First Woman University Librarian, 1980

In January 1980 Brenda Elizabeth Moon (1931-2011) became Edinburgh University's first female University Librarian.

Appointed following the resignation of Richard Fifoot (1925-1992), Moon brought to the role a clear vision of the transformative effect that digitisation would have on libraries. At the Brynmor Jones Library, Hull University, where she had been deputy to Philip Larkin, she had installed the first GEAC library computer system in the UK. On arriving at Edinburgh she persuaded the university to accelerate its automation programme, and Edinburgh thus became one of the first university libraries to network a version of its online catalogue.

Moon also recognized the importance of national and international collaboration between libraries in an increasingly globalized research and teaching environment. She ensured that Edinburgh University played a major role in library co-operative networks and was a co-founder of CURL (Consortium of University Research Libraries, now RLUK. She was also a strong advocate for staff exchanges between Edinburgh University Library and other university libraries.

Moon laid particular emphasis on building up archives and special collections and expanding the library's collections to include museum objects and art works. Major collections that she brought to Edinburgh University include the papers of modern Scottish writers such as [[George Mackay Brown (1921-1996)|George Mackay Brown), Norman MacCaig, and Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978), the Koestler

Scholarly commitment to Library's collections and history. Major collections that came to the Library during her Librarianships include the literary papers of George Mackay Brown, Norman MacCaig, Hugh Macdiamrd, and the Arthur Koestler and Corson Sir Walter Scott Collections. At the same time she was also a powerful advocate of the importance of building special collections and archives and bringing the papers of poets and commercial companies to the university.

At Edinburgh she re-invigorated the special collections, paving the way for the service the library now provides which incorporate many sorts of objects: books, manuscripts, archives, museum objects and art works. She brought major collections to Edinburgh University Library, including the papers of modern Scottish poets such as George Mackay Brown, Norman MacCaig and Hugh MacDiarmid, materials on WH Auden, the Arthur Koestler collection and the Corson-Sir Walter Scott collection.

Revived the Friends of the University Library and encouraged them to contribute more and more to the purchase of books and manuscripts.

Sources

• Peter B. Freshwater, 'Brenda Elizabeth Moon MA MPhil PhD FRSE Librarian to the University 1980-1996: An Appreciation', University of Edinburgh Journal, XLV, no. 1 (June 2011), p. 7.