Eric Moon

Eric Edward Moon (March 6, 1923 – July 31, 2016) was a librarian and editor who had a shaping influence on American librarianship in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s as editor-in-chief of Library Journal, president of the American Library Association, and chief editor at Scarecrow Press. Moon was a trailblazer and influential figure instrumental in transforming library professionalism, polity, and social responsibility.

Eric Moon was born on 6 March 1923 in Yeovil, England, and spent most of his youth in Southampton. After receiving his grammar (secondary) school certificate from then Taunton School, Moon was hired as a junior library assistant at the prestigious Southampton Public Library in 1939. The ambitious Moon pursued professional qualification by passing the Library Association's mastery examination. The Library Association is the United Kingdom's foremost library organization, and counterpart to the American Library Association (ALA). Moon soon began his military service in 1941, joining the Royal Air Force. Following his discharge in 1946 he pursued his professional education as a librarian, at the then Loughborough College. While at Loughborough, Moon completed the rigorous requirements of advancement to the highest level of honor, FLA, Fellow of the Library Association. He began his professional career running small libraries in Hertfordshire, at Finchley, at Brentford and Chiswick, and then at Kensington, experimenting with novel ideas in library service through this period. Frustrated with the conservatism of British librarianship, in 1958 he took a job as head of public libraries in Newfoundland, Canada, where he worked for one year.

In 1959 Moon was hired as editor-in-chief of Library Journal, based in New York City. The leadership of the R.R. Bowker company, Library Journal's publisher, saw in Moon a personality they hoped would revive the struggling magazine and take it in new directions. Library Journal's fame dated back to the late 19th century with Melvil Dewey serving as its founding editor from 1876-1881.

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