Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)

Join us in London on 5 Dec 2025 for CERL’s Seminar at Guildhall Library (guildhalllibrary.bsky.social)! Explore how Europe’s founding library collections continue to shape research today.

With support from @abararebooks.bsky.social!

Register: secretariat@cerl.org

Livestream coming soon!

YouTube video by CERL – Consortium of European Research Libraries Cataloguing Provenance at CRAI Library | Maria Ruiz Fargas & Laia Navarro de Llobet

📢 New on our YouTube channel:

Maria Ruiz Fargas & Laia Navarro de Llobet explore cataloguing provenance at UB’s CRAI Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

🎥 Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnN...

#bookhistory

You have another 30 minutes to ask for the link, by writing to secretariat@cerl.org!

Join us online on Thursday 13 Nov for the 5th CERL Provenance Seminar!

16:00–16:30 Marina Ruiz Fargas & Laia Navarro de Llobet (Univ. of Barcelona)
16:30–17:00 Mira Krall (Austrian National Library)
17:00 Discussion

Register via secretariat@cerl.org to receive link!

#bookhistory

Text: CERL Board of Directors. Background image: Photo of Claude D. Conter midspeech.

Claude D. Conter, director of the BnL, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (@cerl-community.bsky.social) at the Annual General Meeting on 22 October 2025.

Photo: © Brainplug

Gathering in Edinburgh for CERL’s 2025 AGM 📚

Grateful to the National Library of Scotland (@natlibscot.bsky.social) for hosting us, and to everyone helping connect libraries and early printed collections across borders 🌍

📸 Callum Ollason

Poster for CERL seminar on Founding Collections (at the Guildhall, London on 5 December 2025)

Join us for this hybrid event on Founding Collections, taking place on 5 December 2025 and hosted by the @guildhalllibrary.bsky.social

Programme and registration details on www.cerl.org/services/sem...

Due to strong interest in the seminar theme, a follow-up event will take place at Guildhall Library, London, on 5 December 2025, with proceedings from both events to be published together. We hope to see you there! @guildhalllibrary.bsky.social #bookhistory

Autumnal scene of Edinburgh, October 2025

CERL Secretariat members Marian Lefferts, Claudia Fabian and Cristina Dondi lead the CERL Annual General Meeting

Nijolė Klingaitė-Dasevičienė presents on the founding collections of Vilnius University Library during the CERL Seminar

Last week, CERL held its annual seminar in Edinburgh, exploring founding collections in the 21st century 📚✨
Huge thanks to the National Library of Scotland @natlibscot.bsky.social for hosting us so warmly! 🏛️
#CERL #Libraries #BookHistory

Ediciones Ampersand and its library: an insight into the core of our Collections By Tomás de Brito, Ampersand In June 2025, Ediciones Ampersand became the first special member from South America to join the CERL community. We seize this opportunity to introduce ourselves throug…

📚 New on the CERL Blog!

Librarian Tomás de Brito from CERL member Ediciones Ampersand in Buenos Aires offers insights into the history of the house's library - a space that bridges publishing, scholarship, and bibliophilia.

🖋️ Full blog post here: cerlblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/e...

@bne.es

José Luis Bueren Gómez-Acebo (Biblioteca Nacional de España) presents on the CERL Security Network at the EGATTT session during ICA 2025 Barcelona — join online today, there’s still time to register! #CERL #EGATTT #ICA2025 #bookhistory

Get zoom-link here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@natlibscot.bsky.social

Just a reminder to register for the CERL Seminar 2025 - “Engaging with Founding Collections in the 21st Century” - on 21 Oct at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Free to attend (registration required): secretariat@cerl.org
#bookhistory

Speaking at the @cerl-community.bsky.social Collection Security Summer School in @nlireland.bsky.social and glad to see this 🙂👇👇 I hope nobody lights that fire!🔥

For the past month RIA Library has been delighted to welcome Madeline Birnbaum, Assistant Archivist at the Boston University School of Theology Library, to the Reading Room. Madeleine was awarded a @cerl-community.bsky.social grant to undertake provenance research into the Charles Haliday collection

🕊In Memoriam: Ulf Göranson

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our former Chairman, Ulf Göranson on 20 July 2025.

