Brenda G. Corbin (née Brenda Joyce Groves, born 1942) is a retired American astronomy librarian who worked for many years as the librarian of the James M. Gillis Library in the United States Naval Observatory, and who is known for founding the Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conference series. She was honored in 2020 by being named a Legacy Fellow of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

Education and career

Corbin majored in English at the Woman's College of Georgia, graduating in 1964. She began working as a librarian in 1965, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and she remained there until 1969. Her interest in astronomy began in the late 1960s when her husband, astronomer Thomas E. Corbin, was posted at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex in Argentina. Returning to Washington, she began working in the National Library of Medicine while working towards a master's degree in library science at the University of Maryland, College Park, which she completed in 1972. She became the librarian of the United States Naval Observatory in 1973. Under her leadership, the observatory's James M. Gillis Library held a collection of 90,000 titles, including rare copies of original works by Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

. She retired in 2005.

Research community leadership

Corbin first proposed the Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conference series in 1982, and the first conference was held in 1988, after a year of organizational work by Corbin. Corbin chaired the Working Group on Libraries of the International Astronomical Union (later renamed as the Working Group on Informational Professionals) from 1990 to 1995. She has been called "one of the founding mothers" of the working group, and "instrumental in shaping its work".

Recognition

In 1991, the Special Libraries Association gave Corbin their Physics–Astronomy–Mathematics (PAM) Division Award, "for her work on the International Astronomical Union conference, Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA)". In 2002, the association gave her the PAM Achievement Award. She was named a Legacy Fellow of the

in 2020. Asteroid

4008 Corbin 4008 Corbin, provisional designation , is a stony Phocaea asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 January 1977, by staff members of the Felix Aguilar Observatory's (for ...

, discovered in 1977 at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex, was named in honor of Corbin and her husband.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbin, Brenda 1942 births Living people 20th-century American astronomers American women astronomers American librarians American women librarians Academic librarians Rare book librarians Georgia College & State University alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Fellows of the American Astronomical Society