Ashton Recruitment require a Library & Legal Research Assistant for our client, The Bar of Northern Ireland, based in Belfast.
Position: Library & Legal Research Assistant
Location: Belfast City Centre
Duration: Permanent
Pay Rate: Salary on Request
Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday made up of 7.5 hours per day not including a 1-hour lunchbreak).
Duties will include (but not limited to):
1. Provide front line Library and Information (LIS) support to Members of the client in accordance with the instructions of the Assistant Librarian ensuring that a first-class service is delivered that meets the very specific and specialist information needs of the Members.
2. Receive and process legal research enquiries in accordance with the LIS procedures ensuring that the enquiries are handled efficiently and accurately from receipt to end billing. This will include being able to:
a. Correctly identify the appropriate materials and information (hard and soft copy) that need to be searched/consulted
b. Interrogate legal information databases to extract the appropriate information
c. Identify authoritative data and weed the non-authoritative data
d. Present and collate the data in a comprehensible and organised form allowing the member full insight as to how their information was retrieved, filtered, refined etc
3. Receive and process Authority Gathering requests and Optimised Brief & Bundle Service (OBBS) in accordance with LIS procedures and current Practice Directions ensuring that the BLAGs and OBBS requests are handled efficiently and accurately from receipt to end billing. This will include being able to:
a. Correctly identify the appropriate materials and information (hard and soft copy) that need to be searched/consulted
b. Interrogate legal information databases to extract the appropriate information
c. Collating and indexing the information into hard copy and soft copy bundles suitable for further dissemination beyond the Membership
4. Support the activities and duties of the LIS office to maintain an up-to-date legal information service and deliver effective and relevant Member services. These activities and duties will include:
a. Ordering and processing titles as part of the Library Bookshop
b. Administering the Members' Subscription Service
c. Assisting, when requested, to deliver the Library Current Awareness Service
d. Data entry into Library databases and the library website
e. Indexing of legal materials
f. Administering access and associated records for the members to external information databases
5. Actively promote all aspects of the LIS to the membership ensuring that members are kept informed of the range of services available to them and how their use may benefit their practice.
6. Keep abreast of current topical legal information and legal/justice developments both in Northern Ireland and nationally in order that an informed response can be delivered to the members when they enquire about such information.
7. Retrieve and re-shelve Library materials and tidy Library shelves to ensure a well-organised physical Library environment.
8. Obtain materials from external sources as required in accordance with LIS procedures and complying with copyright restrictions in order that the membership have access to a broad range of extra information not held within the library collection.
9. Undertake looseleaf updates accurately and in a timely fashion ensuring that the membership have access to the most up to date information available.
10. Repair Library books and organise binding/rebinding of the Library Collection as and when required ensuring the Members have access to a high quality of physical material.
11. Provide a reception service to solicitors/clients and other visitors to the Old Library ensuring a friendly and helpful and welcome is offered.
12. The employee will adhere to the Information Security Management systems employed by the Executive Council.
13. The duties and responsibilities highlighted in this Job Description are indicative and may vary over time. Post holders are expected to undertake other duties and responsibilities relevant to the nature, level and scope of the post held.
Essential Criteria:
* Minimum of 2 A-Levels (or equivalent) at grade C or above or equivalent.
* English and Math GCSE or equivalent.
* Thorough working knowledge, gained within the immediate past 5 years of technology including:
o Online databases, including Lexis+ and Westlaw UK.
o Internet research.
o MS Office applications of Word and Excel.
* A general understanding of legal process and primary & secondary legal materials.
* A minimum of 1 years' experience, gained within the immediate past 5 years of working with knowledge, information and research in:
o a law library; or
o as a paralegal in e.g. law firm/ solicitors' office or chambers.
Desirable Criteria:
* Good working knowledge of Adobe Acrobat especially in creating and manipulating electronic pdf documentation.
* Experience of Northern Ireland specific law-making processes and materials
Skills and Competencies
* Writes and speak with Ease
* Excellent customer service skills.
* Be highly motivated and an energetic self-starter.
* Possess an exacting attention to detail.
* Demonstrable analytical skills.
* Ability to extract the key information needed to progress legal research enquiries.
* Strong personal management skills; ability to prioritise own time to meet deadlines.
* Demonstrate an orderly and disciplined approach to the presentation of information.
* Be a problem solver/ solution finder.
* Be tactful and diplomatic.
* Be flexible and capable of adapting to pressurised and demanding periods at a Service Desk.
* The LIS can suffer fluctuations in demand meaning the staff must be capable of adapting to pressurised and demanding periods at the Issue Desk.
Ashton Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency