Bedford College alumna Catherine Cooke has worked in the library sector for over 40 years and was recently recognised with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services in the New Year Honours.
Catherine’s career in the library sector began as soon as she finished studying French and German at Bedford College in 1978. “Bedford College had a very good reputation for the subjects I chose to study,” she recollects. “Many of the staff were leaders in their fields - Professor Felix Leakey was one of the foremost Baudelaire scholars, for instance, and it was a privilege to be able to study the poet’s works with him. It has to be said, the location in Regent’s Park was pretty special as well. I spent many happy hours working in Bedford College’s library and in the University Library in Senate House. It was going to Marylebone Library to discuss the possibility of Librarianship as a career that opened the door to me to join the staff of Westminster Libraries as soon as I left Bedford in 1978.”
Catherine worked at Mayfair Library for just over a year before taking leave of absence to take the postgraduate Library Diploma and Masters course at University College, London. She returned to Westminster in 1980 to a professional librarian post and worked for a few months at Victoria Library, before moving to Marylebone Lending Library. “After a couple of years, I moved upstairs to the Reference Library, by this time also having taken responsibility for The Sherlock Holmes Collection, a special collection I still manage as a side-line to the ‘real’ job.”
In September 1986, Catherine was appointed as Westminster’s first Systems Librarian, taking over responsibility for the day to day management and development of the first Library Management System. Since then, she has implemented and managed all of Westminster’s specialist library systems. “I work closely with Westminster’s Corporate IT staff and contractors, as well as with library staff of Westminster Libraries, our specialist contractors and the staff of other authorities and institutions which use the same systems we do. For the past few years we have run a shared library system with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham and I served on external working parties to develop the potential of library systems in London.”
Since the 1990s she has worked closely with the Book Industry Communication, an organisation which strives to promote the use of standards and best practise throughout the whole book supply chain, from publishers and producers through suppliers to book shops and libraries.
Catherine has also served on a number of working parties and is currently on the Accreditation Panel for the Technical Excellence in Libraries Award (TEiLA) which accredits libraries and library system suppliers’ use of technology, and she is Chair of the Libraries Committee which commissions and oversees the work of the groups focussing on areas of technology beneficial to libraries.
After 40 years in the sector, Catherine is still incredibly passionate about her work. “I very much enjoy the discussions with other services and sectors and being able to identify best practice. I enjoy getting a new service up and running, knowing that is improves things for customers and / or staff. I believe in the value of public libraries, making resources, information and leisure reading available to customers. Libraries can help people into employment, help them keep in contact with distant family members using public PCs, help them gain information or aspects of education, make best use of their leisure time, assist with health issues, all sorts of things that matter. They are essential to the local community, resident and daytime for work or study.”
Catherine says it was a huge surprise and a huge honour to be recognised in the New Year Honours for her service. “It was something that had never occurred to me as possible. It does feel that it endorses all the work we do in libraries and cross-sectoral working groups. Looking forward, I want to continue to make the best use of the systems we have, developing them quickly to service the needs of our communities.”
