Edith Ditmas (1896 – 28 February 1986) was an English

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can consis ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and writer. She is thought to have had a Master of Arts degree from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

and was unmarried.

Biography

Edith Margaret Robertson Ditmas was born in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmi ...

in 1896. She was an influential official of the British Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, whose journal she edited. As General Secretary of what became the Association for Information Management (ASLIB) in 1946–1950, she called strongly at the Empire Scientific Conference for "a combination of government encouragement and private initiative" in developing specialized information services. This approach was to prevail. She also took over the editorship of the ''

Journal of Documentation The ''Journal of Documentation'' is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering theories, concepts, models, frameworks, and philosophies in information science. The journal publishes scholarly articles, research reports, and critical re ...

'' from 1947 until 1962. In retirement, Ditmas turned to writing guidebooks. For a long period, she was a resident of

Benson, Oxfordshire Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census gave the parish population as 4,754. It lies about a mile and a half (2.4 km) north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, where a chalk stream, E ...

, and completed a thorough history of it in 1918. This circulated in typescript and was published posthumously in 2009, with addenda of information on subsequent archaeological research and of early maps. The one surviving picture of Ditmas was taken on a

Women's Institute The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being t ...

outing, the WI being one of her abiding interests.Pie Powder Pres
Retrieved 1 January 2015.
Edith Ditmas died on 28 February 1986.

Selected works

*1923, ''Ezra and Nehemiah''. SPCK, London. *1942, "Special library in time of war". In: ''Proceedings of the 17th Aslib Conference''. London 1942, pp. 52–55. *1956, ''Gareth of Orkney''. Faber, London. Novel. *1970, ''Tristan and Iseult in Cornwall''. Forrester Roberts, Brockworth. *1973, ''A Short History of Benson Church, Oxfordshire''. British Publishing, Gloucester. *1979, ''Traditions and Legends of Glastonbury''. Toucan Press, St Peter Port. *1973, ''The Legend of Drake's Drum''. Toucan Press, St Peter Port. *1981, ''Glastonbury Tor: Fact and Legend''. Toucan Press, St Peter Port. *2009, ''The Ditmas History of Benson''. Pie Powder Press, Wallingford.

References

Bibliography

*Laurie J. Bonnici, Jonathan Furner, Alexander Justice, Kathryn La Barre, Shawne D. Miksa, Helen Plant: ''Pioneering women in information science''. 40, Nr. 1, 2003, pp. 425–426. doi:10.1002/meet.1450400151 *Kimber, Richard: ''Miss Edith Ditmas: an appreciation''. 42, Nr. 4, 1986, pp. 217–224. doi:10.1108/eb026794 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ditmas, Edith 1896 births 1986 deaths English archivists English women non-fiction writers People from Weston-super-Mare Female archivists British women historians 20th-century English historians 20th-century English women writers