For the 2025 International Congress of Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, to be held from May 8 to 10, papers are invited for a special hybrid session of the International Society for Medievalist Librarians on The Care and Keeping of Medieval Documents. The official description of the call for papers follows here unchanged: “Cultural heritage professionals at libraries, museums, and other institutions play an active role in ensuring that medieval documents are accessible for researchers and other patrons, but many of these processes remain obscured. People working with medieval manuscripts, incunabula, fragments, and similar items at cultural heritage institutions are invited to shed a light on their behind-the-scenes work. The organizers solicit papers exploring ethical acquisition, metadata issues, conservation concerns, and other topics for this multidisciplinary panel. Case studies highlighting collaborative efforts to research and care for documents are especially encouraged.”
In my view the study of fragments surely is closely connected witt the themes to be addressed by this session. Choices in describing and preserving fragments and their context can immensely influence the way they become accessible and visible for scholars and the general public at large. In the field of fragmentology the coordinated efforts to make Fragmentarium the central hub and portal of a whole discipline, too, have implications and consequences which call for reflection.
The online form of this call for papers for the 2025 session at the ICMS is open until September 15, 2024. Any questions concerning this session can be send to the session organizer, Allie McCormack (allie.mccormack@utah.edu).