I am delighted that you are considering applying for the role of Director of Library Services at Imperial College London. We are one of the world’s leading universities, founded in 1907 and long recognised for our strengths in research, education and innovation. Throughout our history we have sought not only to be a world-leading university, but a world-changing one, with real-world impact at our core. Each day our outstanding community of students, staff and partners come together to interrogate the forces that shape our world, in order to tackle the biggest challenges facing humanity.
Library Services are at the heart of our research, education and student experience – and this is a pivotal time as we prepare for major investment in our student study and learning facilities at both the South Kensington and White City campuses. Following our current Director, Chris Banks’ hugely successfully tenure, we are now excited to welcome a new Director of Library Services. You will be leading a talented and motivated team of over 120 Library staff, delivering crucial services to students and colleagues across our seven libraries and ready for the next stages in our development. As a key member of our Professional Leadership team, you will also join an experienced and supportive peer group across our Academic Services.
I wish you the very best of luck in your application.
Imperial College London is seeking an outstanding individual for the position of Director of Library Services to succeed the current post holder, Chris Banks, who will be retiring in February 2025.
This is a senior post within the institution, reporting to the Registrar and University Secretary, which makes a considerable contribution to the University’s academic mission and its international reputation. The Director is a member of the University Research & Enterprise Board and Education & Student Experience Committees. The Director is a member of the Registrar and University Secretary’s senior leadership team, contributing to the overarching academic and enabling strategies of Imperial.
With overall responsibility for the strategic and operational development and management of the Library’s collections and services across seven libraries (South Kensington, 5 x medical campuses and Silwood Park), the Director must be forward-looking, entrepreneurial and business-like, committed to customer-focused provision. They must develop and maintain the highest possible standards of excellence and ensure that the Library responds creatively to University initiatives.
The Director must ensure that the Library is a sector leader by bringing an innovative and pioneering approach to leading Library Services. It is essential that they ensure that the Library promotes information literacy and provides leading-edge information management which anticipates, and meets, the needs of an internationally-renowned teaching and research institution.
The Director will be innovative and visionary, developing policy and setting priorities and objectives and optimising the opportunities which technology offers, in order to ensure that the services are first-class and meet the fast-changing information requirements of a leading teaching and research university.
Imperial’s libraries are important to its student population who make more visits to libraries than their peers across all benchmark groups. Imperial has made, and continues to make, considerable investment in accommodation, services and infrastructure, including recent refurbishments of its South Kensington Abdus Salam Library and the Hammersmith campus library. Library Services are currently working with the NHS on a replacement facility on the St Mary’s campus. Additionally, recent student facing accommodation has been added in adjacent buildings on the South Kensington campus. Imperial received a 92% positivity score for the Library Resources question in the 2023 NSS, higher than the sector, London and Russell Group means. A recent UniForum exercise showed that Imperial’s “Library & Research Advisory Services” performed above the UK Group median for satisfaction.
Imperial is undertaking ambitious capital developments at both the South Kensington and Hammersmith-White City campuses. Working with colleagues across the Academic Services Group, the Students’ Union, and the Property and ICT Divisions, the Director will be one of the key players in shaping the design of our student facing services, and the spaces that they will use over the years ahead.
This post offers an excellent opportunity for an individual who wishes to lead library services at a prestigious academic institution. Imperial is entrepreneurial and would welcome another pioneering Director who pushes the boundaries and who is able to identify opportunities for the Library to contribute to the wider University mission.
A positive, professional profile is essential in order to be successful in this role. The post-holder must have the confidence and influencing skills to be outward facing, with the ability to build and maintain productive relationships within and outside the University. The successful candidate will facilitate advancement and collaboration, contribute effectively to leading the sector in good practice and innovation, and forge a leading international, as well as national, profile for the institution.
The Director will need highly-developed leadership skills, together with an in-depth understanding of the needs of a diverse and sophisticated customer base, and the ability to provide cost-effective and efficient services to meet those needs. In addition, the appointee must have extensive staff and change management experience, with the influence, motivational and interpersonal skills to create a sense of common purpose, empowering the team so that Library Services continue to be flexible, responsive and exemplary.
