically and digitally) and used effectively by us and others for research, display, learning and pleasure.

We are committed to documenting our collections, making them available to more people than ever before and transforming customer service. The Science Museum Librarian role based at the Science Museum Library in London is fundamental to this by ensuring access and engagement with a wide range of audiences.

The Science Museum Library provides free access to around 8,000 books and periodicals covering the history and biography of science, technology, and medicine, as well as being the access point for the Science Museum Group’s rich collections of archives and rare books, stored at SMG’s Science and Innovation Park at Wroughton, near Swindon. We recently achieved Archive Service Accreditation. Examples of our collections include a 16th century copy of Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica (‘On the Structure of the Human Body’), an original copy of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica from 1686, the books from Stephen Hawking’s Cambridge office, our trade literature collection of over 100,000 promotional, advertising and instructional items from thousands of companies, Charles Babbage’s papers, and the archive of James Lovelock.

We have an Open For All policy and are committed to making all our archive and library collections discoverable via our catalogues, with some prioritised for digitisation. You will be supporting this and those colleagues and external researchers who want to access the physical items in our reading room.

This role works closely with the Collections and Research teams to support the Science Museum’s priorities, and the development and intellectual care of the collection. The role is an essential part of a small, close-knit team consisting of the Senior Archives and Library Assistant (based in London), the Library Collections Manager and Science Museum Archivist (both based at the Science and Innovation Park), and several other library and archives colleagues in roles across SMG.

As part of that team, you will be responsible for providing physical access to library material and archives, collaborating with Archive and Library colleagues to ensure consistent standards of customer service and KPIs are met, and engaging with wider audiences for our books and archives.

This is a permanent, part-time role working 28 hours per week at £26,223 pro rata (full-time equivalent: £32,778). You’ll be based at the Science Museum Library in London, where you’ll be responsible for the physical running of the reading space. We need to maintain staffing during core hours Tuesday to Thursday, but we’re flexible about how you structure those 28…