Jobs

Director of Collections Management (National Library of Scotland)

Apply by 2 August at 23:59 for this full time, permanent role based in Edinburgh.

The Director of Collections Management provides strategic and operational leadership for the department, drives improvement and change, identifies opportunities to generate income, and contributes to the overall leadership of the National Library as a member of the Library Leadership Team.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the department’s core services, setting strategic direction, ensuring effective operations and delegating clearly to senior staff.
• Oversee the management of physical and digital collections, including acquisition, storage, logistics, preservation, security, audit, disaster planning and retrieval.

• Lead cataloguing activity for physical and digital collections and oversee the Hidden Collections programme.
• Use evidence, statistics and insight to monitor performance, identify trends, allocate resources and improve services.
• Lead change across the department, improving ways of working and supporting staff through transition, working closely with colleagues in the digital team to identify opportunities to digitise and simplify processes.
• Identify and develop appropriate income-generation opportunities that support the Library’s purpose, collections and services.
• Take a long-term view of the Library’s responsibility for the nation’s collections.
• Play a key role in UK Legal Deposit operations, including the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries, to support comprehensive capture of UK publishers’ physical outputs and long-term digital preservation across formats.
• Maintain strong knowledge of the external environment and represent the Library with stakeholders in Scotland, the UK and internationally.
• Build effective external relationships and identify opportunities, risks and appropriate responses.
• Lead, manage and plan effectively across the department, supporting the team through clear expectations, delegation and outcomes.

Person Specification

Skills, abilities and knowledge:

• Strong leadership, management and people skills.
• Ability to lead change and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of the changing digital landscape relating to collections management and able to identify opportunities for transformation beyond boundaries.
• Financial skills, including planning, budgeting and procurement.
• Understanding of public sector reform and cultural heritage.
• Knowledge of risk management and disaster planning.
• Project management skills.
• Strategic planning experience with strong operational management skills.
• Ability to improve workflows, efficiency and use of space.
• Commercial awareness and ability to identify appropriate income-generation opportunities.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to champion the Library.
• Strong influencing skills and ability to bring stakeholders together to deliver results.

Experience:

• Experience of managing at scale in a library, archive or similarly complex environment.
• Senior-level experience in the cultural or heritage sector.
• Experience of leading large-scale projects.
• Strategic leadership of multi-functional areas.
• Experience working with boards, senior leaders and internal and external stakeholders.

Salary: £77,843

Contract: Full-time, permanent

For more information and to apply, please visit the National Library of Scotland website.

This content is for members only.