Wednesday, Sep 25th

Stéphane Ipert. Director of heritage and documentary projects at Caravane-Earth foundation. Adjunct Professor at American University of Afghanistan. Previously director of Heritage Library in Qatar National Library (2017-2023). 

Session 1. Library Architecture: New Innovations. 

Chair: Andy Appleyard, UK. 

As print collections continue to expand, so must library storage. Increasingly, new innovations are influencing how libraries can preserve print collections reflecting - budget, space, access frequency, environmental conditions and how to be more ‘green’. This session will showcase three examples from very different perspectives. 

• Johanna Vesterinen, National Repository Library of Finland. Building a library as a turnkey project.
• Patrice Ract, Bibliothèque nationale de France. French national Library's project for conservation centre in Amiens: where do things stand?
• Mike Märki, Cooperative Storage Library Switzerland. Facing obstacles: challenges in construction projects and innovations.

Session 2. Planning for sustainability. 

Chair: Dani Tschirren, Switzerland. 

This session considers how collaborative projects can be designed for sustainability. When planning this type of work it is always necessary to think long term, and how workload, financial costs, and environmental factors can be distributed and maintained long into the future. These presentations will showcase how some projects have addressed these challenges, reflecting the specific contexts they work in. 

• Sandra Bracegirdle, University of Manchester, and Hannah Mateer, University of Edinburgh. Working together to develop a national collection: the UK Print Book Collection.
• Birgit Vinther Hansen, Royal Danish Library. New low energy storage in Vinge - aspects of sustainability.
• Johannes Neuer, German National Library in Leipzig.

Session 3. Safety plans: how do we prepare our teams in the event of disasters? 

Chair: Frédéric Brodkom, Belgium. 

Faced with the risk of fire, flooding or even biological hazards, most libraries have set up emergency plans that include prevention, preparation of materials and staff training. This session will provide an opportunity to hear about some good practice in this area, which is crucial to the preservation of collections. 

• Tanja Vogel, CSLS Büron, Switzerland. The Cooperative Storage Library Switzerland (CSLS) in Büron could prepare an intervention on Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
• Hendrik Defoort, Ghent University, Belgium. Never waste a good crisis or how a calamity evolved into a gateway to new services and collection mobility at Ghent University Library (2007-2024)
• Alessandro Sidoti, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Italy. Developing effective safety plans: preparing teams in libraries and cultural heritage institutions for disaster response and recovery.

Jamie McCowan, CEO CAVAL, Australia. 

Session 4. Access to Print in an age of mass digitisation. 

Chair: Eoin McCarney, Ireland. 

This session will examine various approaches to maintaining availability of print materials in the digital age. It will debate the continued importance of print and the challenges inherent maintaining access at scale (preservation, storage, circulation models). The presentations will outline innovative approaches to these challenges. 

• Helen Sakrihei and Jonny Edvardsen, National Library of Norway. The importance of print copies in a digital library - experiences from the National Library of Norway.
• Liz Hayden, University of Ottawa Library. Communication and change management in shared print programs: an investigation into integration practices and stakeholder perception.
• Karin Byström, Uppsala University Library, Sweden, and Sandra Bracegirdle, The University of Manchester Library, UK. Research on optimal numbers of copies and consequences for shared print programs and Epico.

Session 5. Future of print from a publisher’s perspective. 

Chair: Brigitte Kromp & Wolfgang Mayer, Austria. 

Various publishers will provide insights into their views on and strategies regarding the future of print publications in academia. 

• Niels Peter Thomas, Springer Nature. The Past and the Future of Print Books: between readers' preference and AI.
• Maurits van den Boogert, Brill. The End of Print' as a False Prophesy: An Historical Perspective.
• Melissa Abbots, Taylor & Francis Group.

Session 6. Collaborations: lessons learned.

Chair: Amparo Llorente, Spain. 

EPICo is a collaborative network, and with that in mind, EPICo’s partners will present in this session short updates about their projects. We will learn about their advances, difficulties, new initiatives and collaborations. Some of this project updates will also be available through posters. 

Friday, Sep 27th

Keynote 3. Importantness of Metadata for Shared Print and Global Cooperations. 

Heather Weltin, Content & data Management Lead and Shared Print Program Officer at HathiTrust Digital Library and co-chair of the Partnership for Shared Book Collection's and Rosemont's Shared Print Alliance Shared Print Metadata Group, USA.

Anna Striker, Systemwide Library Planning Senior Analyst at California Digital Library and co-chair of the Partnership for Shared Book Collection's and Rosemont's Shared Print Alliance Shared Print Metadata Group, USA.

Panel discussion.