Community Library Assistant

Role Overview

Do you have a knack for helping people, and a desire to work at the heart of the local community? We are looking for an enthusiastic and versatile person to join our friendly and hard-working team. Wisbech Library is a busy and vibrant library catering for a growing and diverse community. As well as catering for all ages with our selection of books, we organise regular activities and events and work closely with schools and other local groups.

This post is based at Wisbech Library for 37 hours per week. Please see provisional timetable attached for working pattern. This role involves some weekend and evening working. Staff from Wisbech Library support a wider team which includes the library in Whittlesey and occasionally other libraries in the East Cambridgeshire and Fenland area. Therefore some travel may be necessary from time to time.

This is a primarily customer-facing role working in the library, dealing with enquiries, supporting customers to access online services and promoting the Library offer in the community.

There are many opportunities to support and deliver library events, including Rhymetime and Story times, and although there is plenty of routine work, there are also many opportunities to be creative.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network "IDEAL" and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

• Demonstrate your understanding of delivering good customer service.
• Interpersonal skills, including patience and listening skills with an ability to establish exactly what the customer requires.
• A pleasant, helpful manner with customers of all ages and abilities.
• A strong team player, able to work with colleagues on projects and contribute to team goals.
• Flexibility and adaptability in all areas of work, including being able to respond to a change in hours or workplace location.

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Library experience is an advantage, however we would love to hear from candidates who have demonstrated exceptional customer service skills in other contexts. Training will be given on specific library systems, but an ability to work with IT is essential. The successful candidate will be passionate about what public libraries can offer and able to promote our services both within the library and in the wider community.

• We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage.
• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family.
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances.
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings.
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth.
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day.
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards.
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes.