On the Death of Peter Scott (1947-2013)

A note from Gary.
I was saddened to learn of the passing of Peter Scott, software developer (the groundbreaking Hytelnet), compiler of web reference resources, musician, author, conference speaker, blogger, and a very important figure in the history of librarian use and organization of the Internet.
Posts on Metafilter and LISNews report that Peter passed away on Monday (December 30, 2013) and both provide links to learn more about him.
Peter blogged on Peter Scott’s Library Blog (sponsored by Credo Reference).
He was was also an award winning musician/songwriter and the developer of the AllRecordLabels.com database.
Scott wrote a chapter about Telnet in the 1994 book, Tricks of the Internet Gurus.
He worked at the University of Saskatchewan Library for many years in positions including Small-Systems Manager and Internet Projects Manager. He also worked with Darlene Fichter for many years at Northern Lights Internet Solutions.
Peter Scott was born on February 17, 1947 in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne. He moved from the UK to Canada (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to be precise) in 1976.
On a personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting Peter in London (his hometown, he moved to Canada in 1976) many years ago and shared a number of emails with him over the years.
When we met we not only chatted about libraries, web reference and related topics but he also shared a few stories about the London music scene in the 1960s. Wonderful!
Peter’s library-related was underway while I attended library school and it served as an inspiration to do some of the things I did back then and continue to do today.
Our condolences to his family, colleagues, and many friends.
UDPATE: Saskatoon’s newspaper, The Star Phoenix, has published a brief obit with a link to an online guest book.
It says a more in-depth obit will be published tomorrow (Friday) and we will update this post with a link to it at that time.

Filed under: Awards, Libraries, News