For over thirty years, CERL has united and supported libraries that care for Europe’s printed heritage, helping them to ensure these valuable collections are accessible to their users and researchers. As a member of CERL, your institution participates in a dedicated international network of library professionals focused on the curation, study, and promotion of early-printed books and manuscripts
Together, we support the Special Collections community by enhancing the visibility of historical collections and enabling shared access to bibliographic, authority, and provenance data through key resources such as the Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB), CERL Thesaurus (CT), and Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI) database. Through CERL you can amplify your institution’s research impact.
Learn more about our membership categories in this page.
Supporting the Special Collections Community
Professional development is a core benefit of membership. Members can participate in CERL Working Groups (insert link) and attend or organise seminars and workshops of interest to the special collections community, fostering collaboration and networking. Through training sessions, seminars [insert link], and targeted grants [insert link], CERL is a platform for exchanging expertise.
Members are encouraged to share news about exhibitions, conferences, publications, and institutional achievements via CERL’s mailing list, newsletter, and social media channels. To ensure your team stays informed, staff are encouraged to subscribe and submit news by contacting our social media channels or secretariat@cerl.org.
CERL as a Data Network
CERL members contribute bibliographical and authority data to our databases. By bringing together bibliographical, authority, and provenance data, we provide an enhanced environment to present and contextualise information related to our shared European heritage.
Together, CERL libraries provide a home for important international datasets such as the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) and the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC). All data at CERL is carefully structured, maintained, and curated according to professional library standards, ensuring long-term preservation and accessibility.
By hosting these datasets in a shared environment, CERL enables both internal and external linking between datasets. This collaboration improves the discoverability of special collections, benefitting both CERL members and their broader research communities.