John Claud Trewinard Oates FBA (24 June 1912 – 11 June 1990) was a librarian at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, a trustee of the university, and president of the

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society in the UK dealing with the study of the book and its history. The Society promotes and encourages study and research in historical, analytical, descriptive and textual ...

(1970–72). He was educated at

The Crypt School The Crypt School is a grammar school with academy status for boys and girls located in the city of Gloucester. Founded in the 16th century, it was originally an all-boys school, but it made its sixth form co-educational in the 1980s and moved ...

, Gloucester, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, graduating in 1935. He became assistant under-librarian at Cambridge University Library a year later, was promoted to under-librarian in 1949, deputy librarian in 1975, and finally became acting chief librarian in 1979, a year before his retirement. He was also Reader (later Emeritus) in Historical Bibliography at Cambridge, and a fellow of

Darwin College Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a capital city in Australia, ...

. In 1952 he held the

Sandars Readership in Bibliography The Sandars Readership in Bibliography is an annual lecture series given at Cambridge University. Instituted in 1895 at the behest of Samuel Sandars of Trinity College (1837–1894), who left a £2000 bequest to the University, the series has con ...

speaking on "A History of the Collection of Incunabula in the Cambridge University Library, and again in 1965 on "Abraham Whelock (1593–1653): Orientalist, Anglo-Saxonist and University Librarian." He was elected a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1976.

Selected publications

* ''Cambridge University Library: A historical sketch''. Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, 1975. (reprinted from ''The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science'', Vol. 4, Marcel Dekker, pp. 50–70.

References

British librarians Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Cambridge University Librarians Fellows of the British Academy Presidents of the Bibliographical Society 1912 births 1990 deaths {{UK-academic-bio-stub