The changing role of the manuscript librarian

Abstract

In December 2000 about 40 manuscript librarians from Europe met in Stockholm answering the initiative of Anders Burius, manuscript librarian of the Royal Library of Sweden. The participating colleagues agreed in forming an Expert Group of Manuscript Librarians under the auspices of LIBER. In July 2001 LIBER’s General Conference in London formally approved the Expert Group. In February 2002 the Provisional Board elected in Stockholm, constituted itself. André Bouwman (The Netherlands) became chairman, Anders Burius (Sweden) secretary, Eef Overgauw (Germany), Bernard Meehan (Ireland) and Felix Heinzer (Germany) became members of the Board, all for the period 2002-2004. At the end of the Stockholm Conference Els van Eijck, deputy general director of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national library of the Netherlands, invited the European manuscript librarians to hold the second conference in The Hague. This article deals with the results of that second conference, actually held from 5 - 8 March in The Hague. In close co-operation with the Board of the LIBER Expert Group of Manuscript Librarians the Dutch organising committee, consisting of manuscript librarians from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Leiden and Amsterdam University Libraries, and chaired by Els van Eijck, discussed several times about theme and main goal of the conference. The committee prepared a questionnaire to gather information from the future members of the LIBER Expert Group of Manuscript Librarians.