Library Assistant

About Us

The Library Service promotes the benefits of reading for pleasure, learning, health, and wellbeing, through events and activities. We provide a welcoming environment for all, encouraging families to join in our regular activities, supporting people accessing digital services, offering regular activities for adults to help combat loneliness and isolation and helping people in need find their way to other local services that can help them.

About The Job

Do you want to make a difference to people's lives and help communities to grow?

Do you enjoy working with people of all ages and backgrounds?

Do you want to develop your customer service skills working as part of a dynamic team?

If so, working in a library could be just the role for you!

Salary: £21,575 to £21,968 per annum (pro rata for part time) £11.18 to £11.39 hourly rate

Working Pattern: Part Time (17 hours per week)

Location: Steyning Library Church St, Steyning BN44 3YB

Interview date:

We're looking for friendly, enthusiastic, and resourceful people, with excellent digital skills, to join our team as the key initial contact delivering a customer-facing library service, helping to deliver a high-quality enquiry service, providing information accurately, and signposting to other services.

It's an active role; carrying books, pushing trolleys, lifting boxes and being on your feet for long periods of time. You will also be required to lone-work regularly.

You will be a keen team player, able to work alongside partners and volunteers providing excellent customer service to the whole range of visitors to the library.

Flexibility is key as one moment you may be helping a customer log-on to the library Wi-Fi and download an eBook, the next leading a Baby Rhyme Time session for parents and babies. The variety of our work means that no two days are the same. We get huge job satisfaction from helping everyone who comes through our doors, and you could too!

No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!

A full job description is attached at the bottom of the advert.

Experience and Skills

Key Skills:

1. Good communication and customer service skills to interact effectively with the general public and experience of providing a service giving basic advice and guidance.
2. Experience of team working and the ability to work as part of a team completing shared tasks, including working alongside volunteers and demonstrating an appreciation of their role.
3. Good interpersonal skills with the ability to confidently work with children, families and customers of all ages e.g. reading to groups of young children during story time sessions, hosting Knit and Natter sessions and talking to customers about books.
4. Ability to meet set deadlines and to understand when problems need to be referred upwards, e.g. in responding to complaints promptly for a quick accurate solution.
5. Analytical and judgmental skills in order to effectively assist with customer queries and able to develop with and respond to the changing needs of the service.

Qualifications and/or experience:

• 4 GCSEs with A-C passes including Maths and English or equivalent qualification/experience.
• Digital expertise and experience, particularly with basic Office applications.

Rewards and Benefits

Why choose us as your next employer? We care about wellbeing, allowing time for celebrating our teams efforts, and developing our team to be the best they can be. Alongside this, we also offer the below benefits.

• *An excellent local government pension scheme
• Generous holiday entitlement of 24 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• A range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• Maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• Volunteering opportunities
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching, mentoring and apprenticeships
• A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders, Wellbeing Hub and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

To apply, upload your CV and complete the application explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to satisfactory references and health check.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and take every possible step to ensure that no individual will be disadvantaged.