SCONUL Knowledge Base

The Challenge

SCONUL members needed a shared place for institution-owned job descriptions and organisational charts - educational resources that previously lived in scattered files and local processes. Content had to be contributed and maintained by each institution, discoverable across the UK membership, and protected with role-based access so staff only edit what belongs to their organisation. As a public-sector education service, the knowledge base also had to meet accessibility expectations under the Accessibility Regulations - usable with keyboard, assistive tech, and clear structure - while scaling with bulk uploads, relevant search, and workflows that fit how library teams actually work.

Our Approach

• Designed institution-scoped content ownership so each UK member manages its own job descriptions and org charts, with secure edit and delete controls that never expose another institution's data.
• Built searchable, filterable listings with weighted relevance sorting, region-aware salary display, and clear information architecture so staff find comparable roles and structures quickly.
• Delivered admin-friendly bulk workflows - multi-row forms, CSV import with templates, drag-and-drop uploads, and batch save - so large institutions can contribute without hand-entering every record.
• Added practical productivity features including AI-assisted job description summarisation from uploaded documents, org chart title suggestions, and preview/save flows that match editorial habits.
• Embedded accessibility and compliance into the build: semantic listings and forms, keyboard-friendly filters and bulk tools, focus-visible controls, and WCAG-oriented patterns suited to a UK higher-education membership audience.
• Integrated the knowledge base into the wider Access platform with caching that varies by institution, ongoing platform upgrades, and Pendulum-managed hosting so the resource stays secure and maintainable as membership grows.

The Outcome

UK academic library institutions now share job descriptions and organisational charts in one secure, scalable, and accessibility-conscious knowledge base. Members contribute and maintain their own content, search across the sector with relevance-aware results, and use bulk tools when onboarding large datasets - through interfaces designed for keyboard use, assistive technologies, and public-sector compliance expectations. Pendulum continues to extend the platform - from access controls and AI summarisation to region data alignment - as SCONUL's educational resource offering grows.

Key Takeaways

• Sector knowledge bases succeed when institutions own their content but search and compare as a membership.
• Bulk import and relevance sorting turn a content archive into a tool staff will actually use.
• For UK HE membership platforms, accessibility compliance and secure institution-scoped access belong in the same delivery - not as a later polish pass.