Career and interests

My library career started with West Lothian Libraries in 1963. I got my ALA in 1967, then did an Open University degree in Maths and Science (with a Distinction in Geology and Geochemistry), before moving to the British Geological Survey Library in 1973. I moved to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1988. I received a PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 1991, for research on the communication process in science. I served two terms on the Scottish Library and Information Council, and in 2000 I was President of the Scottish Library Association (now CILIPS). I left the RBGE Library in 1998 to move into senior management, where I was successively Garden Secretary, Director of Corporate Services, and for a short period Acting Accountable Officer for the whole organisation, before returning to posts in planning and information services. In my last six months at The Botanics I undertook a total restructuring of the Garden's website, commissioning and editing wholly new content, sourcing images, and constructing the navigation system to link around 250 web pages. I retired in 2002.

Apart from my formal career, I served ten years on the Board of the Scottish Poetry Library, the last four as its Chair. I was heavily involved with the process of turning the dream of a new home for the Library into the reality of the splendid building which was opened in 1999.

I joined the Board of Trustees of StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival, in December 2004, and was elected Convener of the Board in 2006, retiring in December 2009 at the end of my 3-year term in office.

I can't keep away from gardens and gardening, so I'm heavily involved with the Dunbar Allotments and Gardens Association.