Conferences, Seminars & Workshops

Annual Seminars
Other Seminars
Workshops
Past Seminars/Workshops

CERL annually organises a seminar addressing subjects relating to the Consortium’s objectives, preceding the AGM.

2018 Annual Seminar

Date: 19 to 21 September 2018. Place: Palazzo Ducale, Venice
Theme: 15cBooktrade Conference: Printing Revolution and Society 1450-1500 - Fifty Years that Changed Europe. Programme

An exhibition on the same theme is at the Marciana Library (1-30 September 2018) and the Correr Museum (1 September 2018–7 January 2019). A video about the exhibition can be found here.

Previous Seminars

CERL Seminar at the ETH-Bibliothek, Zürich, Wednesday 14 March 2018.
A one-day seminar on 'Visual approaches to cultural heritage' was held at the ETH-Bibliothek. The ‘icon turn’ has re-focused the attention of scholars from texts to visual material and its interpretation. Image-based search tools to sources and the visual presentation of research results have, however, not emerged equally fast. The ETH-Bibliothek, the Swiss centre for technical and natural scientific information, took the opportunity of organising the CERL Spring Seminar 2018 to discuss innovative forms of access and visualisation of research results. The programme is available here.

Patras, LIBER Annual General Meeting, Wednesday 4 July 2017 (am only)
Managing bequests and digital estates: new challenges for libraries. Programme.

Helsinki, LIBER Annual General Meeting, Wednesday 29 June 2016 (am only)
The Wood for the Trees - a workshop on Discoverability of Digital Collections. Programme.

Most of the Annual Seminars (see Previous CERL Annual Seminars) have been published in the series of CERL Papers.

In addition to conferences and seminars the Consortium offers training workshops, aiming to introduce colleagues to the Consortium’s work, to have practical training sessions, and to invite colleague to indicate their requirements in the context of their institutions.

• CERL Seminar at the ETH-Bibliothek, Zürich, Wednesday 14 March 2018.
  A one-day seminar on 'Visual approaches to cultural heritage' was held at the ETH-Bibliothek. The ‘icon turn’ has re-focused the attention of scholars from texts to visual material and its interpretation. Image-based search tools to sources and the visual presentation of research results have, however, not emerged equally fast. The programme and presentations are available here.
  

• International Conference at the British Library, London, Tuesday 28 November 2017
  A one-day conference on “New Sources for Book History: Combined Methodological Approaches for Manuscripts and Printed Books”(text and images; material evidence; historical bibliographical and documentary sources; sale and auction catalogues; etc.) held at the British Library. The programme can be found here.
  

• CERL Seminar at the Beinecke Library, Yale, Friday 21 April 2017
  On the occasion of the meeting of CERL Directors in the US a one-day Seminar was held the following day on “Retracing the Steps from the Old to the New World”, where members of the new Group of American Libraries in CERL presented and discussed their European Special Collections holdings, expectations from the new collaboration and common objectives. The PowerPoint presentations are available here.
  

• The Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation (IAL) and the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Monday-Tuesday 20-21 March 2017
  A two-day event on “The opening up of private and religious libraries to scholarship” focused on the subject of Greek libraries, their management, the promotion of their collaboration, and the integration of their resources. On 20 March there was a conference titled “Greek research and historical libraries: opportunities for connection and collaboration” and on 21 March a workshop titled “Library management workshop: security, conservation, cataloguing, digitisation and funding”. The programme is available here: English and Greek.
  

• The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Tuesday 21 March 2017
  A lecture by Dr Cristina Dondi on “Visualising 500 years of circulation of Greek incunabula in European and American Collections”.

• Ossoliński National Institute-CERL, Wrocław, Thursday-Saturday 29 September-1 October 2016
  A conference of the Group of Polish Research Libraries Collecting Early Imprints under the title “Old books and their owners – the current state of research, catalogues, perspectives”. The subjects were provenance research of early imprints and cataloguing incunabula. Programme.
• EDPOP Workshop, Lincoln College, Oxford, Friday 25 November 2016
  This by-invitation-only workshop is organised by CERL for the EDPOP project. The final programme is available here.
  
• REBIUN-CERL, Universidad de Salamanca, Salón de actos de la Facultad de Traducción y Documentación, Tuesday 15 March 2016
  'A coordinated approach to recording and searching provenance records and images: moving forward. Part 2. / Investigación coordinada sobre Procedencias. Hacia el futuro. Parte 2.' The programme and PowerPoint presentations are available here.

• New York, Columbia University, Butler Library 523, Thursday 28 January 2016, 13:00-15:00
  A presentation by CERL of its latest research activities and future plans by the CERL Secretary and CERL Directors to American libraries. Programme.

