2026 Conference
How strong is the room? Managing historic collections and buildings
Friday 27 November, Merton College, Oxford.
This year’s programme focuses on practical elements of working in historic libraries. From planning for disasters to dealing with insurers, we will also hear about making changes to buildings from the theoretical to the practical – and what we do with our books in the meantime. Papers will cover disaster preparedness, insurance issues, building projects, and collection moves amongst other subjects.
Optional tours of nearby college libraries will close the day.
This is a hybrid event taking place in person at Merton College, Oxford, and also online via Zoom.
Programme:
10:00 – Registration, Coffee
10:30 – Conference begins. Housekeeping. Introductions
10:40 – 11.00 – Emma Dadson (Harwell). Planning for disasters.
11:00 – 11:20 – Andrew Cheney (Hiscox). Risk Assessment: an insurer’s approach.
11:20 – 11:30 – Questions for speakers
11.30 – 11.50 – Coffee
11:50 – 12.10 – Emma Murphy (Jamie Briggs Removals). The logistics of a collections move
12:10 – 12:30 – Dunstan Speight (Lincoln’s Inn). Benefits of hindsight: building projects in and around historic libraries
12:30 – 12:40 – Questions for speakers.
12:40 – 13:40 – Lunch
13:40 – 13:55 – AGM
13:55 – 14.15 – Speaker tbc. Managing collections in public spaces
14:15 – 14:35 – Hugh Maguire (Dr Williams’s Library). Tackling the inevitable: The need to change to stay the same and the case of the Dr Williams’s Trust & Library
14:35 – 14:45 – Questions for speakers
14:45 – 15:05 – Coffee
15:05 – 15:35 Steven Archer (Trinity College, Cambridge). A “case” study: the installation of new display cases in the Wren Library
15:35 – 15:55 – Meagan Smith (Lambeth Palace Library). Out from the old, into the new – challenges of environmental controls in historic and new buildings
15:55 – 16:05 – Questions for speakers
16:05 – 16:15 – Final round up
16:15 – 16:55 – Optional tour of College libraries
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have an idea for, or would like to host, a future event.
