Farewell to Ingrid Thomson senior librarian at Hiddingh Hall Library

“I always tell people that this is probably the best profession they could ever imagine. You can choose to work in public, academic, school or special libraries. You can be front and centre working closely with the public or be in the background cataloguing, working with metadata or programming if you’re an introverted personality. There’s so much to it.” - Ingrid Thomson.

UCT’s oldest library, Hiddingh Hall library is at the heart Hiddingh campus. It is a place of research, dialogue, exchange, easter egg hunts, affirmations and mischievous laughter, which has been run for the last four years, by Ingrid Thomson, an extraordinary librarian.

Ingrid, who was awarded the 2023 Influential Library Leader of the Year Award has always been at the cutting edge of the Library and Information Services (LIS) and has over the years been an advocate of new technologies and keeping up with the times. She describes herself as a curious meerkat, always on the lookout for what is coming down the line. She says “I don’t believe in doing things the same way just because that’s how we’ve always done them. Times change. New technologies emerge and we have to embrace them. I’m always on the lookout for how these things can tie into managing information,”

After a long career, initially as a journalist, and then working in children’s public libraries and school libraries she started at UCT where she has served for 34 years. Ingrid has now earned a restful retirement, although we know that she will still be busy on Wikipedia marathons.

We have been so privileged to have Ingrid Thomson at Hiddingh Library for the last few years, and we wish her well in her retirement.