Organisers: Kayleigh Betterton (University of London Society of Bibliophiles) & Leo Cadogan (Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association Educational Trust)

The focus of these lectures and seminars is on bibliophilia and the book trade. Book-collectors, dealers and auctioneers are invited to give a lecture on a subject of their choosing which relates to the practice of bibliophilia. Lectures may be anecdotal, academic or purely for entertainment, with a special focus this year on widening access in book-collecting. With this in mind, the programme is jointly-coordinated and run by the University of London’s new Society of Bibliophiles.

The Book Collecting Series for the 2016/17 academic year included seminar themes such as: ‘Women in the Book Trade, the 21st Century’, ‘Offline Bookselling’, ‘A New Generation of Book Collectors: The Oxford and Cambridge Societies of Bibliophiles’, ‘Students Collectors: Catching them Early’ and ‘Two 19th Century Collectors of Fine Bindings’. The Book Collecting Seminars had a fantastic range of speakers, with Alice Rowell (Maggs), Pauline Schol (Peter Harrington), Jessica Starr (Jarndyce), Simon Beattie (Antiquates), Tom Lintern-Mole (Antiquates), Harriet Rix (Cambridge), Gerri Dellca Rocca de Candal (Oxford), Robert Weaver ( (Keeper of the Fellows’ Library, Dulwich College) and Dulwich College students and, finally, Mirjam Foot (Emeritus Professor of Library and Archive Studies, UCL).

The Book Collecting Seminars will start from 14 November 2017, but to find out information on the seminars for the 2017/18 academic year, you can follow the link to the IES website or go directly to the seminar schedule.

If you wish to delve further into the seminars, then follow the link to their active twitter where you can find details on topics and themes to be discussed, as well as information who on to contact.