Local Studies Officer

Job Summary

East Dunbartonshire Leisure & Culture Trust is pleased to offer this exciting opportunity to join our Heritage and Arts team. This is an opportunity to work with one of the most extensive Local Studies Collections in Scotland that attracts a wide range of users.

You will have relevant experience in collections management and collections care in a library or heritage setting and knowledge and experience of cataloguing systems and standards. At EDLC we use Koha and Axiell Collections. You will have working knowledge of digital services and family history research. You will have excellent communication and presentation skills with an ability to work collaboratively with both our partners and our team. The post is primarily based on site at William Patrick Library, Archives & Local Studies Department, however Collections are held or feature across multiple library and heritage sites. This role will ensure the care and expansion of East Dunbartonshire Local Studies Collections and promote their use in various ways. You will work closely with the Archives Officer to deliver a high standard of enquiry and outreach service for our customers. 

This role requires good communication skills to answer email, telephone and in person collection enquiries within the library and to take local collections out into the community. You should be comfortable working with groups of all ages as you will be required to deliver outreach in school, care home and community group settings.  You will be able to display Local Studies material across library venues. You will oversee family history collections, the family history workshop programme and will have knowledge of various online family history resources such as ScotlandsPeople and Ancestry.

Increased access to collections is a priority for this role. You will have experience of promoting access to collections through a range of proactive activity including digital access. You will have knowledge of inclusion and ways of working with people and partners to develop inclusive collections. The role sits within a team of arts and heritage professionals. There will be opportunity for collaboration with libraries, museums, archive, exhibitions and arts programming.  

You will have knowledge and experience of events management and will be responsible for the coordination of our annual Doors Open Day events and Local History Month programme.

EDLCT is committed to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion, and eliminating unlawful discrimination. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from suitably qualified people of all backgrounds.

Charter of Commitment

The commitment by East Dunbartonshire Council to job applicants is as follows:

• Individuals will be treated in a polite, friendly and welcoming manner.

• Equalities monitoring will be conducted to ensure a fair and equitable process with screening being carried out to anonymise sensitive information such as age, gender and disability.

• The information that we receive will be treated in confidence and with discretion. Only the relevant HR representative/team and the relevant service will see the application form.

• We will encourage and welcome applications from applicants under the disability symbol. Where the essential criteria are met an interview will be offered to those applying under the disability symbol.

• We will be pleased to make any reasonable adjustments to ensure accessibility at the interview.

• We will advise you within reasonable time after the closing date if you have not met the interview criteria. (Normally within 4 weeks)

• We will advise you of meeting the criteria for interview normally within 3 weeks.

• We will advise you if you have been successful or unsuccessful at the interview stage as soon as practically possible.

PVG / Disclosure Scotland

The following criteria applies to all roles within East Dunbartonshire Council where PVG/Disclosure checks are essential criteria.

Where the post you are applying for is considered a Regulated Role under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, successful candidates will be required to join the PVG Scheme, or undergo a PVG Scheme Update check, prior to confirmation of employment being made by East Dunbartonshire Council.

Please note, successful candidates will be expected to meet the cost of the relevant check which will be deducted from the successful candidate’s first salary payment. Successful candidates who withdraw their application after the check process has started will be invoiced for the cost of the check.

In specific circumstances the payment could be deducted in instalments from an employee’s wages following commencement of employment. Approval in such circumstances will be made by the HR &OD Manager.

Should an employee leave in advance of the payment being deducted, the full amount will be deducted from the employee’s final salary.

The criteria outlined above will apply to existing employees of East Dunbartonshire Council who apply for roles for which a PVG/Disclosure check is required.

Websites

www.edlc.co.uk