• Rome, National Central Library, Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 9:30-13:00
  A presentation of the latest research activities and future plans of the Consortium of European Research Libraries. The main focus of the 260 libraries found in CERL is the integration of their collections of books, manuscripts and printed materials. Programme.

• Univerity of Antwerp
  On 28 October 2015, after the CERL Annual General Meeting three 20-minute presentations were given by
  Kathleen Walker-Meikle (CERL) on the CENDARI project Presentation
  Evelien De Wilde (City Museums Bruges (Prentenkabinet)) and Ludo Vandamme (Bruges Public Library) on the Colard Mansion exhibition project Presentation
  Eva Wuyts (VEB) on the Flemish Heritage Library - Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek (VEB) Presentation
  

• The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
  CENDARI Expert Seminar, 'Large-scale digital infrastructures and their users', 6 October 2015
  Programme and Dunning Presentation
• London, Senate House, LIBER 2015
  LIBER Forum for Digital Cultural Heritage workshop: 'The state of the art of image recognition', 24 June
  Programme and presentations
  
• London, Chelsea College of Arts
  Ligatus/CERL Bookbinding Expert Seminars & Reception. Three Expert Seminars on the use of the Ligatus Language of Bindings followed by a plenary session on the guidelines for bookbinding. CERL also gave talks on the CERL Bookbinding Working Group, its European collaborations and CENDARI’s activities. 23 June 2015.
  Programme and presentations
  See the video recording and/or read a report in News in Conservation, August 2015.
• Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
  The first conference of the CERL Security Network Library Security: Practices and Strategies. There were four sessions covering 1. Accountability and Governance, 2. Staff interaction with collections, 3. Digital tools for prevention and detection, and 4. The process of recovery: how do we interact with the investigating and legal authority? 8 May 2015.
  The programme and PowerPoint presentations are available here.
  
• Vienna, Austrian National Library
  A conference on Signa vides - Researching and recording printers’ devices: current activities and new perspectives organised under the auspices of CERL by Prof. Dr. Anja Wolkenhauer (University of Tübingen), Michaela Scheibe (Berlin State Library) and Dr. Andreas Fingernagel (Austrian National Library). 17-18 March 2015.
  The programme and PowerPoint presentations are available here. Published in 2016 as CERL Papers XIII.
  
• London, Warburg Institute
  A conference on A coordinated approach to recording and searching provenance records and images: moving forward organised by Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute) and Cristina Dondi (CERL Secretary and Lincoln College, Oxford). Sponsored by IFLA RBSC, The Warburg Institute, CERL, 15cBOOKTRADE, CILIP RBSCG. 11 March 2015.
  PowerPoint presentations are available here.
  
• Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
  A workshop on Scientific Questions about Provenance and Their Requirements for Future Web and Database as part of the research project Development of interoperable metadata standards for the contextualization of heterogeneous collection objects, using the 18th century scholarly collection compiled by Georg Thomas von Asch as an example. Funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). 24-25 February.
  Programme and presentations.
  
• New York, MEI Training Day
  Columbia University, Butler Library. A training day run by Cristina Dondi, CERL’s Secretary, and John Lancaster, MEI Editor. 21 January 2015.
• New York, CERL Presentation
  Columbia University, Butler Library. Our latest research activities and future plans presented by CERL’s Secretary, Cristina Dondi, CERL Directors Richard Ovenden (Oxford) and Edwin C. Schroeder (Yale), and MEI Editor John Lancaster (for Smith College and Harvard collections). 22 January 2015.
  

• Rome, Conferenza episcopale italiana, Segnalare le provenienze degli incunaboli attraverso MEI – Material Evidence in Incunabula. A training course for librarians of Italian Ecclesiastical libraries, part of the network Polo Biblioteche Ecclesiatiche (Mons. Stefano Russo, Francesca D’Agnelli, Paul Gabriele Weston, Paola Sverzellati, Martina Pezzoni, C. Dondi, Alessandra Panzanelli, Sabrina Minuzzi, Adalbert Roth and BAVIC Team), 24-27 Nov. 2014. http://www.polopbe.it/pls/cci_new_v3/V3_S2EW_CONSULTAZIONE.mostra_pagina?id_pagina=60260&rifi=guest&rifp=guest
• The London Booktrade conference
  Workshop on bookshops, 16-17 November 2014.
• Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel Working Group for Library, Book and Media History
  CERL’s Secretary, Cristina Dondi, delivered the papers “Database-supported bibliographies, book catalogues and source materials” and “Booksellers’ archival sources for an insight on contemporary sales, prices, and use: the Zornale of Francesco de Madis, Venice 1484-88”, 29 September – 1 October 2014.
• Antwerp, SHARP Conference
  CERL Workshop on Historical Provenance Research: Material Evidence, Documentary Evidence, and Digital Humanities, 17-18 September 2014.
• Venice, Marciana National Library
  Cristina Dondi delivered a paper on the unique ledger of the Venetian bookseller Francesco de Madiis, held in that library, 26 May 2014.
• Oxford Bibliographical Society
  Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Thinking Again about the First Printing Revolution with Both Eyes on the Books: Venetian Evidence for Prices, Trade, and Use”, 12 May 2014.
• Oxford, All Souls conference in honour of Ian Maclean
  Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Transforming the Early Modern Republic of Letters: Literatures, Learning, Logic, Books”, 31 March - 2 April 2014.
• Paris, Sorbonne, Séminaire de codicologie du Lamop,
  A seminar on The 15th-century Book Trade: An Evidence-based Assessment and Visualization of the Distribution, Sale, and Reception of Books in the Renaissance, 27 March 2014.
• Edinburgh, National Library
  Workshop for CERL members, 18 March 2014.
• London, Victoria and Albert Museum
  Workshop on the Introduction of Printing in Europe, for the Master Course in History of Design, Royal College of Art and V&A, Part of the Option: Renaissance and Early Modern – Technological Cultures, 26 February 2014.

