About the role
We are looking for an enthusiastic and versatile person to help us serve the Cambridge community when our staff is sick or on leave. The ideal candidate will have availability across the whole week (Monday to Sunday) and year to pick up shifts during our opening hours at relatively short notice. Please do not apply if you have fixed patterns of availability (e.g. weekend only, outside of term, summer only, etc.).
We maintain a high-quality public library service, working in partnership with a range of other organizations 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 role is based at Central Library, Cambridge, however you must be able to travel to any of the other libraries within the District: Arbury Court Library, Barnwell Road Library, Cherry Hinton Library, Milton Road Library, Rock Road Library.
We want to recognise and celebrate the diversity of our local communities and be responsive to their needs. We also want to ensure that we are a fair and equitable employer, striving to achieve a diverse workforce that has the ability to understand, communicate and interact with people across cultures. We therefore encourage applications from all areas of our community.
Interviews will be held at Central Library, Cambridge on 17 December.
If you would like any further information about this vacancy, please e-mail Giulia and Christopher at libraries.referralcentre-@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or call 07909876021 and ask for Giulia or Christopher.
What will you be doing?
- Providing friendly, efficient, customer-facing, front-line public services to users of Cambridgeshire Libraries.
- Contributing to and promoting the library offer.
- Supporting library events and activities, including partnership initiatives and outreach work.
Please refer to the attached job description for further details about the role.
Training will be provided for all aspects of the role.
Please note that library work can be physically demanding. This post involves 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. They will be excellent at multi-tasking, be quick and efficient, and enjoy working under pressure.
The candidate will be passionate about what public libraries can offer, and able to promote our services. 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.
Please note: all applications must be made online and we cannot accept CVs. When writing the personal statement, you should refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description and give specific examples to demonstrate how you meet the criteria. Please do not apply if you have fixed patterns of availability (e.g. weekend only, outside of term, summer, etc.).
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 Employer. 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. Some examples of adjustments 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
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.
