First Woman University Librarian, 1980

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

She persuaded the university to speed up its automation programme, and installed the second Geac system in the Uk at Edinburgh, having installed the first at Hull where she had been Philip Larkin's deputy. Edinburgh University Library thus became one of the first to network a version of its online catalogue.

Library reached out to Faculties and Departments more proactively than before. Insisted that EUL play its part in any library co-operative networks, thus enhancing and enriching the services that EUL provided for its own users. Arranged for exchanges between EUL staff and their opposites from other libraries, and for librarians from elsewhere to be seconded to EUL within their specialist spheres.

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.

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.