PEOPLE
Geoffrey Hayhurst G
eoffrey Hayhurst, who has died aged 91, was for nearly 30 years in charge of libraries services for science and engineering at the University of Nottingham. From 1964 to 1986 he was in charge of the Science Library (now the George
Green Library of Science and Engineering), where he built up pioneering services to students and academic staff, and led a team of colleagues notable for their enthusiasm and loyalty in a changing world.
Geoffrey was born in Bradford in November 1928. After attending Thornton Grammar School and studying history at Liverpool University, his National Service in the RAF took him to the Joint Services School for Linguists at Bodmin, where he took an A-Level in Russian He then joined the Central Library at Bradford City Libraries: the strong tradition of specialist subject services in the Reference Library gave him a good professional base (he was ALA and later FLA and encouraged his staff to follow his example). Here too he met Marion Stead: they married on Christmas Eve 1955 – time off from the Library for matrimony was hard to find – and remained together for 51 years, until her death in 2007.
In 1958 Geoffrey moved to Nottingham University, as Science Librarian under Dick Smith, who was already planning the expansion of the University Library into a new Science Library, which was opened in 1964. Geoffrey was responsible for negotiating the incorporation of most of the science-based departmental libraries into their new home, and for the establishment of more systematic and integrated subject provision, still something of a novelty in academic libraries in the 1960s. Within a very few years of its opening the Science Library, under Geoffrey’s leader- ship, was a beacon of reader instruction in the UK: in 1968 it was described as “probably the only place where library skills are tested in an examination which counts towards the final degree”.
In 1968 the University opened its new Medical School, the first in the country for many years. It shared accom- modation with other departments for some years, and an extension to the Science Library for its first 10 years. Geoffrey worked closely with John Coggins, the Medical Librarian, and supported the new discipline with skill in
somewhat constrained conditions. Full independence for the Medical Library came in 1978 in the Queen’s Medical Centre, but Geoffrey continued his oversight, with the title of Deputy Librarian (Science), coordinating library activities both in medicine and in the then School of Agriculture Library at Sutton Bonington, as well as in the surviving departmental libraries such as Chemistry, where library provision had to be coordinated with the fast-growing Science Library. In all the libraries under his charge he developed a sense of “unity in diversity” in line with Dick Smith’s policies for the University library system, allowing the development of appropriate variety in many professional areas. The University Library’s commitment to electronic infor- mation spread from the Medical Library to other disciplines, especially in the sciences, and Geoffrey encouraged his staff in this exciting new area, including the pioneering UKCIS service run from Nottingham by the Chemical Society. The opportunity to serve the academic world in new ways came naturally to a staff long schooled by Geoffrey in the skills of reader instruction and cooperation. After Dick Smith’s retirement in 1978 Geoffrey continued to give me and his other colleagues the benefit of his wide experience and good sense, a much-valued support in changing times. Geoffrey took early retirement, in July 1986, leaving him and Marion more time to enjoy their family (three sons and grandchildren) and to travel, especially to Devon for regular holidays in their beloved Dawlish. Geoffrey also had more time to devote to the Methodist Church, which he served as an admired local preacher for over 60 years since qualifying in 1954. He was active in Castle Donington, to which they had moved in 1968 to benefit from Leicestershire’s educa- tion system while still within easy reach of Nottingham, and which remained the family home until 2018, even after Marion’s death in 2007. In 2018 Geoffrey moved to the Methodist care home at Foxton Grange in Leicester, where he died in March 2020, greatly missed by his many friends and former colleagues, who all valued his great sense of helpfulness and support in personal and professional affairs.
Peter Hoare University Librarian, University of Nottingham, 1978-1993.
June-July 2020
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 51
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