With a collaborative style and a deep understanding of the academic customer base, the Director works very closely with the Provost, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) and Students’ Union to ensure the best possible research, learning and teaching services are provided. The postholder also ensures strong partnership working with colleagues across other divisions within the Academic Services Group, and in the ICT and Property Divisions to deliver leading edge digital and physical infrastructure.
View our organisation charts here.
Our strategy, Science for Humanity, is unashamedly ambitious in seeking to maximise Imperial’s potential as a force for good in the world. It builds on the university’s strong disciplinary foundations, highly collaborative and collegial culture, passion for innovation, proven convening power, extensive global partnerships, incredible network of alumni, friends and supporters and world top ten ranking.
Our strategy highlights a number of cross-institutional initiatives that will consolidate our position among the world’s leading institutions tackling global grand challenges. The Imperial Class of 2030 is an ambitious multi-pronged programme to nurture the most talented, the most enterprising and the most diverse graduating class we have ever had the privilege to serve. This will be in part driven by new investments in our Imperial Inspires Scholarship Programme, our digital and virtual learning environment and our campuses, including the next phase of our White City Deep Tech Campus.
We will launch a major recruitment drive, the Imperial Future Leaders Campaign and we will invest in leadership development and skills for our diverse community, including a new Imperial Future Leaders Academy for early-career staff. We will introduce the new Imperial Institute of Extended Learning, which will help future-proof careers, businesses and communities by providing the advanced skills training and values-driven leadership needed to thrive in a tech-enabled world.
We will create four new cross-institutional Schools of Convergence Science to bring intense focus, interrogation and research impact to the emergent forces shaping our future at unprecedented scale:
And through our new Imperial Global network we will achieve greater global collaboration to meet global grand challenges. To further energise our vibrant enterprise ecosystem, we are creating a new venture fund, Science Capital Imperial. And we will deepen our partnerships with government, industry, our NHS partners, local communities and other stakeholders to establish the Imperial WestTech Corridor, to maximise our collective potential as a powerful engine for innovation, job creation and inclusive growth.
And underpinning everything that we do will be Sustainable Imperial – our university-wide commitment to play a leading role in the global fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Our founding mission was ‘to be useful’; an understated precis of all that our exceptional teaching, research and innovation have made and continue to make possible.
But before we can usefully change the world, we must first seek to understand it. Our strategy engages with, and animates, this foundational idea: that Imperial’s shared purpose is one of inquiry and action. A scientific mindset that encourages imagination, celebrates precision, demands patience, insists on humility, rewards accidents, steels our backs and makes us brave.
In science, as in strategy, there is no easy prophecy and no shortcut to progress. An understanding – sharpened, deepened, or totally new – is the first and only precondition.
Leading science
We are a science-based university with a difference. Our enduring STEMB focus, and the exceptional disciplinary foundations that underpin it, are the reason for our continued high-impact trajectory and
place among the top ten universities in the world.
Interdisciplinary research
We are an ecosystem that thrives on connection and collaboration. The complexity of the challenges before us demands a truly integrated interdisciplinary approach. At Imperial, we forge links between faculties, departments, disciplines, industries, governments and more because we know that greater possibility for advancement is found at those intersections.
Inspiring students
We are a welcoming home for scientific imagination; a place where exceptional minds are enabled with inspiration, resource and freedom so that they might look deeper, dream further and ask bigger questions.
Meaningful impact
We have the spirit of a 117-year-old startup with an agility and orientation to the future that belies our age and heritage. Here you will find a culture of discovery, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking, where breakthrough science is chased, translated and applied at incredible speed and with transformative impact.
A trusted partner
We are an ally of progress, seen by many of the world’s leading knowledge and technology-driven organisations as a cultivator of exceptional talent and future leaders, and trusted as the partner of choice for research, innovation and impact.
The legacy of London
We are a global hub in a global city. Our work shapes the world and our community reflects it, brought together by the undeniable gravitational pull of London’s energy, creativity, diversity, economy and opportunity.
This strategy imagines a path through an unpredictable world that is facing unprecedented challenges. It is a blueprint to ensure we continue to maximise our potential as a force for good in the world, to deepen our rare and specific competencies, and to serve students and society in the uncertainty of tomorrow.