His leadership, vision, and generosity have left a lasting impact, and we remember him with immense gratitude and respect. 🌿

Cosmas’ Chronicle and his sources – towards an exhibition By Tomáš Klimek, National Library of the Czech Republic This year marks the 900th anniversary of the death of the first Czech chronicler, Cosmas, who served as dean of the Prague chapter and died i…

📜 New on our blog: 900 years after Cosmas of Prague’s Chronicle of the Czechs, the National Library marks the anniversary with #Cosmas900 (24 Sept–24 Oct 2025), uniting manuscripts from across Europe.

Read: cerlblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/04/c...

#CzechHistory #Manuscripts #CulturalHeritage

🕰️ How would you draw time?

That’s what kids were asked at Lambeth Palace Library’s workshop tied to the Unfolding Time exhibition.

Read in our latest CERL blog post how this creative outreach brought medieval calendars to life for 200+ London pupils.

🔗 cerlblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/28/z...

Photo of post it notes from children to draw how they viewed the concept of time.

As part of our #UnfoldingTime exhibition, we
brought the fun of medieval concertina-fold almanacs to
over 200 children in schools and public libraries! 📜✨

Discover how our Zigzag Calendar Workshops turned
these tricky books into a fun activity for kids
by reading the latest CERL blog post 👇

Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB) – unified access to early European printed works (c.1455–1830) from major European and North American libraries.

Open access, with growing links to digitised copies.

Explore via: www.cerl.org/resources/hp...

📚 ‘Your Library is Your Portrait’

CERL Seminar 2025

🗓️ 21 Oct | 📍 Edinburgh

How do founding collections shape library identity today?

Join us for talks on legacy, reinterpretation & change in major research libraries.

🔗 www.cerl.org/services/sem...
#CERL2025 #FoundingCollections #LibraryHistory

Join us in Dublin, 10–12 Sept 2025 for the CERL Collection Security Summer School!

🎤 Talks, tours, workshops & more
📍 Trinity College & National Library of Ireland
💶 Fee: €95 (incl. lunches & reception)
✉️ Register: secretariat@cerl.org
Programme: www.cerl.org/collaboratio...

On 26-27 June, we gathered at KBR for the conference “Mapping Knowledge”! 📚 14 countries, 20 institutions, and a rich dialogue on the future of Retrospective National Bibliographies. Thanks to KBR and STCV for making it happen!

Happy birthday to Short Title Catalogue Flanders! Heleen Wyffels opens the @cerl-community.bsky.social conference on mapping Knowledge at Royal Library in Brussels #25yearsSTCV

Back at @cerl-community.bsky.social conference in beautiful Brussels (after a small hiccup this morning). In time for paper by Alyssa Steiner on Incunabula Short Title Catalogue #bookhistory

Marian Lefferts @cerl-community.bsky.social presented the volume Never Finished to Heleen Wyffels and Jan Pauwels #bibliography #bookhistory

The Democratization of Library Heritage Collections By Louise Amazan, Daryl Green & Garrelt Verhoeven (IFLA RBSC) Introduction On April 24th 2025 the Standing Committee for Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC) of IFLA and CERL’s Bookbindi…

Take a look at our latest blogpost on the democratization of library heritage collections: cerlblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/08/t...

📢 Register now!
Join us in Dublin for the CERL Collection Security Summer School
📅 10–12 Sept 2025
🏛️ Trinity College Library & National Library of Ireland
💶 €95 (inc. lunch, coffee, drinks reception)
Open to all working with or interested in cultural heritage.

📧 Register: secretariat@cerl.org

The forum closed with Memories of the Mediterranean, an exhibition at the National Library of Albania showcasing rare books, maps & manuscripts (1300–1800).