MUNFORD, W(illiam) A(rthur) 1911-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 27, 1911, in London, England; died December 23, 2002, in London, England. Librarian, historian, and author. Munford's contributions to British librarianship were both academic and applied. His writings have been credited with helping to transform the perception of a librarian's work from that of a "job" into the practice of a profession. His special interest was the history of public libraries, and he worked at several city libraries himself, building their collections and enhancing their reputations. After some years at libraries in Dover, Cambridge, and elsewhere, Munford was appointed director of the National Library for the Blind in London, and there he remained until retirement in 1982. He was also a trustee of the Ulverscroft Foundation, which developed many of the large-print books Munford added to the library's collection for the sight-impaired. Munford once told CA that his favorite topics were history and libraries. The subjects of his books were histories of libraries and biographies. Penny Rate: Aspects of British Public Library History, 1850-1950 was published in 1951 by the Library Association; Munford later became a founding member of the organization's Library History Group. He was also the author of Who Was Who in British Librarianship since 1800, along with several full-length biographies of individual librarians who, Munford believed, had made significant contributions to their profession.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Independent (London, England), January 16, 2003, obituary by Peter Hoare, p. 20.

Times (London, England), March 8, 2003, p. 40.