GSLG Annual Conference 2025 – German Studies UK Resources, 40 Years On

The 2025 GSLG conference will take place on 15 December in the Foyle Suite at the British Library. The conference takes as its starting point the 40th anniversary of the colloquium ‘German Studies – British Resources’ held at the British Library in 1985, which led to the founding of the GSLG the following year. The 2025 event will look at some of the changes in the past 40 years and highlight library collections acquired, catalogued, or digitised during that period. The programme is below:

9.45-10.15 Registration and Coffee

10.15. Welcome – Marcie Hopkins (British Library)

10.20-11.05 Introduction: Forty Years On from the 1985 Colloquium – Susan Reed (British Library)

11.05-11.15 Break

11.15-12.00 Music and Manuscript collections in the BL

• Paul Hirsch and his Music Collection: Insights from his Personal Papers – Chris Scobie/Frankie Perry (British Library)
• The Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library – Sandra Tuppen/Pardaad Chamsaz (British Library)
• The Michael Hamburger Archive at the British Library – Helen Melody/Lara Mayr (British Library)

12.00-12.45. Footnotes of Exile: Reassessing Writers’ Libraries in UK Collecting Institutions – Stefanie Hundehege (National Art Library & University of Oxford)

12.45-1.30 Lunch (own arrangements)

1.30-2.15 Printed Collections in London and Oxford

• Promoting the Seton-Watson Collection at New College Library, Oxford – William Shire (New College Library)
• Continuity, Change and Collecting across the Channel: The German Historical Institute Library 1985-2025 – Matthias Ammon (German Historical Institute London)
• The St George’s Church Collection – Dorothea Miehe (British Library)

2.15-3.00 Taylor Editions: From Library to Open Access Publisher – Emma Huber (Taylor Institution Library)

3.00-3.30 Tea

3.30-4.15 Cataloguing and metadata

• Curator to AI assistant? The Changing Role of the Metadata Creator – Janet Ashton (British Library)
• Reflections on Inclusive Metadata – Pardaad Chamsaz (British Library) 
• The Undiscoverability of Translation – Christophe Fricker (University of Bristol)

4.15-5.00.  Scenes from the Underground: The Senate House Alternativpresse Collection in Context – Paul Buchholz (Emory University)

5.00-5.45 Reception

The conference is free, but please email Susan Reed, Lead Curator Germanic Collections at the British Library if you wish to attend (susan.reed[at]bl.uk)