Obituaries R
Robert F Ashby
obert F Ashby FLA, died on 20th December aged 103. He began working in Watford Library, chartered and became Librarian of the Hitchin Library in 1938. He was called up and served with distinction during World War Two in the Glider Pilot Regi- ment, seeing service on D-Day at Pegasus Bridge, Operation Market Garden at Arnhem and Operation Varsity. He returned to Hitchin Library in 1945 and in 1950 became Borough Librarian and Curator at Kettering. In 1953 he became deputy
County Librarian of Surrey, being appointed County Librar- ian in 1957 and retiring in 1977. He was a member of the Library Advisory Council (England) and was involved in the Society of County and Chief Librarians. On retirement he learned craft bookbinding and worked as a volunteer in the Library of Chichester Cathedral for which he bound a number of books. He is survived by his wife Jeane, son Richard (formerly Head of Libraries and Archives, Bath and North East Somerset), son Michael and daughters, Carolyn and Rosalind.
His funeral was be held at Chichester Crematorium on 20 January, and donations in his memory can be made to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Richard Ashby, son David Battersby I
was privileged to know David for most of his working life as a librarian. (Librarianship was not his first career: Previously he had been a technical translator.) When I interviewed him in 1999 for the post of part-time evening library assistant at the College of Law (now University of Law) he had neither library nor legal qualifications, but he had plenty of the necessary aptitude and charm and the rest we reckoned we could teach him. How right we were! Over the ensuing 20 years David learnt all he needed to know about librarianship in an academic context and in
particular, law librarianship.
As personnel shifted, David became the full-time library assistant and then senior library assistant. He enrolled on the MA Information and Library Management by Dis- tance Learning at Northumbria University and qualified with Commendation in 2005. Following another internal re-shuffle, in 2010 David became one of the University’s team of Information Officers. At this point he was running not one but two libraries, dividing himself between the Chester and Manchester campuses and experiencing first- hand the vagaries of train travel in these parts. As well as library inductions, he became proficient at guiding post-graduate students through the vagaries of legal
research (an essential component of becoming a lawyer) both online and using hard copy. In the early days he and I became proficient at moving existing libraries and setting up new ones as the university expanded its campuses into other locations.
But David’s chief accolades (and, I suspect, his greatest sense of achievement) came from the students. Year after year his library scored highly in terms of student satisfaction and the elements that scored highest were around “customer service”. David was often mentioned in person in the “any other comments” section as always being polite and helpful. Underpinning this, I believe, were his Christian principles (although he would never have given voice to this) and his tolerance. He was not above pulling a wry face and refer- ring to the students as “little darlings”, but he was always understanding and respectful of their needs. He had the ability to see things from the point of view of his users and the imagination to work out how best to support them. It is a tribute to David that when his untimely death was announced a few months after the discovery of a brain tumour, the Student Association immediately declared their intention to create an award in his name. He would cheerfully cover for absences of dispersed staff (from Leeds to Bristol!) or take on extra duties to allow his own team to take leave. In short, he was “always there” and will be greatly missed by colleagues past and present.
Marianne Barber, Former Head of Libraries, University of Law
54 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
January-February 2020
Obits
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