Job Description

Contractual hours

36

Basis

Full time

Job category/type

Legal & Governance

Date posted

09/07/2025

Job reference

R00000977



Location: St
Pancras
Contract: Temporary (until
31 December 2026)
Hours: Full time (36
hours)
Grade:
C
Salary: 28,119 per
annum


About the
role

The British
Library is working in partnership with the Qatar Foundation and
the Qatar National Library to digitise material from the
Library's collections relating to the history of the Gulf and
Arabic science. Material is selected principally from the India
Office Records and Private Papers, Arabic manuscripts relating to
science, maps and audio material. The Partnership is in its
Fourth Phase, aiming to deliver 675,000 fully searchable and
contextualised digital images to the Qatar Digital Library
(www.qdl.qa). Detailed catalogue records are being created to
facilitate access to the online resource. The post-holder will be
involved in the programme-wide effort to determine the IPR and
data protection position for these fascinating collections which
include correspondence from the India Office Records including
British government officials, individuals, companies, and royal
families around the Gulf.



This post will
support the compliance work of the British Library / Qatar
Foundation Partnership programme. Working closely with the
Copyright and Compliance Team Lead the post will:
Conduct research into rights ownership of selected material;
Provide advice and assistance across the programme to support copyright and compliance activities including training
delivery;
Create and maintain documentation to ensure that rights clearance and compliance processes are recorded to a high
standard for legacy and audit purposes.



Key areas of responsibility:

Undertake Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) research and tracing of rights holders;
Assist with rights clearance and permissions for written, artistic, and audio material;
Contact rights holders with permissions requests via letter, email and phone;
Liaise with external rights holders (including companies, publishers and individuals), often at a senior level, and respond
as appropriate;
Determine when to escalate items to the Copyright and Compliance Team Lead;
Work with the cataloguing team to record and maintain relevant copyright and compliance information;
Create and maintain documentation, both digital and hard-copy, to ensure that rights clearance and compliance processes are
recorded to a high standard to ensure proper due diligence audit
trails are in place;
Provide materials and support for, and assist in, the delivery of copyright and compliance training for staff;
Support the organisation and running of the Programme's Compliance Advisory Board, including taking minutes.




Minimum
requirements (essential)

Experience working with Intellectual Property Rights; Highly organised with attention to detail; Excellent communication skills, with ability to articulate complex concepts to a range of stakeholders;


- Strong research skills - ability to formulate and carry out an
effective search strategy;

Excellent level of facility with MS Office applications, in particular Outlook, Word, and Excel, and general understanding of
databases;
Interest in working with historic documents and archives.



For further
information, please refer to the Job Profile.


About
us

We are the national library of the UK and we are
here for everyone. Our shelves hold over 170 million items, a
living collection that gets bigger every day. Although our roots
extend back centuries, we aim to collect everything published in
the UK today, tomorrow and far into the future. Our trusted
experts care for this collection and open it up for everyone to
spark new discoveries, ideas and to help people do incredible
things.


What we can offer
you
A competitive salary. A fantastic pension scheme with minimum employer contributions of 28.97% (this may be higher dependent on grade). Flexible working hours, with the ability to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3-month period. 25 days holiday Full details of employee benefits can be found on our Careers: Benefits page.


Closing date: 27 July
2025
Interview dates: 12, 13, 14
August


If you have any questions,
please contact

BL-recruitment@bl.uk

We are

unable

to provide sponsorship
under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this
role.


*We particularly welcome
applications from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically
diverse candidates and disabled candidates. We would like to
increase the representation of these groups within The British
Library to ensure our workforce is as diverse as the public that
we serve. Creating an inclusive workplace is the core of our
business and a way to engage the diversity of thought that is
essential to achieve our aims.*