Catz People: Introducing Our Head Librarian, Barbara Costa

In this edition of Catz People, we spoke to Barbara Costa, our Head Librarian, who has worked at Catz for nearly 11 years, managing and shaping a collection of over 60,000 books.

“It’s only me, and library assistant Eduardo, and at the moment four student invigilators,” she explains. Together, they keep the temporary library running day to day, managing access, supporting students, and maintaining the collection.

The collection is actively managed. Books aren’t just added, they’re evaluated, replaced, and sometimes removed. “We purchase from reading lists… we follow requests from students, researchers or fellows,” she says, but also “we remove books that are outdated and no longer needed.” The aim is a collection that reflects how students actually study, while staying current.

“We actively diversify our collection. This is very important”

Diversification is a key part of that work. “We actively diversify our collection. This is very important,” she says. That includes titles on wellbeing, decolonisation, and works representing ethnic minorities but also books simply chosen for enjoyment. “Oxford has a diverse student body,” she adds, and the library should reflect that.

Much of the College archive has been stored off site during the refurbishment. “People think archives are just boxes, closed, locked,” she says. “But I believe it’s important to show them… these documents, records, photographs, they need to be kept alive.”

The move itself has been a major challenge. “People think moving a library can be done from one day to another,” she says. “But there is so much planning… you need to sort things out.” Without full digitalisation, much of that relies on her own familiarity with the collection. “I go by… visual memory,” she admits. “It’s very hard.”

“Students need to know they have a place, a sanctuary”

The temporary library has also shifted how she thinks about space. “You can adapt,” she says, “but the library space is very important.” What she misses is not just the full collection, but what the space represents. “Students need to know they have a place, a sanctuary,” she says. “There’s so much going on… below the surface.”

Returning to the refurbished building is something she’s clearly looking forward to. “I’m really, really looking forward to it,” she says. When asked about her favourite item in the archives, she pauses before describing a fragment of stained glass depicting Saint Catherine, donated by an alumnus. “It’s really beautiful,” she says.

She also points to early books from before Catz formally became an Oxford college. “We still have books from that time… they became special collections,” she explains, volumes that have shifted from everyday use to historical artefacts.

Asked to describe Catz in three words, she smiles: “Open, friendly… and chaotic.”

“Chaotic, in a good way,” she adds. “It shifts from hectic chaos to silence in an instant… human beings are like that.”

Barbara’s route to Catz was, in her words, a “gradual transition”. Originally trained as an archaeologist, she worked with collections and exhibitions, including at the Ashmolean Museum. Research brought her into Oxford’s libraries, where she discovered a different kind of connection to knowledge. “I started as a ‘shelver’,” she says. “And I got very passionate about the job.” From there, she took on different roles, completed further study, and built her career. “I grew… and then I became a librarian,” she says. “I love the job.”

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