Biography of Elizabeth M. Moys

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Elizabeth Mary Moys, known as “Betty” to her family and colleagues, is most often remembered for creating the Moys classification scheme for law library materials. Throughout her career as a librarian, indexer, editor, and conference speaker, she created a classification scheme for law materials that many libraries around the world have adopted, helped develop university library systems in the United Kingdom and Africa, excelled at cataloguing and indexing, and instilled life and vibrancy into professional organizations for librarians and indexers. In cataloguing and indexing circles, particularly in her home of England, she was known for her leadership, creativity, and excellence in her work, the result of which she was awarded prestigious honours and medals for achievement.

Elizabeth Moys was born June 26, 1928 in Wickford, Essex, England. She grew up in Kent, attended Chislehurst County Grammar School, and graduated from Queen Mary College in London (1949). After turning 21-years old, she worked at the Crayford Branch of the Kent County Library Service, which perhaps planted seeds of librarianship into her career path. Shortly thereafter, she attended the Northwestern Polytechnic School of Librarianship and helped found the School of Librarianship Students’ Association. Following graduation in 1951, she worked as a reference librarian at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1951) and as an Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (1952).

It was at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) where Moys first became heavily involved with law libraries. Working under Howard Drake, she helped compile, organize and devise finding aids for materials on law. This laid the foundation of her knowledge on law materials and later contributed to the Moys classification scheme. Many opportunities presented themselves to Moys while she worked at the IALS—she won a scholarship from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) to travel to the United States to represent IALS at an AALL meeting, toured academic libraries in the North Eastern United States, and compiled lists of the collection at IALS.

Moys made many contributions to the IALS until her departure to the University of Ghana in 1959 to work as an Assistant Librarian. She lived in Ghana for four years cataloguing, working as a librarian, and making recommendations to various libraries there. The Moys classification scheme took root when she was commissioned to review the Supreme Court Library of Ghana. In her report, several pages were devoted to her own scheme on how to classify law materials.

In 1963, she moved to Nigeria to plan and set up the University of Lagos Library. According to the history of University of Lagos Library, “The first University Librarian was Miss Elizabeth M. Moys (1963 to 1965). She began the development of the library collections with the active collaboration of some academic staff.”(1) After a couple of years setting up the library, she left her job and returned to England, due to political unrest in Nigeria at the time. From here she took on a job with the University of Glasgow Library in Scotland as a Reading Room Superintendent (1965-1967). Finally, in 1968, Moys accepted a more permanent job as a librarian at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London where she worked for 21 years.

1968 saw the publication of the first edition of the Moys classification scheme—and it would prove popular enough to warrant three more editions after the first. These editions were printed between 1968 and 2001 and were used by over 200 law libraries around the world. The United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia were the primary users of Moys, and law librarians from these countries particularly praised the scheme.

Over the course of Betty Moys’ career, professional organizations of indexers, cataloguers, law librarians, and bridge players (yes, Betty Moys was an avid bridge player) saw Moys rise to the top of their ranks and show admirable leadership, remarkable wit, and keen intelligence. She was involved with the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), Society of Indexers, International Association of Law Libraries (IALL), Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), American Society of Indexers, and the Cataloguing and Indexing Group (CIG), to name a few. Many people that worked with Moys enjoyed her humour, kind demeanour, and good company. She can be regarded as one of the great influences in law librarianship, indexing, and classification.

Elizabeth Mary (Betty) Moys died on February 1, 2002. Her contributions to the library profession are numerous and her accomplishments sound almost legendary. She was truly a unique and influential librarian, classifier, and indexer, not to mention a wonderful person. She will be remembered by many and “Moys” will continue to live on as the name of a classification scheme.

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