After all, as one of the world’s leading research universities, we are purpose-built to engage with uncertainty, and to summon our strengths against it. This is how we prepare for the expected and the unexpected. This is how we rigorously fulfil our educational mission and our research potential.
It is how we shape the future. And it begins with three core aims.
To ensure our strategy will have a meaningful and enduring impact, we know we must create opportunities for everyone in our community to fulfil their potential – always guided by our values and behaviours: Respect, Collaboration, Excellence, Innovation and Integrity.
Great people
We will continue to attract, nurture and support world-class talent from everywhere. Our strength comes from celebrating and harnessing the diversity of our community where everyone contributes their own perspective, experience and skills so that together we can excel in the delivery of our shared mission.
We will champion an inclusive culture and invest in people so that they are inspired and equipped tounleash their potential. We will build and maintain a culture centred on the wellbeing, growth and belonging of our community. We will create a diverse and vibrant community where our values are evident to all, and we are recognised as innovators in every aspect of our work.
Great environment
We will create an integrated human, physical and digital ecosystem that fosters and facilitates collaboration and community and promotes discovery, learning and innovation. And we will deliver sustainable campuses to meet our 2040 Net Zero Carbon commitments.
The pace of technological change has never been faster. We will leverage the digital landscape and increased digital innovation to grasp new opportunities that are essential to the achievement of our world-class
research and education. We will create a world-class digital experience for students. Our staff will have the tools and facilities they need to undertake world-changing research.
Great support
A world-leading academic endeavour must provide everyone with the opportunities and tools they need to thrive. We will support our staff to deliver an inspirational education and to take the inception of a research idea through to publication and translation into real-world application.
We will give our students a consistently inspiring, tailored and supportive experience from application through to their lifelong interactions with Imperial as part of our alumni community. We will foster a culture of innovation and practice of continuous improvement where colleagues are empowered to combine their strengths collectively to turn great ideas into an even better service.
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre (EDIC) is a dedicated team that works to support staff and make Imperial a better place to work by promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We offer guidance, training and support as part of the university’s HR services. We listen and talk to staff across Imperial and work towards mainstreaming EDI. We work with individuals, teams, and departments, providing help and advice.
Our main responsibilities include:
Learn more about our commitment to EDI here.
Our goal: The Imperial Class of 2030 will be the most talented, the most enterprising and the most diverse we have ever had the privilege to serve.
Now: We are proud to host talented, high-performing and ambitious students from across the globe, often from backgrounds where the path to academic excellence has not been straightforward.
Our teaching is founded in strong, core disciplines and is research-rich and intellectually stretching. Our taught Master’s programmes delivers specialist education at the leading edge of STEMB. And we encourage all students to broaden their educational experience by exploring other interests such as modern languages, art and music.
Imperial has a strong track record of digital innovation – including our swift transition to online learning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And because our work doesn’t finish when students graduate, we ensure employability and the advanced skills they need for a tech-enabled future are embedded across our curricula. Because of these qualities and many more, Imperial is proud to have recently been awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, the Times and Sunday Times University of the Year and a Gold Award in the national Teaching Excellence Framework.
Next: The Imperial Class of 2030 will be educated in a welcoming, supportive and appropriately challenging environment where disciplinary excellence, interdisciplinary working and entrepreneurship training are seamlessly integrated and supported by state-of-the-art digital and physical infrastructure and an engaging extracurricular experience. Students will be able explore opportunities for greater interdisciplinarity through further development of Imperial’s I-Explore Programme and through new advanced skills and leadership modules offered by the Imperial Institute of Extended Learning. We will expand the Imperial Enterprise Lab to meet increasing student demand, and the launch of Imperial’s four Schools of Convergence Science will boost our portfolio of taught Master’s programmes.
We will transform Imperial’s digital education infrastructure, including our Digital Media Lab and Virtual Learning Environment, and build on new initiatives such as ViRSE to incorporate virtual reality and other digital technologies into our teaching.
