Horrocks, Norman

Norman Horrocks was a Dalhousie professor, school director, and faculty dean. Born in Manchester on 18 October 1927, he began his library career in England, where he worked from 1945-1953, interrupted by three years serving in the British Army Intelligence Corps from 1945-1948. He was elected a Fellow of the Library Association and later worked in Cyprus and Australia, where he obtained a BA in constitutional history, before moving to the United States and earning MLS and PhD degrees at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1971 he accepted a position in the new library school at Dalhousie, where he was instrumental in convincing the American Library Association (ALA) to accredit the Master of Library Service program. Considered vital to the progress of library studies at Dalhousie, he eventually became Dean of the Faculty of Administrative Studies. In 1986 he left Dalhousie to work as the Editorial Director of Scarecrow Press in New Jersey, but returned to the university in 1995 and stayed until his retirement. Decorated with multiple awards, he was the first person to have been elected an honorary member of the Canadian, American and British national libraries and in 2006 was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He died in 2010.