Clinical Librarian

Working as a partnership, both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have a shared vision for excellence in care for our patients and communities; with a set of strategic aims underpinning how we will achieve this. 

The single corporate service is delivered across both organisations.  You may be based at either IWT or PHU and individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites. For leaders managing staff across multi-site locations, you will need to be visible and provide in person leadership. The arrangements and frequency will be agreed locally.

NHS Band 6 Salary: £39,987 - £48,117 per annum

Hours Per Week:  Full-time, 37.5 hrs

Contract Type:   Permanent

Are you passionate about helping healthcare professionals use the best available evidence to improve patient care?

We are seeking an enthusiastic and proactive Clinical Librarian to join our Knowledge and Library Services team. This exciting role provides an embedded evidence and knowledge service across Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust and Isle of Wight NHS Trust, supporting clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals, researchers, educators, and managers.

As a Clinical Librarian, you will work directly with clinical teams to support evidence-based practice, patient safety, quality improvement, research, and service development. You will provide expert literature searching, critical appraisal, evidence summaries, current awareness services, training, and knowledge mobilisation activities that help healthcare professionals make informed decisions at the point of care.

This is an excellent opportunity for an information professional with experience in healthcare, academic, or specialist library services who enjoys building relationships, delivering training, and translating evidence into practical improvements for patient care.

What you'll do

• Deliver an embedded Clinical Librarian service to clinical specialties and multidisciplinary teams.
• Provide expert literature searching, evidence synthesis, rapid reviews, and critical appraisal support.
• Attend clinical meetings, ward rounds, governance forums, audits, and quality improvement activities.
• Design and deliver training on information skills, healthcare databases, evidence-based practice, and critical appraisal.
• Support the development of clinical guidelines, policies, research projects, and service improvement initiatives.
• Promote the effective use of evidence and knowledge resources across the Trusts

This role offers the opportunity to make a direct contribution to patient care and organisational improvement by ensuring staff have rapid access to high-quality evidence when it matters most.

For full job details and person specification please refer to enclosed job description.

Essential

• A degree in Library and Information Studies, Information Management, Knowledge Management, or a related discipline.
• Experience of literature searching, information retrieval, and delivering user education or training.
• Strong analytical, communication, and relationship-building skills.
• An understanding of evidence-based practice and healthcare information resources.
• Excellent digital literacy and proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification in Library and Information Studies or related field.
• Chartered Membership of CILIP or working towards Chartered status.

Experience

Essential

• Experience working within a healthcare, academic, specialist, or professional information environment.
• Experience of literature searching and information retrieval using online databases.
• Experience of delivering training and user education.
• Experience of customer-focused service delivery.
• Experience of critically appraising information and evidence.
• Highly developed IT skills within a networked environment
• Good customer care skills and a service orientation.

Desirable

• Experience working within an NHS knowledge and library service.
• Experience of evidence synthesis and rapid reviews.
• Experience supporting quality improvement, audit, or research activities.
• Experience providing embedded librarian or outreach services.

Skills & Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of evidence-based practice and information literacy.
• Knowledge of healthcare information resources and bibliographic databases.
• Knowledge of research methodologies and critical appraisal techniques.
•  Knowledge of information governance and data protection principles.
• High level of digital literacy and proficiency in Microsoft 365 applications.

Desirable

• Knowledge of NHS structures, priorities, and healthcare policy.
• Knowledge of knowledge mobilisation and implementation science.
• Knowledge of healthcare quality improvement methodologies.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.   

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs. 

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026