Your career at University of Leeds Libraries
Join us to deliver
Knowledge for All
University of Leeds Libraries are looking for people with talent and potential from all backgrounds to join us as we deliver our exciting and ambitious vision for the future: Knowledge for all.
We offer a wide range of roles within different specialisms, with colleagues from a range professions and with a variety of expertise. These include digital archivists, metadata specialists, customer services, collection care and conservation, public galleries, academic and digital skills teaching, open research and data advisors.
Find out what job opportunities are available, what it's like to work in one of the UK's major research libraries and what we can offer you.
Your place of work
Leading libraries
University of Leeds Libraries are one of the major academic research libraries of the UK, with globally significant collections and a strong service ethos. We believe knowledge grows when shared and that it’s our responsibility to preserve this knowledge for future generations.
We support our students to develop their academic and digital literacies, to become global citizens and reach their full potential. We are an active partner in research and education initiatives across the University; we engage in policy discussions and provide support to implement open research and education. Our curators, archivists, learning developers and other colleagues help to shape new forms of research and scholarship drawn from their rich expertise and our extensive collections.
Through our collections, galleries, exhibitions and public art, our cultural offer captures the imagination of our communities and brings them closer to the University’s civic mission.
Our ambition is to become one of the greatest libraries in the world.
Culture and values
We are a values-driven organisation, with a strong customer service ethos within a supportive and collaborative environment. We care deeply about our staff, researchers, students and wider cultural communities. They are at the heart of our services. We aim to live the University values of collaboration, compassion, inclusivity and integrity in all aspects of our working culture.
Our work encompasses creating, disseminating, applying and preserving knowledge, and our mission focuses on digital transformation, open education and open research, sustainable environments and enriched experiences.
We are cultivating a libraries culture that embraces risk, where experimentation and learning are celebrated. We employ design thinking approaches and focus on supporting innovation.
What are we like
For a large organisation, we are noted for our friendly and supportive culture. We believe in developing and nurturing potential and offer many opportunities for professional and personal development.
There are chances to develop professional interests, with different ways to participate in cross-team projects to achieve our vision and support the University's strategic aims.
We are ambitious, hard-working and collaborative in nature, united by a passion to understand and fulfil the needs of our users and deliver high quality experiences.
Our locations
You will be based in one of our four libraries whilst you are working on campus. Although we are split across four buildings on campus, we are one library service and you could find yourself working with colleagues in different buildings as the need arises.
We support hybrid working where the responsibilities of the role allow it.
Look around
Take a 360 degrees tour of some of the public parts of our libraries.
The University
The University of Leeds is one of the UK’s largest higher education institutions, with more than 38,000 students, over 9,000 members of staff and alumni from 197 countries around the world.
We are a values-driven University determined to shape a better future for humanity and collaborate with others to tackle inequalities, achieve societal impact and drive change. Our strategy: Universal Values, Global Change is built on three pillars: culture, community and impact. It sets out our ambitions to create a Fairer Future for All – for our staff, our students and our wider global community.
The Libraries play a key part in achieving the University's strategic aims.
Benefits
We offer a range of generous employee benefits.
Work-life balance
Up to 26 days paid holiday plus up to 16 days that the University is closed by custom (including bank holidays and Christmas – the actual number of days will depend on the amount of hours you work) – that’s over 40 days a year!
Flexible working opportunities – not every job needs to be in the office five days a week.
Financial benefits
Generous pension scheme options plus life assurance, as well as a raft of offers for discounted shopping and leisure.
Family-friendly
Generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave and high quality on-campus childcare facilities.
Personal development
Access to courses run by our Organisational Development & Professional Learning team, as well as training opportunities organised within the libraries and nationally.
Self-development courses including languages, creative writing, wellbeing therapies and much more.
Health and wellbeing
Discounted staff membership options at The Edge, our state-of-the-art campus gym, with a pool, sauna, climbing wall, cycle circuit, and sports halls.
A range of wellbeing services and initiatives, including discounted healthcare.
Travel
We support sustainable travel to minimise our environmental impact and offer discounts on public transport and a Cycle to Work scheme.
