FOSKETT, D(ouglas) J(ohn) 1918-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 27, 1918, in London, England; died of cancer, May 7, 2004. Librarian and author. Foskett was longtime director of library services at the University of London. After earning a B.A. at Queen Mary College in 1939, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Intelligence Corps during World War II for six years. With the war over, he earned his master's at Birkbeck College in 1954, while also working as a librarian for the Metal Box Company in London. He joined the University of London staff in 1957 as a librarian at the Institute of Education. In 1978, he was promoted to Goldsmith's Librarian, heading the university's central library. Foskett was a forward-thinking librarian who took advantage of technology to help automate processes at his library. He was a leader in the field, too, helping to found and chairing the influential Classification Research Group, serving as a consultant to the British Council, UNESCO, and Unisist, lecturing worldwide, and leading the Library Association as a chairman and president. The author of many articles and books, Foskett wrote such works as Science, Humanism and Libraries (1964) and Pathways for Communication: Books and Libraries in the Information Age (1984). He was recognized for his contributions in 1978, when he was named to the Order of the British Empire.

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PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), June 9, 2004, p. 32.