Tom Graham

Tom Graham, the university librarian at Newcastle and previously York, has died.

Tom was a decent man, a confirmed cyclist and most of all, an old school librarian, but one who understood fully the implications of digital media. I didn't know him particularly well, nor did our paths cross that often, but when they did he was always fair and never took himself too seriously. Famous, or perhaps infamous for once puzzledly asking 'what is telnet?' in the middle of a university computing committee meeting, Tom championed the use of digital resources in libraries and helped push the adoption of digital media.

And, underneath it all Tom was still a country boy. I'll always remember the summer morning when I turned up for work to find an escaped herd of cows blocking University Road and Tom is his suit enthusiastically shooing them off the road and onto some open grass beside the library.

Memories like that making working at a university utterly unique ...