PEOPLE
Brian Cheesman (M.A. Oxon, MCLIP) B
rian was born in Brighton in June 1931. He had a happy childhood, often remembering the fun he had on the steep hillside opposite his house – in summer on tin tray on the slippery wet grass, in winter on the snow.
He went to Varndean School and then on to graduate from Oxford, where he read French and German. He began his career working for the Westminster Bank. A change of direc- tion brought him to librarianship, his first appointment to an academic librarian in 1957 at Liverpool University Library where he met his wife Jo.
Brian joined Durham University as Deputy Librarian work- ing under the late Nance McAulay. Universally respected and well liked, Brian was a consummate professional, imaginative problem solver, a natural diplomat – someone who might rarely speak at meetings, but when he did everyone listened. He won people over with a self-deprecating sense of humour, combined with thorough professional expertise. He was instrumental in the move to automation of the library, work fundamental to provision today. An eminently practical individual, one of his useful creations was a stackable, portable bookshelf. The university workshops turned out scores of them to Brian’s design when the library needed to move vast numbers
Stephen Moore (BA, MCLIP) I
learned a great deal from Stephen Moore, who was my boss when I first joined Hertfordshire Libraries in 1989, so it was with great sadness that I learned he had died of pancreatic cancer in January at the age of 70. Stephen’s first library job was at Coalville in Leicester- shire. From there, he moved on to Boston, Lincolnshire as an Area Li- brarian, before joining Hertfordshire as Librarian at Watford in 1986. In 1991, he was promoted to become Regional Librarian for South-West Herts until a reorganisation of the service removed the regional struc- ture and he was made redundant in 1996.
It says a lot for Stephen’s quiet
commitment to public service that he maintained the voluntary community roles that he had taken up as Watford Librarian for many years after he left Hertfordshire Libraries. He was a member of the Management Committee of Watford Citizens Advice Bureau for more than twenty years, serving as Chair between 1997 and 2009, and he continued to act as Sec- retary of the South West Herts Archaeological and Historical
Society until the time of his death.
Stephen had a lifelong interest in all types of transport, so he was pleased to take up the post of Head of Information Resources and Customer Services at the Civil Aviation Authority, which he held from 1996 to 2004. He then moved into Records Management at the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. In 2005, he joined the London Ambulance Service, where he worked first as Head of Records Management and Business Continuity, and then as Information Governance Manager before his eventual retirement in 2018. Everybody who worked with Stephen over the years will remember his high professional standards, his enormous energy, his unfailing cheerfulness and his boyish sense of humour (he had an inexhaustible fund of awful jokes!). He was a first-class librarian, a kind and supportive colleague and a thoroughly decent man, who will be fondly remembered. My thoughts go out to his family – his wife Liz and his sons James and Alexander.
Andrew Bignell, BEM (Retired Head of Libraries and Heritage Services, Hertfordshire), with help and advice from Stephen’s family and former colleagues.
of books to the Science site in 1983. Brian later became Acting Librarian, retiring from the University in 1990. In retirement, for over a decade Brian served with outstanding probity as treasurer of the Surtees Society – dedicated to pub- lishing manuscripts relating to the history of the North East. He supported campaigns against developments he saw as damaging to Durham’s built heritage. He was active with the Friends of Fulling Mill, organising book sales outside the mill along the river bank to boost the group’s income. Until the first lockdown, he regularly attended his favourite Sunday night reading group, where he especially enjoyed play readings. He was good mimic and not a bad actor and loved to raise a laugh. Indeed, he loved his title on retirement – Acting Librarian.
He loved the Guardian’s cryptic crosswords, completing them without fail. He was fascinated by local history, finding clues on his walks and delving into archives to research brilliant articles and talks.
He is survived by his wife Jo, sons Christopher and Edward, daughter-in-law Marie, and granddaughters Rosa and Margie.
Jo Cheesman (wife)
September 2021
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 53
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