she first worked for the british library in 1979, in the bibliographic services division and by 1983 she led the chief executive's office. she moved on to be director of library services at the university of aston, and spent some time as a consultant for kpmg. she was librarian of the british library of political and economic science at the london school of economics (lse), before moving to the university of leeds as librarian and keeper of the brotherton collection, and later as pro vice-chancellor.