Five things you might not know about Librarian Catherine Ascough, whose first day at Christ’s was the hottest day of 2022. Her first year in post has had some unexpected challenges not least overseeing the removal of several thousand books into storage ahead of the First Court renovation.
1. Her name is tricky to get right.
But Catherine says:
“Since COVID it's been quite good because I can say it's A, S - and then a cough! Say it as you see it!”
She was once one of three Catherines in a small Library team, and often had to answer the question, “Are you Catherine?” with “Yes, but possibly not the one you’re looking for!”
2. She loves cricket.
She owns two sets of cricket whites.
“The first time I played a match I got run out because I tripped over the pads and fell flat on my face!”
This year, though, she scored 12 runs for the Christ’s staff team.
She used to spend her summer holidays watching cricket on TV and remembers the excitement of the 2005 season when the men’s team won for the first time since the 1980s and the women’s team beat Australia for the first time in 40 years.
The women’s captain at the time - Charlotte Edwards - went to school in Ramsey (close to where Catherine lived) but, she says, the women’s victory received “almost no coverage”.
3. She speaks Dutch.
Catherine has a Masters in Library Information Science but her first degree was in German and Dutch. She spent two semesters studying abroad in Leiden and Vienna.
Her first Library job was at the Taylor Institution at the University of Oxford which is the centre for the study of Modern European languages and literatures, other than English.
4. Her school work experience was with a mobile Library.
In year 10 she took a trip out on a mobile Library van in rural Cambridgeshire: “That was great fun on the twisty roads”, she says.
Librarianship used to be a female-dominated course, though men held many of the top jobs. Now, she says, times are changing and women are in leadership roles. She cites Jessica Gardner at Cambridge University Library as an example.
Catherine says that, at present, she enjoys reader services and a customer-focussed role and that top management roles in bigger libraries tend to take you away these duties.
“I like College libraries because you get to do a little bit of everything.”
5. She knits and crochets.
She commutes by train from Norfolk and uses the time to knit and crochet, and less often to read. She says that many people misunderstand the job of a librarian believing them all to be avid readers.
“The job is to help people find the information they need, and if we can't solve a problem, sending them to someone who can.”