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Library Customer Relationship & Digital Skills Officer (Dubai) - Dubai Operations - 97565 - Grade 6

Employer
University of Birmingham
Location
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
Jun 18, 2021
Description

Position Details

Dubai Professional Services, External Relations

University of Birmingham, Dubai campus

Salary: Competitive

Grade 6

Full time

Permanent

Location: Dubai, UAE

Closing date: 19 June 2021

University of Birmingham Dubai

Having established ourselves in Dubai International Academic City in 2018 we are now moving to a new and exciting phase of our development with the opening of our new state-of-the-art campus in September 2021. This post represents an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious World Top 100 University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai.

Professional Services Ethos

Our ethos as a Professional Services team has been developed in line with the principles of being a Birmingham Professional. In particular, here in Dubai, this means that all Professional Services colleagues seek to collaborate effectively to ensure the needs of the whole campus community and our stakeholders are met. It also means that we work constructively together to provide a flexible range of service and support that adapt to the changing needs of the Campus as we grow. There are specific focal points in the academic cycle when all Professional Services team members will be expected to contribute regardless of their primary role, for example Welcome or Graduation. In addition, the duties listed below are illustrative of the general nature and level of responsibility of this post which is likely to change over time in response to the needs of the Campus and as you develop your experience and skills. You will have the opportunity to develop and may also need to specialise your duties further, over time, in agreement with your manager.

In order to contribute to the success of the team and the University's vision for the Dubai Campus the Professional Services team will be seeking to continue to recruit and develop colleagues who display:
  • a high level of intellectual aptitude;
  • strong agility and a portfolio of skills that can adapt to meet changing circumstances;
  • an innovative and creative mindset; and
  • both an enterprising and entrepreneurial nature to support our growth and pursuit of excellence.

Department Overview

The Services and Support thematic area will focus on providing all students with the University of Birmingham Dubai with a wide range of high quality services and support. This will also support the University and our academic colleagues in the delivery of our academic mission in respect of both Education and Research including:
  • Welcome and induction activities
  • Careers, employability and skills support
  • Programme administration support and services
  • Research administration support
  • Visa and immigration services
  • Information advice and guidance services
  • Learning library services
  • Wellbeing services
  • Academic Skills support
  • Support to the University of Birmingham Dubai Students' Association
  • General student administration through to graduation support.

Job summary

The UoBD is seeking a passionate and experienced professional to join a new exciting Professional Services team, supporting the Library as part of the range of services that enable a positive and enriching student experience. There will be two posts which will focus on providing Library support services over 7 days each week so the postholders will be required to work on a rota basis.

The role will support the development of a range of digital online resources, library customer support, collection management and the digital library infrastructure. The postholder will also provide support in developing education and other online resources under the strategic direction of the Head of Student Experience and Wellbeing.

The Library, Academic & Digital Skills Support Officer will be responsible for supporting the wide range of library services functions including front of house, enquiry services, collections and the digital library. The role will also be responsible for the development of online student resources eg- intranet, student handbooks in Canvas (VLE).

The Library, Academic & Digital Skills Support Officer will directly contribute to the University's Education Strategy by supporting a positive student learning experience. The role will develop, deliver and evaluate a central and embedded offering of academic skills and learning enhancement services supporting student transition and academic attainment.

Main duties

The postholder will be responsible for delivering a range of functions to support the Library, as follows:

General
  • Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
  • Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
  • Undertake continuous personal and professional development.
  • Ensuring that services, spaces and facilities on campus are well maintained, clearly signposted and navigable within the library area and in printed and online resources.
  • Reporting building maintenance, security, health and safety issues to the appropriate colleague(s).
  • Supporting and delivering customer relationship activity such as surveys, feedback channels and customer events.
  • Making interventions relating to noise, eating, incident reporting and lost property, and identifying appropriate referral routes for students in academic or physical/mental distress.
  • Assisting with user education programmes and helping to promote the University to visitors and potential students, for example, by conducting library tours.

Front of House & Enquiries
  • Welcoming users and providing directions to appropriate facilities and services.
  • Providing support with basic/intermediate first line IT enquiries relating to password self-service system, printing, Wi-Fi, email, Canvas, cluster PCs.
  • Undertaking appropriate referral to specialists within Library Services and other teams. Handling and signposting requests for support in use of the Library or of information resources (for example, from users with disabilities, or those requiring additional skills support).
  • Supporting researchers, students and staff to gain maximum benefit from the extensive range of physical and electronic resources managed by the Library. This will be achieved by utilising a range of enquiry management skills to understand the need of the user, providing initial advice in relation to different information resources that are appropriate to the user's needs and advising on the relevant search techniques that the user may wish to use.

Collection Management:
  • Ensuring that material returned is re-shelved in accordance with agreed targets, dealing with queries and material which cannot be handled, organising the repair and tidying of material held in the Library.
  • Receipting and processing new print books, journal issues and newspapers onto the library management system and shelving them according to classification number and within agreed targets. Liaising with Collection Development colleagues in the UK regarding queries.
  • Setting up new print journal and newspaper subscriptions in collaboration with eResources and Serials Team colleagues in the UK.
  • Receipting, loaning and returning print interlibrary loans via specialist systems and the library management system and processing items for return to supplier. Handling user enquiries about print interlibrary loans and liaising with Library colleagues in the UK regarding queries.
  • Withdrawing books from the library, following procedures provided by the Library team in the UK, and arranging for their disposal in an environmentally responsible way.

