Community and Library Assistant

London Borough of Hounslow; Hounslow; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

Join the London Borough of Hounslow as a Library Assistant in a fixed-term role. You will be integral in supporting customers, delivering activities, and ensuring an excellent library experience. This role offers a unique opportunity to work within a diverse community and develop valuable skills.

Qualifications

• Ability to prepare and deliver engaging Storytime sessions.
• Proven ability to show initiative in a library without supervision.
• Experience in providing information and assistance to library visitors.

Responsibilities

• Assist customers in using library services and equipment.
• Organise and deliver activities for children and adults.
• Act as first point of contact for customer inquiries.

Skills

Exceptional customer service delivery

Ability to use ICT software/hardware

Ability to work calmly under pressure

Initiative

Education

English A-C GCSE or equivalent

Tools

MS Office Suite

Job description

About Us At Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough with brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About Our Commitment To Diversity And Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

About The Role

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the appointment of a 36-hour fixed term Library Assistant to join the library team within the London borough of Hounslow. The fixed term position is to cover for a secondment from 1st September 2025 to 31st December 2025.

The successful candidates will need a strong skill set across customer service, communication and organisation as well as be able to offer flexibility.

In this role you will be working as part of a team to help our customers with enquiries, assisting them to use our services, and delivering our activities for children and adults.

Some weekend working and one 8pm late night a week is required as part of this role.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

This role will be based in the Hounslow Library Service, mainly within Feltham library, but you may be asked to work at any of the 11 libraries in the borough.

We have over 230,000 items available to residents excluding the specialist collections and c.345,000 annual visits. In June 2020 Hounslow Libraries joined The Libraries Consortium this gave our members access to more than 3 million items.

All of our Libraries are community hubs which provide spaces for our residents to study and learn, build social connection through activities and access advice and guidance.

The service also operates an archives and local studies service and a specialist services teams, one serving discrete users e.g. those who are housebound and the other working alongside schools to improve their internal library service.

About You

• Exceptional customer service delivery.
• Assist in the provision of information and assistance to visitors of the Library & Community Hub.
• Ability to use a range of ICT software/hardware, including the MS Office suite, library information databases, internet search, and specialised Library-specific applications.
• Ability to work calmly, efficiently and accurately under pressure and in challenging scenarios.
• Proven ability to show initiative as will be on occasion working in a library without on-site supervision.
• Ability to prepare and deliver vibrant and engaging Storytime sessions and other activities for both children and adults.
  
  

If the points below resonate with you, we’d love you to put in an application:

• Ensure the best possible visitor experience and acting as the first point of contact for customer enquiries for the wider council in person, by phone, or email.
• Offer advice and guidance to customers on the use of library materials and equipment including public-use IT and reference and stock enquiries.
• Organise and participate in the delivery of activities for children and adults in line with the service Events and Engagement Plan including making bookings for and promoting functions/events.
• Take a positive role in promoting Library Services and stock and ensure the library is always well-presented and tidy, with a high standard of display and promotional materials.
  
  

Qualifications:

English A-C GCSE or equivalent or able to demonstrate an equivalent level of attainment through qualification or experience in a relevant discipline.

Essential For The Role:

Enhanced DBS check is required for the role.

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

Email:

The key information you need about the role should be in the Role Profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing Monday 30th June 2025

(Internal Candidates - please seek your line manager's approval before applying for a role as a secondment.)

Email:

Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing Monday 30th June 2025

(Internal Candidates - please seek your line manager's approval before applying for a role as a secondment.)