• London, CERL Office
  MEI Training Day for librarians from the Guildhall Library, London, and the Marsh's Library, Dublin, 26 November 2013.
• University of Oxford
  Cristina Dondi and Daniela Mairhofer delivered the paper “Palaeography, Textual Criticism, and History of the Early Printed Book” at the Methods of Scholarship lectures for post-graduate students, Michaelmas Term 2013.
• London, Bibliographical Society
  Cristina Dondi and Neil Harris delivered the paper “Francesco de Madiis, bookseller in Venice, 1484-88”, 19 November 2013.
• London, The Warburg Institute
  CERL’s Secretary, Cristina Dondi, delivered the papers “Techniques of scholarship: Incunabula” for the Masters in Cultural and Intellectual History 1300-1650 and on “Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture”, 12 November 2013.
• Harvard University, Houghton Library
  A Masterclass by Cristina Dondi on The Price and Trade of Fifteenth-Century Printed Books , MEI, and other CERL databases for research, 3 October 2013.
• Harvard University, Houghton Library\\, Cristina Dondi Delivered the paper “Thinking Again about the First Printing Revolution with Both Eyes on the Books: Venetian Evidence for Prices, Trade, and Use”, 30 September 2013.
• Milan, Università Cattolica
  A Round Table was organised by CERL and CRELEB to discuss databases for the study of incunabula, strategy with relation to incunable databases and projects: goals, plans, integrations, next steps, synergies, sharing of tasks, etc. to make sure that the people involved achieve and support the best possible way to produce research using incunabula, 13 September 2013.
• Milan, Università Cattolica and Università Statale
  An Incunabula conference. Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Exporting books from Milan to Venice in the 15th century: evidence from the Zornale of Francesco de Madiis”, 10-12 September 2013.
• Modena
  A talk to the Soroptimists of Modena on the Italian book heritage and CERL by Cristina Dondi, 17 April 2013.
• The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
  Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Image-matching software to support the investigation of the circulation of illustration by re-using and copying” at Illustrating the Early Printed Book, a conference on the occasion of the publication of Ina Kok, Woodcuts in Incunabula printed in the Low Countries, 12 April 2013.
• Milan, Palazzo delle Stelline
  A seminar on Oltre il muro…Promuovere e sostenere strategie di collaborazione e di partnership per la salvaguardia, la conservazione e la difesa del patrimonio culturale di archivi, biblioteche e musei, co-organised by Regione Lombardia-IFLA-AIB, within the annual Conference of the Italian Libraries organised by Biblioteche Oggi. Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Le banche dati del Consortium of European Research Libraries: cooperazione internazionale per superare la dispersione del patrimonio librario europeo e produrre ricerca”, 14 March 2013.
• Oxford, Friends of the Bodleian Lecture
  Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “Historical Collections from European Religious Houses now in the Bodleian Library: Evidence from the Library’s Catalogue of Incunabula”, 5 March 2013.

• University of Oxford
  Cristina Dondi delivered lectures for post-graduate students on “Methods of Scholarship: Palaeography, Textual Criticism, and History of the Early Printed Book”, December 2012.
• Milan, Università Cattolica
  A workshop on MEI 2.0 Gli incunaboli delle Biblioteche Lombarde e il progetto Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI): Bilanci e prospettive, 14 December 2012.
• London, the Warburg Institute
  Workshop on “Techniques of scholarship” for the Master Course in Cultural and Intellectual History 1300-1650, 13 and 20 November 2012.
• London, The British Library
  CERL-BL-CILIP RBSC Group Seminar, Accessing heritage research collections through digitization: models and use, 30 October 2012. PowerPoints of the presentations are available on the CERL website here.
• Florence, Biblioteca Provinciale dei Frati Minori di Firenze
  Workshop on Strumenti per la ricerca dei dati di provenienza nelle banche dati del CERL, 19 October 2012.
  
