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Dr Anna Welch
Anna Welch is Principal Librarian, History of the Book & Arts at State Library Victoria. She is a Partner Investigator in the ARC Linkage Grant Transforming the Early Modern Archive: The John Emmerson Collection at State Library Victoria (2019¬-2022; Australian National University, University of Newcastle, Victoria University Wellington, State Library Victoria). Her doctoral research was published as Liturgy, Books and Franciscan Identity in Medieval Umbria (Brill, 2015). She has published widely in her fields of interest, including central Italian manuscript production in the medieval period; medieval book culture; bibliography; affective responses to the form of the book; marginalia; methodological intersections between the study of drawings, prints, and books; the history of libraries and librarianship; the Rare Books Collection of State Library Victoria; and the methodology of exhibitions and public engagement with special collections. Anna is co-curator of the annually refreshed World of the Book exhibition at State Library Victoria.
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Dr Sydney Shep
Sydney is a Reader in Book History and The Printer, Wai-te-ata Press Te Whare Tā O Wai-te-ata at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She focuses on the interdisciplinary study of transnational and cross-cultural book history and print culture in the contexts of the history of empire, history of technology, and the history of reading. Technological convergence is an additional platform for research and practice, bringing both historic and contemporary media into creative conversation though explorations into the digital handmade, generative computer art, and typographically-situated augmented reality experiences. Her current research focuses on big cultural data and collaborative kaupapa Māori approaches and is grounded in the theories, methods, and practices of digital humanities, spatial history, and cultural informatics. In 2014, she was awarded a Marsden Fund grant (her third) to study William Colenso and the Victorian Republic of Letters, with a focus on personal geographies and global networks. Sydney is also a practising letterpress printer, exhibiting book artist, and designer bookbinder who undertakes creative research commissions at Wai-te-ata Press
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Associate Professor Shef Rogers
Shef Rogers teaches eighteenth-century literature and book history at the University of Otago, where he co-directs the Centre for the Book with Donald Kerr. He is currently President of SHARP and editor of Script & Print.
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Maggie Patton
Maggie Patton is the Manager, Research & Discovery at the State Library of New South Wales. She is responsible for leading the curatorial team, providing advice on activities that develop, interpret, and promote discovery and engagement with the significant and unique State Library collections. Since joining the Library Maggie has held several positions in reference and information services, collection management, online curation and digitisation projects.
Maggie has specialist expertise in rare books and maps; the history of libraries and librarianship; and the Rare Books Collection of the State Library of New South Wales. Maggie has recently curated the Maps of the Pacific exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales and regularly curates items for the State Library’s Amaze exhibition which highlights new acquisitions and significant material from the collections.