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Peter John Anderson was born around 1850 and was a native of Inverness. Both his parents had died by the time he matriculated at Aberdeen University in 1868. He graduated in 1874 in Mathematics, and was by that time Assistant in Natural Philosophy at the University. While he studied law in Edinburgh he supported himself by this post, then by the post of examiner from 1880 to 1883. He graduated LL.B. from Edinburgh, but was unable to practise law because he lacked the funds, and returned to Aberdeen to become a lecturer in English and Science at the Technical College. At the same time he became secretary to the New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, which he helped to revive, publishing historical monographs on the University and its alumni. He was assistant registrar at the University from 1883 to 1889, and Rector's assessor from 1890 to 1893. In 1894 he gave up lecturing and became University Librarian, a post he held until his death in 1926. He built up the library, introducing the Dewey Decimal system, abolishing fees, allowing open access to books and instituting the Library Bulletin to raise the library's profile with the students. He was instrumental in urging the University Court to allow full university membership to women students. Although he published little himself, he had a wide and varied knowledge and undoubtedly assisted in the research of others who published more. He was a founding committee member of the 'Aberdeen University Review' in 1913.
Born in Yorkshire, Maud Storr Best was one of the first women assistants in Aberdeen University Library, appointed in 1894. Much influenced by P. J. Anderson (1850-1926), the Librarian, she worked with him on many of his publications and was promoted to Senior Assistant in 1898. In 1907 she became Sub-Librarian, and following P.J. Anderson's death in 1926 she was acting Librarian for six months. During her time as Sub-Librarian she also took on editorial work connected with the Aberdeen University Review, in which she maintained an interest until her retirement. She became Sub-Librarian of King's College Library in 1926, and in 1933 she became Librarian of Marischal College Library until she retired in 1945, in which year the University granted her an honorary LL.D. After some additional cataloguing and editing work, she left Aberdeen to live in Beckenham, Kent, and died there in 1969.
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