Kaiserslautern and Kathy Gribble: Life Lessons from Canning Town Library
About this record
An interview over Zoom with William Elsom.
Kathy Gribble. She was a little bit scary...But looking back on it, she cared deeply about the people that were working for her, and she provided an education for them in terms of what a library should be all about…Pragmatic to the end…I don't think in that time we ever had a problem that she didn't have a solution for.
I think Kathy Gribble called it a five-shelf search, and in the civil service it's a seven-draw search. In almost all cases, something that's been misfiled will be misfiled within seven draws. So, this person came and asked for this book. ‘Oh yeah, we've got that’. ‘Hang on a minute’. ‘Oh, it's not there. Is it out?’ ‘Oh, there's no tickets to say if it’s out’. And so one of those Friday evenings, that was what we did. We did a five-shelf search either side, and lo and behold, it was gloved inside another one, I don't know, three or four shelves away. So that search method has stuck with me. All right, the civil service has a similar one, but again, Canning Town Library.
I would much rather a child has a go at reading an old classic book and breaks it by dropping it and it exploding than actually not having the confidence to pick up a slightly more different book in the first place.
William had a summer job in the six-weeks school holidays at Canning Town Library in 1980 when he was 17 years old, between lower and upper sixth. We spoke over Zoom from my home in Royal Victoria Docks and William’s home in Chatham, Kent, on 22nd September 2025. William told me so much about the many life lessons he learnt at Canning Town Library, particularly from the highly respected and brilliant librarian Kathy Gribble. This had a huge impact on him, and he took Kathy’s teachings with him into his future careers in education and the civil service. As well as pragmatism and ‘getting the basics right’, William also reflects on the importance of providing opportunity for and believing in all children, regardless of their ability or learning style. He talks about how he hopes that libraries today continue to engage children in whatever ways will inspire them to read and get involved, including for example graphic novels and comic books.
William applied for the library job to pay for a trip to Kaiserslautern in Germany, with the Newham Academy of Music, another initiative in Newham (in East Ham) where played tuba in the orchestra and had many friends. He spoke about how nice it was to earn the money himself to pay for this, so that he could tell his mum that she didn’t have to. As well as the work skills that William learnt at the library, he also remembers the social side of things with a lot of warmth and humour – including an unlikely football match triumph, and his first visit “unwillingly” to a nightclub with his colleagues.
We'd arranged a football match against another library, and we were going to get tanked when I found out who was playing for the opposition, a very good footballer who was at my school and was working in another library. Michael said, ‘I want to play’. And he was about half my size, so really small, not in great health as I said, but suddenly he ran half the length of the five-aside football pitch and scored a screamer, and we all cheered so much because it was just so unlikely.
Additional record details
- Contributor: Aimee Pickering
- Type: InterviewVideosWriting
Heritage newsletter
We would like to send you monthly emails spotlighting heritage content in Newham, as well as updates and opportunities to be involved in next year's festival. Be the first to hear about new projects, funding opportunities and ways to be involved.