We will make major investments in our physical infrastructure, including the development of the Sherfield Student Hub, upgrades at our Silwood Park eco-campus and our London NHS clinical campuses. We will deliver the next phase of our White City Deep Tech Campus, including a major new interdisciplinary centre co-locating mathematical, data and computer sciences, AI and machine learning, and business education, with new state-of-the-art research facilities for convergence science and co-created industry research and partnerships. We will review and further invest in our student residential, sports and recreation portfolio, and roll out our new whole-institution Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
Together, these plans will ensure that the Imperial Class of 2030 has the freedom to imagine, the encouragement to challenge and an environment to flourish in.
Our goal: We will set a global benchmark for university sustainability, nurturing graduates who understand and advocate for climate science, supporting our researchers to investigate and respond to planetary
challenges and leading by example in our activities and on our campuses.
Now: Few issues unite our Imperial community with such determination and urgency as our desire to address the interlinked existential challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Imperial offers a wide variety of education programmes in climate-related science, finance, technologies and policy. Our research portfolio is among the strongest in the world. Through our partnerships, including the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials, the Tata Steel Centre for Innovation in Sustainable Design and Manufacturing and the Hitachi Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions, we are using our expertise and research to accelerate a sustainable transformation for industry and society.
Imperial experts are working with governments, industry and civil society to advocate for urgent change, including Professor Jim Skea, Professor in Sustainable Energy at Imperial and the current chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Next: By 2025, Sustainable Imperial will be established as an Imperial-wide strategy to deliver evidence-based solutions, embrace new technologies, challenge conventional thinking and open new debate in our efforts to solve this growing global crisis.
The Imperial Class of 2030 programme will equip all our graduates with the climate science literacy to advocate, influence and lead in the fight against climate change and its impacts. The Imperial Institute of Extended Learning will equip individuals and businesses with the skills and business models needed to deploy new technologies towards a net zero future.
With a focus on climate, sustainability and resilience, one of our new Schools of Convergence Science will create a new portal to Imperial expertise and a research community of formidable scale to imagine and test new approaches, technologies and solutions. And we will make our climate expertise accessible to a wider community of global policy makers by providing on-campus deep-dive climate Science Policy Fellowships.
The new Imperial Zero Index, along with our Socially Responsible Investment Policy, will allow us to pursue an ‘engagement for change’ ethos with fossil fuel companies – only engaging where our research is strongly aligned to decarbonisation and if our partner demonstrates a credible strategic commitment to achieving net zero by 2050.
We will make huge investments to transform our campuses and working practices. The university’s Decarbonisation Plan is a comprehensive roadmap to reach net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040 at the latest. Alongside this our Sustainable Procurement Policy will enable us to minimise our Scope 3 emissions in collaboration with our suppliers.
Sustainable Imperial is a remarkable opportunity for the university to live its commitment to environmental sustainability and responsible climate governance within, and far beyond, our campus.
Our goal: We will be a convenor, collaborator and partner of choice to facilitate the flow of ideas, talent and innovation to tackle grand global challenges.
Now: We are proud to be one of the world’s most international universities. Our global collaborations, discoveries and networks are transforming lives and creating opportunity in the UK and around the world.
Our global community brings people together to contribute diverse perspectives, new ideas and fresh approaches to solving complex problems. Our global network of alumni, friends and collaborators amplify our reach and impact. International collaboration is in Imperial’s DNA and at the core of our research: our academics have forged research collaborations in over 190 countries.
We enjoy strong bilateral research partnerships with universities and institutes including Technical University of Munich, Nanyang Technological University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Tsinghua University and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Next: Imperial Global will bring even more of our work to the world, and more of the world to our work, amplifying our impact through a network of hubs in strategic global cities. This network will demonstrate our commitment to building long-term collaborations with a diverse range of partners and stakeholders, foster new high-impact partnerships with industry, government and knowledge organisations, and give us the opportunity to develop deeper links with our alumni.
Our first hubs will be in Singapore, Ghana, the USA and India. They will share characteristics that draw on Imperial’s unique strengths but have different activity profiles that build on existing partnerships and local needs and opportunities.
Imperial Global Singapore is a new presence on Singapore’s CREATE campus initially exploring the cyber security of medical devices. It will allow us to develop significant new research and translation programmes with partners across South East Asia, and support recruitment and career development activities.
