KEIGHLEY library staff are paying tribute to the town’s former reference librarian Ian Dewhirst to mark his 80th birthday.

Staff member June Birdsall has penned an affectionate tribute to the well-known local historian for the library’s blog.

In advance of his birthday next week, she called Ian a “Pennine legend in his own lifetime” and a shining light on the pages of local history.

Ian, who was awarded an MBE in 1999 and for many years has written the Memory Lane column in the Keighley News, retired from the library service in 1991.

Gina said: “He is the helpful, enthusiastic and enviably knowledgeable reference librarian who, in 2016, still bestrides Keighley Librarianship like a colossus.

“Informative, enthusiastic and entertaining, his talks are renowned and what’s more his scholarship and wit stay in the memory with a lingering delight."

Gina said that although Ian had never wanted to be teacher, he became one of the most memorable teachers of local history.

Ian studied at Keighley Boys’ Grammar School and the University of Manchester, leaving in 1958 and doing his National Service as a sergeant-instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps.

He was Garrison Librarian at Deepcut barracks, then joined the library service in Keighley in 1960.

Gina said that countless times customers had asked her for “Ian Dewhirst, the librarian”, long after his retirement, and she herself sought his advice and received “patient, generous spirited, knowledgeable and encouraging” responses.

She said: “Ian puts his local history knowledge down to his ultimate employment as Reference Librarian in Keighley Library which had a growing local history collection, but also the fact that it dovetailed with his own love and enthusiasm for that subject. The one benefited the other.

“In the last 50 years, he has also made between 80 and 200 appearances a year all over the country, speaking about Keighley and Yorkshire history and literature, always with learned references to the wider national historical context, with wit and humour.”

Gina said Ian had seen many changes in library service of the years, and was shocked by the arrival of the Internet and the proliferation of “those machines” in libraries.

Gina added: “He still counts himself fortunate in that during his career, he was able to continue working, as he puts it, as basically, ‘an Edwardian Reference Librarian’.

The Ian Dewhirst tribute will go live on the Keighley Library Local Studies blog next week. Visit bradfordlocalstudies.wordpress.com for further information.