• What’s involved

Department

People & Culture

Salary

£30,300 per annum, pro rata

Role - Project Librarian
Location - London
Contract type - 12-month Fixed Term Contract (14 hours per week)

Our offer to you

We pride ourselves in being a great place to work, providing a supportive culture with opportunities to grow and develop your career, achieve a healthy work life balance and to be recognised for the great work you do. You will receive:

• Competitive salary and pension scheme
• 33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) - increasing to 38 days over 5 years
• Cycle to work scheme Electric Vehicle Scheme
• Health and Wellbeing portal - access to financial, health and wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounts - you will have access to Blue Light and NHS Discounts as well as discounts on mobile phones, gym membership, cinema tickets, restaurants, holidays and shopping

About Us

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a team of over 1,400 employees and over 31,000 volunteers, united by our goal of saving lives through essential first aid services, training and campaigning. As a charity with rich heritage and a long history of serving humanity, we are proud of our past and excited about creating a healthier, safer, more resilient future.

St John Ambulance works at the heart of communities, supporting and enabling them to access and receive physical and mental health first aid. We do this through developing and providing effective community response and outreach services (e.g. Ambulance response & Nighttime Economy) and using our longstanding expertise to empower people with vital clinical skills and the confidence to use them (e.g. our Volunteers and Community Advocates, NHS Cadets and Young Responders programmes). There is also a buoyant social enterprise network which delivers first aid training and supplies medical consumables to businesses and consumers.

Job Summary

The Museum of the Order of St John tells the story of an ancient religious military Order, from its origins caring for sick pilgrims in 11th century Jerusalem, through to its modern-day role with St John Ambulance, the international first aid charity. The Museum cares for a historic library of 1170 printed books, dating from the 15th century onwards, 120 manuscripts, dating from the 15th-19th centuries and an important pamphlet collection. Subject areas include the crusades, the history of the military and religious orders in Europe, the geography and history of the islands of Malta, Gozo and Rhodes, St John’s Gate and the Priory of Clerkenwell in London. We are seeking a Project Librarian to complete a project to catalogue the collection and to oversee a major digitisation initiative that will transform access for researchers and the wider public.

About You

• Educated to undergraduate level in a related academic discipline
• An experienced librarian with recognised library qualifications (accredited by CILIP)
• Strong project management experience, ideally gained working with historic library collections
• Reading knowledge of French, Italian and/or Portuguese desirable

About the Role

• Deliver our strategic plan for cataloguing the historic library collection including setting milestones
• Set and follow recognised descriptive standards and schema for the cataloguing of the historic library
• Create enhanced catalogue records using our Library Management System (Koha)
• Oversee the day-to-day management of a digitisation project delivered in collaboration with one of our academic partners
• Provide regular updates on cataloguing progress to the Museum team and collaborate with curatorial and learning colleagues as needed
• Work with external specialists as required to develop the catalogue of manuscripts in the collection

For all other candidates, or St John Ambulance volunteers wishing to apply

Please note: St John does not accept speculative CVs and will only review CVs sent in application for an advertised vacancy.