Imperial Global Ghana builds on established partnerships in medical diagnostics, sustainable cities and entrepreneurship training. It will be a knowledge hub that develops major programmes across West Africa to increase the number, quality and impact of equitable STEMB partnerships with African stakeholders. It underlines our commitment to building long-term, equitable partnerships on the Continent.
Imperial Global USA will strengthen our research partnerships with US academic and industrial partners and support our growing US alumni network and student recruitment opportunities.
Imperial Global India will build Imperial’s profile and partnerships in an emerging scientific and industrial superpower. The hub will strengthen the important UK-India knowledge bridge to enable STEMB talent to drive forward research, education and innovation in key areas including clean technology, fintech and biosciences.
Imperial Global will enhance our academic partnerships, access to talent, enterprise and engagement. Most importantly, it will become a core part of our efforts to apply science for the good of humanity.
Job Title: Director of Library Services
Department/Division/Faculty: Library Services, Academic Services Group
Campus location: Hybrid role with base at South Kensington
Job Family/Level: Level 7, Professional Services
Responsible to: Registrar and University Secretary
Line Management responsibility for:
Library Leadership Team:
– Head of Administration and Operations
– Head of Content and Discovery
– Head of Scholarly Communications Management
– Head of User Services
– Head of Library Liaison (Medicine & NHS)
– Head of Library Liaison (Business, Engineering and Natural Sciences)
Key Working Relationships (internal): Provost, Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience), Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Associate Provost (Learning and Teaching), Associate Provost (Academic Planning); Deans and Heads of Academic Departments, Directors of other Professional Services across Imperial.
Key Working Relationships (external): Equivalents at other national and international HE institutions, relevant professional bodies (RLUK, SCONUL, Jisc, etc.,), the NHS, external suppliers.
Contract type: Full-time, Open-Ended
JOB DESCRIPTION
The Director of Library Services is a senior post within the institution, reporting to the Registrar and University Secretary and contributing to the University’s academic mission and its international reputation. The Director is a member of the University Research & Enterprise Board and the Education & Student Experience Committee. With overall responsibility for the strategic and operational development and management of the Library’s collections and services, the Director must be forward-looking, entrepreneurial and business-like, committed to customer-focused provision. They must develop and maintain the highest possible standards of excellence and ensure that the Library Services respond creatively to University initiatives.
The Director must ensure that the Library is a sector leader by bringing an innovative and pioneering approach to leading Library Services. It is essential that they ensure that the Library promotes information literacy and provides leading-edge information management which anticipates, and meets, the needs of an internationally-renowned teaching and research institution.
The Director will be innovative and visionary, developing policy and setting priorities and objectives and optimising the opportunities which technology offers, in order to ensure that the services are first-class and meet the fast-changing information requirements of a leading teaching and research university.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Management and Leadership
Directing Library Services
People Management
Resource Management
Continuous Improvement:
External Activities:
Other
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Requirements
Candidates/post holders will be expected to demonstrate the following criteria, all of which are considered essential unless otherwise noted.
Education
Experience
Knowledge
Skills & Abilities
Please note that job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.
Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity and to eliminating discrimination. All employees are expected to follow the Imperial Values & Behaviours framework. Our values are:
Employees are also required to comply with all University policies and regulations paying special attention to: Confidentiality, Conflict of Interest, Data Protection, Equal Opportunities, Financial Regulations, Health and Safety, Information Technology, Smoking, Private Engagements and Register of Interests. They must also undertake specific training and assume responsibility for safety relevant to specific roles, as set out on the College Website Health and Safety Structure and Responsibilities page.
Imperial is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, click here.
Imperial believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes which are ultimately aimed towards finding new treatments and making scientific and medical advances, and where there are no satisfactory or reasonably practical alternatives to their use. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. Find out more about animal research at Imperial.
We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.
Our benefits include:
See our full benefits here and learn more about our health and wellbeing here.
Anderson Quigley is acting as an advisor to Imperial. An executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.
The closing date for applications is noon on 15 July 2024.
Applications should consist of:
Should you wish to discuss further details about the role in strict confidence, please contact Alicja Janowska on +44 (0)7743 927 783 or alicja.janowska@andersonquigley.com or Kiersten Avery on +44 (0)7510 384 735 or kiersten.avery@andersonquigley.com.
www.imperial.ac.uk 