Culture on campus
Our beautiful campus offers fantastic green spaces and a range of world-class facilities, which include:
- Theatres and a concert hall
- Our Galleries and public art trail
- Sustainable garden and biodiversity pond
- Onsite shops, bars and cafes.
Take a look around campus with our 360 Virtual Campus Tour.
About our city
Leeds city centre is just a ten-minute walk away from campus. Perfectly placed in the centre of the UK, Leeds is one of the country's largest and fastest-growing cities with a global reputation in business, culture and sport.
Our lively city centre is home to an abundance of museums, theatres, music venues, independent restaurants, bars and shops. Whatever your interests, there's plenty to explore – day or night.
Leeds is also well connected, nationally and internationally, with excellent rail and air transport links – so it’s easy to access our stunning Yorkshire countryside and everything beyond.
Current vacancies
We are recruiting for the following role(s):
Customer Service Assistant
Salary: £25,249 to £26,093 per annum pro-rata (grade 3)
Closing date: Friday 15 August 2025
Working hours: Part-time during term-time (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 4:30pm – 00:30am)
Are you passionate about delivering exceptional customer service? Do you have great organisational and people skills? Do you have an eye for detail and making sure everything is in the right place?
The role is based in our Customer Services team, which provides high-quality frontline support to the University’s staff, students and external customers across our libraries. You will be allocated to a particular library as your base site, but you may be required to work at other campus libraries to provide cover for service points.
The main duties of this role are ensuring that our libraries are welcoming spaces for visitors, answering enquiries and assisting our customers in getting the most out of our spaces and services. Other tasks include shelving stock, setting up meeting rooms and undertaking administrative tasks, such as processing memberships using the library management system.
You will have experience of working in a customer-facing role, where you are able to engage positively and proactively, as well as dealing with enquires from a range of customers across a variety of mediums. Writing emails, operating information and management systems and using web applications are other skills you must have for this job. You will also be able to work under pressure in a busy environment and have good problem-solving skills. Finally, you’ll have great attention to detail in order to spot errors and take the appropriate action.
Galleries Student Intern
Salary: Hourly rate £13.12 - £13.68 (grade 3)
Closing date: Friday 15 August 2025
Interview dates: 11–12 September 2025
Working hours: Hourly/variable (210 hours to be worked flexibly during the contract)
Are you looking to gain experience delivering gallery events and engagement activities? Are you a team player with great communication and presentation skills? Do you have the confidence to help motivate and encourage your fellow students to visit our Galleries?
This role is based in the Cultural Collections and Galleries, which comprises of The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Treasures of the Brotherton and the Brotherton Research Centre. The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery shows highlights from the University Art Collection, as well as a programme of innovative, socially engaged temporary exhibitions. In Treasures of the Brotherton, you will discover the finest rare books, manuscripts, art and archives from our world-renowned Cultural Collections and uncover the stories behind them.
You will be involved in planning, promoting, delivering and evaluating Galleries events for students and community groups at the University. Aside from raising awareness of our Galleries, collections and activities amongst students, you will also help explore the possibility of creating a new Student Union society. Other tasks include assisting the Galleries marketing team in online communications and working with other areas of the University to create networks for marketing and partnership with students.
You must be studying at the University of Leeds for the duration of the job and have experience or a good understanding of working in a front-of-house setting. Having excellent communication skills and being able to work well in teams and individually are essential for this role. You will also have strong administrative and organisation skills with proven ability to prioritise, schedule and balance workloads to meet deadlines. Finally, you’ll be a good problem-solver who’s able to creatively and flexibly work around a problem or change in priorities.
Recruitment ethos
We are committed to providing a culture of inclusion, openness, respect and equality of opportunity that attracts, supports, and retains the best students and staff from all backgrounds and from across the world.
Whatever role we recruit for we are always striving to increase the diversity of our community, which each individual helps enrich and cultivate. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, Black, Asian, people who belong to a minority ethnic community; people who identify as LGBTQ+; and people with disabilities. Candidates will always be selected based on merit and ability.
Useful links
Libraries website
Learn about our services and facilities and see About the Libraries for our Forward Plan.
Knowledge for all
Our ambitious strategy Knowledge for all: University of Leeds Libraries Vision for 2030.
University Jobs
Search the current vacancies and learn how to apply for positions at the University.
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