Nicola Jane Curtis

As the Customer Services Development Librarian my role was to take a district lead to develop our local library service.

I was required to work with local Area and District teams to develop and deliver quality customer services and activities that promote reading and literacy, digital inclusion and active citizenship.

My role required me to be proactive, and required me to have the ability to work on my own and with colleagues both within the library and externally.

The role required me to network with customers and community groups to identify opportunities to develop new projects and services.

I was the district lead on local service initiatives:

Stock

• Develop stock action plans
• Catalogued and organised books, material and other documents for library management systems
• Stock selection, purchasing, maintenance and promotion.
• Monitor and evaluate stock performance to inform future business plans.

Library Events & Initiatives

• Development of library activities and plans, this included School visits, community group activities, partner organisations and community group visits
• Mentor and train library staff and volunteers

Promotion of library services

• Attend external events to promote library services
• Promotion of our digital library collections and online resources
• Manage the district Social Media account and content in line with KCC company policy
• Manage the district website content in line with KCC company policy

Local History Collection & Archives

• Lead on the management and development of local history collections and archives,
• Working with library staff and volunteers and other appropriate teams.
• Train the library staff and volunteers to support with the usage of the collection, preservation, copyright guidelines and general

Staff and volunteer training

• I had a key role to mentor and train customer service staff in stock management and enquiry skills.
• Take a key role for customer service delivery working closely the Assistant Service Manager for staff development and training.
• A key role to mentor and train volunteers with customer service skills to successfully run our groups and activities within the library

Customer Service

• Display active commitment to a customer focused service by placing the customer at the heart of every aspect of my work. For example: engaging with customers in a friendly, helpful manner: contributing to public involvement and achieving the best possible outcome for the customer
• Assist customers with all aspects of library usage, membership enquiries, locating books on library shelves, reservation enquiries, including inter library loans.
• Answering customer complaints and account enquiries in a timely effective manner

Kent County Council Digital Champion

• Assist staff, colleagues and library customers with resolving computer problems.
• Assist staff with Microsoft applications including Teams, Outlook, Excel, Sway, Powerpoint
• District lead for our CoderDojo club and Makerspace within the area, this included mentoring and training staff and volunteers in the use of the resources available within the Makerspace, learning code to assist the children and adults that came along to our groups and sessions

Library Room Hire and Management

• Lead on promotional and hire management for the rooms and private spaces available within the district
• Liaise with customers on room bookings and enquiries
• Send invoices and process payments for room bookings