Alan M. Tucker; Developed Computer-Based Library Systems

Alan M. Tucker, 52, library systems analyst and designer who helped computerize research libraries. Internationally recognized, Tucker devoted 30 years to the analysis, design, implementation and management of computer-based systems for libraries, archives and museums. Among those benefiting from his work are the Huntington Library, the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, USC and UC Santa Barbara. He got into library systems analysis as an undergraduate student at UCLA. From 1968 to 1977 he was head of library automation at Trinity College in Dublin, where he set up one of the first machine-readable cataloguing systems in Europe. From 1977 to 1980, he worked to automate the Cambridge University library. At his death, he worked for Research Libraries Group in Mountain View, Calif., and was involved in a project with the Hoover Institution to adapt the Russian State Archives Service for international access. On Feb. 24 in Redwood City, Calif., after a brief illness.