Peter Johan Lor was Secretary General of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, first National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of South Africa, a scholar of international librarianship, and a professor of librarianship.

Career

Lor was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to South Africa. He completed studies in Librarianship and Library Science at the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Pretoria in South Africa and at the University of Caen in France. He received Honors (an honors degree in Library Science) from the University of Stellenbosch as well as a Masters in Library Science from the University of Pretoria and also earned the D.Phil. in Library and Information Science from the University of Pretoria in 1990. As a librarian, Lor served in various libraries in South Africa as well as holding the position of senior librarian at the University of Pretoria (1976–80). Lor was director of the South African State Library for eight years. In 1999, the National Library of South Africa was created by merging the State Library in Pretoria and the South African Library in Cape Town. Lor became the first National Librarian. Lor was active in the creation of the Library and Information Association of South Africa. This association replaced former library associations that had been segregated along racial lines. He was involved in developing national library policies for post-apartheid South Africa. In addition to his active role in founding the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) in its early years (1996–2000), Lor served in a variety of capacities in other organizations such as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL). Lor was Secretary General of IFLA from 2005–2008. He has also served as a consultant on library development and has worked as an advocate for libraries as a participant at the World Summit on the Information Society.

Teaching

Lor was associate professor and then a professor in Information Science at the University of South Africa (1986–1992). He has also taught at the University of Pretoria in the Department of Information Science. He held a visiting professor appointment at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the School of Information Studies from 2009–2011. From 1998 to 2016 he was an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria.

Publications

Peter Lor is the author of over 150 professional and research publications. In 2019 his International and Comparative Librarianship: a Thematic Approach was published as part of the IFLA series, Global Studies in Library and Information. Lor's research interests include: Selected publications:

Awards

In 2008, Lor was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Pretoria for his extraordinary professional work in different associations and as a professor and researcher in Library Science.