Catherine Norton (née Norris; January 24, 1941 – December 22, 2014) was an American librarian. She was the first Director of Information Systems at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

(MBL).

Career

She received her education at Regis College and

Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Har ...

(Master's degree, Information Science, 1984). She began working at the MBL/

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...

Library in 1980, and in 1991 was made head of information services. She supported both digital libraries and open access. By 1994, she was the director of the library and led a program that became the basis for the first "

Encyclopedia of Life The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of no ...

" project. The idea behind the project was to enable medical researchers to utilize technology and to collect biomedical data in an easily shareable format and Norton served as one of the collaborators. The MBL designed tools for Web site delivery and worked with partners at Harvard, the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

to organize the project. Norton also published information about the project for other libraries to understand both its scope and how to utilize the information. Norton had been consultant to the

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. It ...

, and president of the

Boston Library Consortium The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is a library consortium based in the Boston area with 23 member institutions across New England. Membership The Boston Library Consortium is an academic consortium of twenty-three institutions: sixteen in M ...

. She was also a member of the Falmouth School Committee, and Falmouth representative to the

Steamship Authority The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, doing business as The Steamship Authority (''SSA''), is the statutory regulatory body for all ferry operations between mainland Massachusetts and The Islands (Massachusetts), the ...

's Board of Governors. She and her husband Thomas J. Norton had four children, Margaret, Michael, Kerrie, and Thomas.Profile
legacy.com; accessed December 27, 2015.

Other

In 2014 the Catherine N. Norton Fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory was established to cover "approved expenses" for a student or "early year fellow". Norton was a Justice of the Peace for almost four decades, marrying many happy couples on the beaches and back porches of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mon ...

Death

Catherine N. Norton died in

Falmouth, Massachusetts Falmouth ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferri ...

, aged 73, after a battle with cancer.Profile
ccgfuneralhome.com; accessed December 27, 2015.

Selected works

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References

External links

Publications

Catherine N. Norton Fellowship
at the Marine Biological Laboratory {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Catherine N. 1941 births 2014 deaths American librarians American women librarians Place of birth missing Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts American justices of the peace People from Falmouth, Massachusetts Regis College alumni Simmons University alumni 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women 21st-century American women