Our benefits

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

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About the role

We are looking for an enthusiastic and versatile person to help us shape the future of Cambridgeshire Libraries. We maintain a high-quality public library service, working in partnership with a range of other organisations and community groups. Our Community Library Assistants are the first point of contact for members of the public who are visiting and using our libraries, and consequently the role is varied and allows staff to develop many different skills.

This is a part-time role based at Ely Library, and you will regularly work at Burwell, Soham and Littleport Library and will need to be able to drive to other libraries in the county for training and staff development on occasion. This post includes evening and weekend work on a fortnightly basis and requires some lone working as our branch libraries are single-staffed.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Candidates are invited to visit Ely library to meet myself and the team for a drop in formation session between 10am - 12pm on either Friday 13th March or Saturday 14th March.

Interviews will be held at Ely Library on Wednesday April 15th.

If you would like any further information about this vacancy, please contact the Area Library Manager at clearly stating which position you are interested in.

What will you be doing?

Providing friendly, efficient, customer-facing, front-line public services to users of Cambridgeshire Libraries.
Delivering and promoting the library offer.
Taking the lead on our Summer Reading Challenge programme and activities, as well as regular library events including delivering Rhymetime and Storytime sessions.
Supporting the wider aims and objectives of the service by assisting in delivery of partnership initiatives and outreach work.
Visiting schools and other groups to promote the Library services.

Please refer to the attached job description for further details about the role. Documents can be found at the bottom of the page.

Please note that this role does involve some lone working.

About you

The successful candidate will have a flair for working with people, able to create a friendly and welcoming environment for a diverse range of customers. You will be excellent at multi-tasking, be quick and efficient, and enjoy working under pressure.

You will be passionate about what public libraries can offer, and able to promote our services. Although there is plenty of routine work, there is also scope to be creative. Training will be given on specific library systems, but an ability to work with IT is assumed. Although library experience is an advantage, we would also like to hear from candidates who have demonstrated exceptional customer service skills in other contexts.

When completing the supporting statement for this position, please tell us how your skills, experience, capability, and potential match each of the criteria in the person specification. Think carefully about the following criteria and provide practical examples of how and when you have used the particular knowledge, skill or experience.

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
Flair for working with children, families and library partners.
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 of hours or workplace location.

IT skills are essential for this role and full training will be given on library specific systems and processes. The role involves standing, bending, carrying books, moving furniture and pushing heavy trolleys.

A successful candidate will be welcomed into our friendly and diverse team of staff and volunteers. We also work closely with other colleagues in the Cambridgeshire Libraries team, as well as our partner teams such as Skills and Communities.

Please note: all applications must be made online and we cannot accept CVs.

About us

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.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

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.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

CAMBRIDGESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Latest Jobs

Community Library Assistant