
In 1963, the librarian Margaret Amosu, who has died aged 84, became librarian at Ibadan University, Nigeria. She went on to publish a bibliography of African creative writing, helped develop an Africa-centred curriculum for studies, and, as medical librarian of the country's leading teaching hospital, designed and oversaw the building of a new library. Haematologist Lucio Luzzatto recalled that she appeared to know every faculty member's research interests, and scanned journals comprehensively to keep them informed.

A Communist party member, trade unionist and internationalist, Margaret wrote her MA thesis on librarianship in developing countries. She loved Nigeria's vibrancy and culture, and the intellectual energy of the university community. Politics was central to her life and, in the late 1960s, she campaigned for Wole Soyinka, then drama professor at Ibadan University, who had been put in solitary confinement during the civil war.

Margaret was educated at Harrow Weald county school; her much loved teachers included James Britten, Nancy Martin and Harold Rosen, all to be influential figures at the Institute of Education. In 1939, she joined the Land Army and then became an aircraft factory riveter. As a shop steward, she won the rate for the job for fellow women workers.

In 1944, she fell in love with Arthur Melzer, a Czechoslovak communist. They lived together until 1945, when he discovered that his family had survived the German occupation. That November he returned to them, days before his daughter Vaughan was born. He and Margaret met once more, fleetingly, at the 1950 Berlin World Youth Festival. The cold war prevented further contact.

As an unmarried mother, Margaret fought prejudice but found fulfilment when, in 1948, she became a librarian at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute. Then, in 1957, she married Nunasu Amosu, a Nigerian anti-colonial activist who was studying in Britain. Their daughter was born in 1960. Three years later, she moved to Ibadan. She left Nigeria in 1977 and became librarian of Phaidon art publishers in Oxford.

In retirement, she was active in CND, Anti-Apartheid and the Greenham Common protests. She was host to many campaigning miners during their strike.

Margaret opened up ideas, challenged received assumptions - and was fundamentally a free thinker, drawing her own conclusions. She loved literature, politics, art and film, was a botanist who knew hundreds of wild flowers, cooked beautifully and offered hospitality to her many friends. Her life was dedicated to struggle, commitment and a faith that it is always possible to make this world a better place.
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