Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant

Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant

On a library, information and archive services assistant apprenticeship course, you’ll help service users find the information and resources they need to resolve their specific queries.

A library, information, and archive services assistant helps service users find the information and resources they need to solve their problems.

Finding textbooks to aid their studies, legal materials to support legal activities, images to create a design, trademark information to establish a new product or health information to diagnose a patient are just a few users’ needs that vary by industry.

Digital services, information literacy, general literacy, customer service, issue resolution, and resource and system organisation underlie and characterise work in this area.

Using highly specialised skills and experience, you’ll be responsible for creating, collecting, organising, storing, and accessing specific information, resources, and knowledge that links directly to the services offered inside physical and digital collections.

You’ll also help service customers locate and utilise information by helping them through the process.

What you’ll learn

On a library, information and archive services assistant apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

  • Conduct regulatory and compliance audits to ensure that data security is not jeopardised,
  • Use knowledge and interpretation to help customers in a range of situations.
  • Use information management processes to store, manage, and retrieve records and data to support collaboration, exploitation, and the organisation’s Information Management (IM) policies.
  • Create online catalogues and other finding aids that meet users’ needs, and follow and apply defined cataloguing standards to characterise and organise material/resources.
  • Utilise information retrieval techniques, such as searching online databases, catalogues, or physical stores, as well as EDRMS, to locate and use suitable media and systems (electronic document record management systems)
  • Maintain physical security of collections by performing preservation (analogue/physical and digital) processes in line with institutional/sector requirements and supporting work that allows digital access by creating alternatives that meet a range of user demands.
  • Inquiry techniques may be used to explain and meet users’ information requirements and expectations, such as referring them to other resources and providing solutions.
  • Create an environment where information is freely supplied and sought in a “safe” context to encourage knowledge exchange among users, including online solutions.
  • Contribute to the design of learning activities for different audiences using suitable learning support techniques to enhance knowledge and literacy, such as reader development.
  • Select and utilise appropriate tools and technologies to help users find and disseminate information, such as databases, search engines, digital libraries, repositories, and social media.
  • Develop information and digital skills to help people find, evaluate, and share information while encouraging self-help.
  • Contribute to learning activities for specific audiences, such as inductions and events, to show information sharing by accommodating a variety of knowledge and understanding levels.
  • Use resource promotion techniques to make users and potential users aware of their value, impact, and benefit, such as curating effective collections and displays and performing outreach activities to assist users in achieving information independence.
  • Implement the organisation’s collection management policy, which includes identifying stock that needs to be bought and that is no longer required or used and relegating or deleting these things as needed.
  • Develop the service by assessing the learning environment and anticipating user needs, such as reorganising study/virtual spaces and suggesting modifications to the catalogue or website.
  • Use collaboration and cooperation to achieve goals with stakeholders and partners outside the organisation.
  • Let others access things by giving information, such as lending books/artefacts, mailing documents, obtaining access to original archives, and connecting them to resources.
  • Practice communication skills such as speaking, writing, presenting, interpersonal, listening, and assertiveness (online and face to face)

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

  • 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship.
  • Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises two distinct assessment methods:

  • Project report and presentation, with questions
  • Professional discussion, underpinned by a portfolio

Restrictions and requirements

You’ll need to:

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

  • Duration: 18 months
  • Level: 3 – Advanced Apprenticeship
  • Relevant school subjects: ICT and English
  • Potential salary upon completion: £21,000 per annum

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 3 Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.

Updated on January 22, 2024

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