Alfred Cotgreave: A Local Library Pioneer

Cotgreave was a notable librarian in the Victorian era, a pivotal time in the history of British libraries when a number of laws were passed giving local authorities the power and resources to build Public Libraries.

Having spent time as a young sailor in the USA, Cotgreave had been impressed and inspired by the libraries he visited. He returned to England with new thoughts, ideas and the spark of a new career.

By 1881, he was listing “librarian” as his occupation in the census and, throughout his career, worked for various library institutions around the country — including Richmond, Wandsworth and Birmingham.

Newham’s First Chief Librarian

Most relevantly, he was the Essex County Borough of West Ham’s (which combined with Essex County Borough of East Ham to form the London Borough of Newham in 1965) very first Chief Librarian, shown below among other staff outside the original Stratford Library (now University House, part of University of East London).

Inventions

The work that elevated Cotgreave to near celebrity status in the library world was his invention of various library fittings and cataloguing systems to aid librarians and library users.

Most notably, the Cotgreave Indicator.

Designed as an early library cataloguing system, the Indicator was made up of small slots designed to store one tiny notepad for every book in the library. Whenever a book was borrowed, a librarian would take out the ledger with the corresponding reference number to fill in the date and borrower’s library number. Each notepad’s tray would be fitted with a blue end and a red end, which could be turned to indicate at a glance if the book was borrowed or available — blue indicating out and red indicating in.

Another, simple but practical Cotgreave invention was called the Long-Arm Reacher, made to allow access to books on the highest shelves of the library.