Knowledge and library services
Knowledge and library services staff help people to use knowledge and research evidence.
They save people time by making the right evidence and knowledge available at the right time. This helps people to learn and improves their decisions. These decisions are about patient care, funding, policy, research and innovation. Using evidence to inform decisions leads to improved patient care.
Life as knowledge and library services staff
You’ll manage information in lots of formats. This could be books, online journals, databases, websites and social media. You make this information easy for healthcare staff to find and use. This helps them to learn, and to use evidence and knowledge to do their jobs.
You might work in a physical library space or be part of a virtual service. You’ll answer enquiries from healthcare staff. You’ll help people to find and use knowledge and evidence. You manage digital resources, such as online books, databases and journals and offer training to help people use these.
There is a variety of work which is stimulating and rewarding. You’ll:
- save healthcare staff time and make their lives easier
- think of different ways to let people know what services you offer, such as designing websites, displays and by running events
- be outgoing and enjoy talking to people. Working with everyone in your organisation to make sure they have the evidence and knowledge they need in a way that is useful to them.
- be interested in information found in books and on websites. You’ll also be interested in the knowledge and experience that people have. And look for ways to help staff share learning and experience with each other.
- deliver training for healthcare staff and students. This will be about study and research skills. It will include how to find and assess the quality of information.
- collect and analyse data to help make improvements to knowledge and library services.
- work with different IT systems including managing websites and databases. And use new technologies, such as machine learning, to improve work processes.
There are opportunities to work at more senior levels, such as managerial roles where you’ll be responsible for designing services, the day to day running of the team and managing budgets.
You could become a specialist librarian where you’d often work outside the library alongside a variety of teams either in a hospital or in the community. You might join clinical staff on ward rounds or attend meetings to make sure NHS staff have the right information for their work such as a nurse who asks you for information about the latest treatments for asthma. You also find and summarise the latest research which is called literature searching or evidence summarising.
If you’re working as a knowledge manager you help the organisation to make the most of research and data and help people to share their learning from experience. You present this learning in a way that makes it easy for others to find and use. For example, you might work with a team who have introduced a new appointment system. You would ask them questions about how they did this. You save their answers in a database and share this learning with other teams to help them to improve their work.
Jo McCrossan
NHS knowledge specialist
I love the fact that the work I do now supports healthcare professionals and has an impact on patient care.
How much can I earn?
If you’re employed by the NHS, you will be on a national pay and conditions system called Agenda for Change (AfC).
There are nine pay bands. Knowledge and library services staff can be at any point on this scale depending upon their role:
- Knowledge and library assistants are on bands 3 – 4
- Newly qualified librarians are on band 5
- Specialist librarians and knowledge managers are on Band 6 or above
- Managers are on band 7 or 8A or above
If employed outside the NHS terms and conditions can vary.
How about the benefits?
- make a difference
- worthwhile, rewarding and varied career
- opportunities to develop
- progression opportunities
- exciting new technologies
- work flexibly with opportunities for part-time hours
- excellent pension scheme
- NHS discounts in shops, restaurants and online
Must have skills
- Customer service
- Facilitation and good communication
- Team player
- Office and specialist library IT systems
- Understanding of knowledge and library service activities
- Accurate data entry
- Advocacy and influencing
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Organising and presenting information
- Evaluation, data analysis and data visualisation
- Applying research skills such as formulating search questions and evaluating search results
- Summarising skills and working with large sets of information and data
- Technical skills such as database design and content management
- Good organisation and using initiative
Entry requirements
Knowledge and library assistants
You’ll have excellent IT skills and will need at least five GCSEs, including English and maths. Previous working or volunteer experience in a library may be beneficial but is not essential. You might have a Level 3 Library and Information Apprenticeship or be able to work towards this.
Knowledge and library specialists and managers
You’ll need to have a postgraduate degree in a relevant subject area, such as library, information or knowledge management studies. Alternatively, you might have relevant experience recognised by your professional registration as a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
What are my chances of starting a career in knowledge and library services?
There is demand for knowledge and library staff to help people find and use evidence and knowledge from the large amounts of health information published each year. There are 175 knowledge and library services in the NHS in England and over 1,500 people working in knowledge and library service roles in the NHS. There are often vacancies for library assistant apprentices and specialist librarians. There are opportunities to develop skills and knowledge whilst working. This helps you to apply for more specialist or managerial jobs.
Where a career in knowledge and library services can take you
You can progress your career in many ways. You can specialise to become a:
- knowledge manager
- public health intelligence officer
- data analyst
- records manager
- lead researcher
- information scientist
Or become a senior manager leading on evaluation, innovation, digital projects, education, quality improvement or organisational development.
You might progress to lead knowledge and library services at a regional or national level. Or apply the skills you have learnt to progress into more senior project management and leadership roles such as becoming a chief knowledge officer or chief information officer.