Digital Library:
  • Assisting with the set-up and troubleshooting of physical equipment such as self-service machines, where this cannot be done remotely, working together with IT Services and Digital Library colleagues in the UK.
  • Arranging for physical equipment such as self-service machines to receive repairs and annual maintenance visits where these need to be carried out by local suppliers.
  • Liaising with Digital Library colleagues in the UK regarding Dubai-specific configuration in Alma, for example local opening hours and university closed days.
  • Ensuring that the Library Services information on the Dubai student intranet remains up to date, providing new or amended text to the UK-based web editors when necessary.

Digital Education and other online resources
  • The postholder will be responsible for the development of online student resources - for example, student intranet pages, and student handbooks in Canvas (VLE).
  • Working with various PS and academic colleagues to ensure that new online resources e.g. intranet are developed and existing materials are updated on a regular basis.
  • Develop engaging online content including forums, videos, graphics, and blogs; monitor and analyse content success.

Academic and Digital Skills

(supporting the Heads of Learning Enhancement with the Library's Academic and Digital Skills Division, Edgbaston Campus, as the campus grows)
  • Co-ordination of Academic English support (with the Birmingham International Academy (BIA) in collaboration with our English for Academic Purposes (EAP) tutors in Dubai) and ensuring it can be incorporated into the wider academic skills offer on campus. This will require liaison with BIA leads ahead of each new term.
  • Coordination with Edgbaston campus in relation to Academic Skills delivery (the Edgbaston campus continues to lead the Academic Skills until 2022 when this function and the services required to deliver the support at the Dubai will grow.
  • Developing Library Academic Skills Services through, for example:
  • Developing knowledge and understanding of the University's strategies and corporate plans, including those relating to Education, in order to contextualise academic skills support
  • Contributing to the evaluation and monitoring of the impact of academic skills training on student progression and retention through the collection of usage data and reporting on this data.
  • Maintaining a good knowledge of broader education developments within the University, and how they impact on the needs of students.
  • Developing Library transition support services through, for example:
  • Developing and implementing curriculum-focussed academic peer support schemes for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, in collaboration with academic and professional services colleagues.
  • Liaising closely with the Academic Support Assistants and other professional service contacts to ensure appropriate learning facilities for academic peer support activities.
  • Providing expert advice, support and training on a range of academic skills, including academic writing, core study skills, information and digital literacy
  • Ensuring that academic skills provision is inclusive of the needs of all students. This includes ensuring the requirements of under-represented groups, widening participation students, and those with specific learning needs are met.

Dimensions

This role will require you to exercise personal initiative within and beyond the department. You will not manage a team or budgets.

Problem-solving and decision making
  • After consulting with others the postholder will
  • Deal with complex issues without received practice or precedent arising from allocated responsibilities which need the assistance of a more experienced or professionally qualified team member;
  • Discuss with their line manager and, if appropriate, assist with the implementation of any suggestions for improvement or amendment to the work of Library Services.
  • Or that would be referred to someone else
  • Changes in policy in any of the above procedures

Internal and external relationships
  • The postholder will establish and maintain constructive working relationships with other team members and colleagues across Library Services, communicating effectively and professionally with individuals at all levels.
  • The postholder will ensure that they understand a colleague's or customer's perspective and requests, provide them with well-reasoned responses and thus enable Library Support / Collection Assistants, students, academic staff and other customers to follow advice, for example, on literature searches, intervening to support a student in distress.
  • The postholder will act as a key point for effective and professional communication for library customers (including University staff, students, external library users and library suppliers), answering queries and handing issues from initial contact to resolution.
  • Campus Director
  • Deputy Campus Director
  • Head of Wellbeing and Student Experience (line manager)
  • Student Experience team (Dubai)
  • Student and Programme Administration team (Dubai)
  • Colleagues across Dubai campus - Professional Services and Academic
  • Colleagues in UK campus - including Academic Services, Colleges and central PS teams

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
  • Educated to A level or equivalent standard or substantial equivalent experience in a relevant/comparable environment.
  • Working knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript development and constraints
  • Experience of developing online materials and using virtual platforms
  • Skills in writing content for online consumption
  • Substantial practical experience of customer support.
  • Good numeracy, literacy and classification skills with excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
  • Comprehensive knowledge, understanding and the ability to use complex and specialist processes and systems.
  • Ability to act as the escalation point and source of library services advice for on many different specialist processes, IT systems and databases.
  • Ability to work with accuracy to required standards and deadlines and to demonstrate attention to detail.
  • Good organisational skills with the ability to plan own work and that of others.
  • Demonstrable ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
  • Proven ability to work reliably and flexibly in a busy environment, preferably in a library or in a busy customer-focused environment.
  • Excellent and demonstrable customer service skills.
  • Experience of receiving and resolving customer enquiries and the ability and willingness to adopt a friendly customer-orientated approach in a busy service environment.
  • Experience of prioritising activities and working independently.
  • Good communication skills including the ability to ensure action or acceptance by a colleague or customer by listening to and understanding another person's request or perspective, influencing, and providing a well-reasoned response.
  • Good IT literacy including Microsoft Office and online systems. In addition, the ability and willingness to further develop skills in this area and to learn and adapt to new technologies.
  • Knowledge and substantial practical experience of using many different specialist processes, IT systems (e.g. library management systems or equivalent) and databases (e.g. for catalogue systems)
  • Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace
  • Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures

As interest in all of the advertised posts has been extremely high, we encourage you to apply online, tailoring your skillset against the listed criteria in the application form.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

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