Derek Fielding

Frederick Derek Osmond Fielding
Derek Fielding, University Librarian, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 15 Nov 1965. This photo used with the permission of Fryer Library, University of Queensland Photograph Collection, UQFL466, AG/P/109
Born	(1929-08-14)14 August 1929 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	25 June 2014(2014-06-25) (aged 84)
Nationality	British, Australian
Alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin
Awards	ALIA HCL Anderson Award Member of the Order of Australia

Frederick Derek Osmond Fielding AM (14 August 1929 – 25 June 2014) was an Australian librarian and author. In 1951 Derek graduated from the Trinity College, Dublin. He was University Librarian at the University of Queensland from 1965 to 1994. In 1991, he received the HCL Anderson Award from the Australian Library and Information Association.

Frederick Derek Osmond Fielding, usually known as Derek Fielding, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1929. After the early deaths of his parents, he was educated at the Masonic Orphan Boys' School in Dublin from 1939-1947. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1951 with a M.A. in modern history and political science. He went to work for Sheffield City libraries from 1951–1957, and would marry Audrey Reynolds in 1953.

Fielding and his family migrated to Auckland, New Zealand in 1958 to be Deputy University Librarian at the University of Auckland. Following this appointment, they would travel to Perth, Western Australia to be Deputy University Librarian of the University of Western Australia from 1961–1965. The University of Queensland Library in Brisbane, Australia had been without a University Librarian for two years, after the resignation of Harrison Bryan. Fielding would take up the position of UQ James Forsyth University Librarian in 1965, and bring about tremendous growth in the library's collection. Under his management, the library went from 360,000 books to 1.5 million volumes. Smaller libraries were amalgamated. He oversaw the building of three new library buildings in 1974, 1976 and 1990 and the establishment of the clinical library at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. He sat on the University Senate from 1972-1983, and chaired a committee reporting on university organisation in 1982. He had the library collection recatalogued from 1968-1978 to the Library of Congress Classification system. As the university took on more students, and with the improvement in photocopying and electronic transmission of materials, Fielding became active in copyright law review. He worked with the Commonwealth Attorney-General's department and Australian Vice-Chancellor's Copyright Committee to develop guidelines for resolving the problems of copyright in an electronic age. He would publish articles in the Australian Library Journal and other ALIA papers and conferences.