Memories of Maurice Line: 2

Citation

Bradbury, D. (2005), "Memories of Maurice Line: 2", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 33 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2005.12233baf.002

Memories of Maurice Line: 2

Maurice Line has always been a marvellous person to work with – a great leader, a great wit, a prolific writer and thinker, a wonderful talker, a globetrotter admired all over the globe, provocative and thought-provoking, energetic and iconoclastic, but above all a tremendous inspiration to all who have worked with him.

I joined the then British Library Lending Division (BLLD) in early 1975 soon after Maurice had become Director-General. For the next 13 years I was proud to be one of Maurice’s staff, and looking back I cannot imagine anyone better to have worked under during the formative years of my career.

It must have been a brave step for Maurice to become Director of the National Central Library (NCL) in 1971, knowing that it would be absorbed into the new British Library two years later. With his shining achievements in academic libraries, Maurice could easily have chosen to become one of the great establishment academic librarians in the UK. But he had already been involved with the great ADP study on the automation of the British Museum Library, and I think he just could not resist the challenge. In the British Library Lending Division he would be succeeding Donald Urquhart, another great leader and iconoclast – would there be anything left for Maurice to do?

There was a huge amount do, and Maurice did it. Full extension of coverage to the social sciences, the move into the humanities, the amalgamation of the NCL with the National Lending Library, the introduction of a catalogue, the completion of major building projects, implementation of automation, building bridges with the old British Museum Library/British Library Reference Division, and with university and public libraries, helping the new British Library to achieve rapid worldwide acclaim, and introducing democracy to Boston Spa!

The success of the BLLD and the brilliance of Maurice’s huge range of articles and books speak for themselves. I will illustrate my enthusiasm for Maurice with a few personal memories. Maurice has always had a great joie de vivre – his brio at dancing and parties is legendary. He pokes fun at people and practices, but he’s also willing to be the subject of other people’s good-humoured teasing. At an early stage in my career, I risked my head by playing King Maurice at the annual BLLD Christmas pantomime (I’m not sure Donald ever allowed them even): Maurice showed no sign of offence. He was more upset when at one of the British Library-wide trade union meetings I as a trade union representative accused him of being autocratic, and failing to consult Boston Spa staff properly over the introduction of flexitime (something which Maurice introduced very successfully decades before many other organisations).

The few tensions at Boston Spa involving Maurice which I now look back on with a big smile were over autocracy and consultation: Maurice, like Donald, knew what he wanted and was almost always right, but Maurice unlike Donald wanted to have consulted widely in order to demonstrate his democratic nature. His management meetings often began with “I would like to hear what you all feel about this issue, but let me tell you my view to start with”. And even Maurice ran into problems when he brought in the job satisfaction consultants.

As a young radical I was a huge admirer of Maurice’s challenging approach to the world. But Maurice gave useful advice to young radicals as well as encouraging us to look critically at everything. I well remember preparing a report for the British Library Chief Executive on international exchange arrangements. Maurice’s comment on seeing it was that if one had to clean a baby’s bottom in public, at least don’t clean it with a wire brush. I was more cautious thereafter.

Long after Maurice retired I found myself in posts which he had earlier occupied, and I became all the more aware of his tremendous achievement. Although he has been a lifelong enemy of cant and pomposity he has always been a tremendous believer in the importance and power of libraries. The development of libraries of all kinds not only in the UK but also in Scandinavia, Australia, Latin America and many other parts of the world has been fundamentally influenced by Maurice’s thinking, speaking, and writing and through his work in IFLA. No history of twentieth century British or world librarianship will be able to exclude him. For me it has been both a huge privilege and an enormous source of pleasure to have known Maurice as friend and colleague for over 30 years.

David BradburyJoined the British Library Lending Division in 1974, worked in many departments and eventually became Director-General for Collections and Services. He left the British Library in 2001 and is now the Director of Libraries and the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London