[2] She completed her secondary education at the St Michael's Collegiate School in Hobart, before studying for a BA at the University of Tasmania,[3] conferred in 1937.
[5] Further roles included as consultant at the Parliamentary Library and contributor to the Australian National Dictionary from which she finally retired at age 89.
[1] Fanning was appointed a Member of the British Empire in the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours for "her service to the Chief Reference Librarian at the National Library".
[8] In 1977 she was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts by the Australian National University[5] and was elected a Fellow of the Library Association of Australia.
[9] Historians, including Manning Clark and Geoffrey Blainey, highly regarded the help she provided with their research.