Tom Roper

Born in 1955 in London, I was brought up in Cambridge, where I went to the Perse School. I read economic history at University of Kent from 1974-78 and then stumbled into a job in a public library. Finding I liked it, I took the postgraduate librarianship course at what was then the Polytechnic of North London in 1983 and worked in North London public libraries till 1990. Then I changed direction, working for the British Council and Hawker Siddeley, before finding my way, not unnaturally for a doctor's son, into medical librarianship.
I worked in London hospital libraries and at the Regional Library and Information Unit, before going to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. In January 2003 I became Information Resources Development Coordinator for the Brighton & Sussex Medical School, then worked at the University of Sussex and in further education.
In 2011 I moved back into health, first at the NHS Evidence Eyes & Vision Specialist Collection based at Moorfields, then as Primary Care Librarian, West Sussex Knowledge & Libraries and finally, Clinical Librarian at Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and Knowledge Service, from which position I retired in 2021. I now do some freelance work and amuse myself with trying to learn classical Greek and brushing up my Latin.