Florence Milnes

Florence Milnes MBE, (1893–1966), was a librarian who established the first reference library at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and ran it for more than thirty years. The library was her idea, and she persuaded the newly founded corporation that one was needed. She began the project in 1927 and by the time she retired in 1958 the library had five separate branches under her management. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1943 for her contribution to the national broadcaster.

Early years Born in 1893, she was educated at a convent school in Liverpool, the FCJ College, but had no formal training in librarianship. During the First World War she worked at the Ministry of Munitions. In 1925 she started work at the BBC as an information assistant doing research for the Artistic Director on programme ideas, and in 1926 she spent some time with a hastily formed News Unit supplying information during the General Strike, in the absence of printed newspapers. (At first, the BBC did not see itself as a news organisation.) From her earliest days at the BBC she believed "...there was, and increasingly would be, the need for a library which would function in the same way as does a University Library for its students...". She pressed harder for this after her stint in the News Unit where her "conviction was strengthened on the need for a library, argued and contested, until finally [she] was given the green light". described her high standards, helpfulness, kindness, and humour in obituaries. Milnes was in a fairly welcoming workplace for women by the standards of the 1920s and 1930s, although her pay did not compare particularly well with that of some other women in similar roles. As well as having a key role within the BBC, Milnes was an important figure in the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, ASLIB, from its earliest days in the 1920s. The Times said she had designed a service "for the very special demands of broadcasting", and assembled "one of the finest drama libraries in the country". Not only had she offered "willing help" to programme producers and researchers but she had also trained people who went on to be "first-class librarians in various parts of the world", and who were, like her, "content to remain behind the scenes", while "making a real contribution to programmes". In her later years she was no longer active but enjoyed the company of "constant friends" and listening to the radio. She died at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth on 25 Jan 1966.