Education
Regis College; Simmons College.
Regis College; Simmons College.
She was the first Director of Information Systems at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL). She received her education at Regis College and Simmons College (Master"s degree, Information Science, 1984). She began working at the MBL/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 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" 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.
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, and president of the Boston Library Consortium.
In 2014 the Catherine North. 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. Catherine North. Norton died in Falmouth, Massachusetts, aged 73, after a battle with cancer.
She was also a member of the Falmouth School Committee, and Falmouth representative to the Steamship Authority"s Board of Governors.