Director of Collections Management

As we embark on our new strategy, The Next Chapter, we are looking for an inspiring and collaborative Director of Collections Management to lead the teams who care for, preserve, describe, acquire, store and move the collections that tell Scotland’s story.

The national collections are held in trust for the people of Scotland and for users around the world. They span centuries of knowledge, creativity and evidence, from the physical to the digital, and they continue to grow every day. The Director of Collections Management will play a central role in ensuring these collections are responsibly stewarded, sustainable, discoverable today and ready for future generations.

As a member of the Library Leadership Team, you will contribute to the strategic direction of the Library as a whole, working across departments to deliver excellent services, strengthen our national and international reputation, and support ambitious change. You will lead with clarity, curiosity and purpose, building confidence across specialist teams and championing innovation in collections care, metadata, acquisitions, legal deposit processing, conservation, preservation, logistics and storage.

We are looking for a strategic leader with substantial experience in collections management or a related field, ideally gained in a library, archive, heritage, research or cultural environment. You will bring a strong understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing major collections, including digital transformation, sustainability, access, preservation, space, systems and the responsible stewardship of nationally significant material.

You will also be a confident communicator and relationship builder, able to work with colleagues, partners and stakeholders to turn strategy into action. Above all, you will share our belief that libraries change lives and bring a leadership approach rooted in our values: integrity, inclusion, innovation and inspiration.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the department’s core services, setting strategic direction, ensuring effective operations and delegating clearly to senior staff.

• Oversee the management of physical and digital collections, including acquisition, storage, logistics, preservation, security, audit, disaster planning and retrieval.

• Lead cataloguing activity for physical and digital collections and oversee the Hidden Collections programme.

• Use evidence, statistics and insight to monitor performance, identify trends, allocate resources and improve services.

• Lead change across the department, improving ways of working and supporting staff through transition, working closely with colleagues in our digital team to identify opportunities to digitise and simplify processes. 

• Identify and develop appropriate income-generation opportunities that support the Library’s purpose, collections and services.

• Take a long-term view of the Library’s responsibility for the nation’s collections.

• Play a key role in UK Legal Deposit operations, including the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries, to support comprehensive capture of UK publishers’ physical outputs and long-term digital preservation across formats. 

• Maintain strong knowledge of the external environment and represent the Library with stakeholders in Scotland, the UK and internationally.

• Build effective external relationships and identify opportunities, risks and appropriate responses.

• Lead, manage and plan effectively across the department, supporting the team through clear expectations, delegation and outcomes.