• Florence, Biblioteca Provinciale dei Frati Minori di Firenze
  CERL Workshop on Tools for Provenance Research, 19 October 2012.
• London, British Library
  Italian Academies International Conference, 17-18 September 2012.
• Oxford University\\. A conference on Speaking truth to power: Making Special Collections Work in Times of Recession organised by the CILIP Rare Books & Special Collections Group, 12-14 September 2012.
• Tartu, University Library
  The LIBER Annual General Conference, 25-28 June 2012.
• Vienna, National Library of Austria
  CERL Workshop Tools for Provenance and Bibliographical Research for Austrian libraries, June 2012.
• Cambridge, University Library
  A Masterclass on priced incunabula by Cristina Dondi, “How much did it cost? Incunabula and their price”, 1 May 2012.
• Oxford, St Anne’s College
  A conference on How the Secularization of Religious Houses Transformed the Libraries of Europe, 16th–19th Centuries, 22-24 March 2012.
• Paris, l'Université Paul Monet (Sceaux),
  A conference organised by the École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques, Villeurbanne (ENSSIB) and the Centre de conservation du Livre, Arles, on Circulation licite et illicite des collections des bibliothèques - aspects historiques et juridiques. Cristina Dondi delivered the paper “La circulation des livres en Europe à l’époque moderne: exemples à partir de la collection d’incunables de la Bodleian Library”, 12 January 2012.

• London, British Library, Rare Books Forum
  Workshop on Tools for Provenance and Bibliographical Research, 1 December 2011.
  
• University Library, Glasgow
  Workshop on Tools for Provenance and Bibliographical Research, Thursday 24 November 2011.
  Further details.
  View the PowerPoint presentations on the Heritage of the Printed Book Database, the CERL Thesaurus and the CERL Portal.
• National Library of Russia, St Petersburg
  Workshop for Russian Librarians, 14-15 September 2011
  At the annual seminar Cristina Dondi, CERL's Secretary, delivered the paper “The Integration of Provenance Data for the Reconstruction of the Dispersed European Book Heritage”. Read or download the English-Russian version of the paper and the Powerpoint presentation, very kindly translated by Dr. Andrei Masevich.
• Merton College, Oxford
  Workshop on Tools for Provenance and Bibliographical Research, Thursday 3 March 2011.
  Further details.
  View the PowerPoint presentations on Bodleian Libraries' Luna Image Database, the CERL Portal, the CERL Thesaurus, Early Book Owners in Britain, the Heritage of the Printed Book Database, Identifying Provenance Evidences, Material Evidence in Incunabula and Provenance queries on the CERL website.

• Soprintendenza per i beni librari e documentari, Bologna
  Workshop for colleagues from the Regione Emilia-Romagna, November 2010.
• National Library of Russia, St Petersburg
  Workshop for Russian rare-books librarians, September 2010.

• National Library of Russia, St Petersburg
  Workshop for Russian rare-books librarians, September 2009.
• Academic Library of Tallinn University
  18 June 2009.
  Further details and programme.
  
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
  View the PowerPoint presentations on the Heritage of the Printed Book Database and the CERL Thesaurus. Thursday 5 March 2009.
  
• National Library of Poland and University of Warsaw Library
  Workshop on Rare Book Librarianship, Wednesday 14 January, Thursday 15 January 2009.
  Programme
  For further information, contact Monika Cornell.

• National Library of Russia, St Petersburg
  Workshop for Russian rare-books librarians, September 2008.
• National Library of Spain, Madrid
  Workshop on Rare Book Librarianship / Seminario Internacional sobre fondo antiguo, June 2008.
  The full programme is available on the web site of the Biblioteca Nacional de España where the PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded.

• Rome
  Workshop for Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma and Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico cluster libraries, December 2007.
  • Il CERL e i suoi prodotti: HPB, CERL Thesaurus, CERL Portal
  • First Search per HPB
• National Library of Russia, St Petersburg
  Workshop for Russian rare-books librarians, September 2007.
• Wellcome Library, London
  Workshop for rare books librarians in the London area, July 2007. Programme and presentations
• Yale University Library, New Haven (CT)
  June 2007.
• RBMS Conference 2007, Baltimore (MD)
  June 2007.
• Research Library, Dubrovnik
  'The European Manuscript and Hand Press Book Heritage: the role of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)', May 2007. Programme and presentations
• Soprintendenza per i beni librari e documentari, Bologna
  Workshop for colleagues from the Regione Emilia-Romagna, February 2007.

Previous CERL workshops