Brenda Corbin

Brenda G. Corbin (née Brenda Joyce Groves, born 1942)[1] is a retired American astronomy librarian who worked for many years as the librarian of the James M. Gillis Library in the United States Naval Observatory,[2][3] and who is known for founding the Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conference series.[3][4][5] She was honored in 2020 by being named a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.[2][6]

Education and career

Corbin majored in English at the Woman's College of Georgia, graduating in 1964.[7] She began working as a librarian in 1965, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and she remained there until 1969. Her interest in astronomy began in the late 1960s when her husband, astronomer Thomas E. Corbin, was posted at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex in Argentina. Returning to Washington, she began working in the National Library of Medicine while working towards a master's degree in library science at the University of Maryland, College Park, which she completed in 1972.[3]

She became the librarian of the United States Naval Observatory in 1973.[2][3] Under her leadership, the observatory's James M. Gillis Library held a collection of 90,000 titles, including rare copies of original works by Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler.[2] She retired in 2005.[2][3][8]

Research community leadership

Corbin first proposed the Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conference series in 1982, and the first conference was held in 1988,[4] after a year of organizational work by Corbin.[3]

Corbin chaired the Working Group on Libraries of the International Astronomical Union (later renamed as the Working Group on Informational Professionals) from 1990 to 1995.[9] She has been called "one of the founding mothers" of the working group, and "instrumental in shaping its work".[8]

Recognition

In 1991, the Special Libraries Association gave Corbin their Physics–Astronomy–Mathematics (PAM) Division Award, "for her work on the International Astronomical Union conference, Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA)".[5] In 2002, the association gave her the PAM Achievement Award.[10] She was named a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.[2][6]

Asteroid 4008 Corbin, discovered in 1977 at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex, was named in honor of Corbin and her husband.[11]

References
  1. Birth name and year from WorldCat Identities, retrieved 2022-05-27
  2. Chester, Geoff (February 25, 2020), "USNO staff members named as first AAS Fellows" (PDF), News! From the Naval Observatory, United States Naval Observatory, retrieved 2022-05-27
  3. Corbin, Brenda G.; Bouton, Ellen N. (2010), "Mentoring LISA", in Isaksson, Eva; Lagerstrom, Jill; Holl, András; Bawdekar, Nirupama (eds.), Library and Information Services in Astronomy VI: 21st Century Astronomy Librarianship, From New Ideas to Action, Proceedings of a conference held Feb. 14-17, 2010 in Pune, Maharashtra, India, ASP Conference Series, vol. 433, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, pp. 11–19, Bibcode:2010ASPC..433...11C
  4. Hensley, Kerry (May 6, 2022), "Perspectives on data management, stewardship, and preserving astronomical artifacts", Nova: Research highlights from the journals of the American Astronomical Society
  5. "Division Award", Physics–Astronomy–Mathematics Division, Special Libraries Association, retrieved 2022-05-27
  6. AAS Fellows, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2022-05-27
  7. Spectrum, Woman's College of Georgia, 1964, pp. 57, 69, 163–164, 166, 181, 195, 206
  8. Grothkopf, Uta; Murtagh, Fionn, IAU WG on Libraries: Report October 2005, International Astronomical Union, retrieved 2022-05-27
  9. Working Group for Information Professionals, International Astronomical Union, retrieved 2022-05-27
  10. Galloway, Ann-Christe (October 2002), "People in the news", College & Research Libraries News, 63 (9): 678–681, doi:10.5860/crln.63.9.678
  11. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003), "(4008) Corbin", Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Springer, pp. 341–342, doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_3993
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