County Durham peppers shortlist for prestigious national honours Durham Univeristy, Beamish Museum and The Bowes Museum represent the region with a range of exhibitions and projects in the running for the Museums + Heritage Awards. Tony Henderson reports

Fantastic to see County Durham so well represented in the shortlists.

Really pleased that our Shakespeare Recovered exhibition & project has been shortlisted in the Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year category in the Museums & Heritage Awards. @dulib.bsky.social @ducollections.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk

Come and work with us in University Library & Collections at @durham.ac.uk in this new & exciting role. You will play a leadership role in our modern, heritage & cultural collections.

Should Durham's stolen Shakespeare folio be repaired? The damage caused when Durham's First Folio was stolen remains - for now.

Great to see the conservation decision making of colleagues at @dulib.bsky.social concerning our First Folio making the news.

Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned The draft – one of the Beat Generation’s defining artefacts – will be part of a wider sale of pieces from the Jim Irsay Collection at Christie’s in March

This, along with the original mss of The Dharma Bums, also being put up for auction, should be in a public collection & not a private one.

The seminar brought together librarians, archivists, conservators and other Library Service practitioners from our Arqus partners and stimulated thoughtful discussion around knowledge-sharing and opportunities for future collaboration across the network. @durham.ac.uk @librarystuart.bsky.social(3/3)

Durham hosted a hybrid, two-day seminar featuring sessions on topics including conservation and preservation, external engagement and digital developments within special and heritage collections. (2/3)

Photo of conference attendees in the stairwell of the Teaching and Learning Centre

DULib was delighted to welcome colleagues from the Arqus ‘Libraries of the Future’ Community of Practice earlier this week. (1/3)

There’s nothing quite as refreshing as getting to your destination at 4AM after what should have been a 4 hour train journey that ends up taking 9 hours. Made especially wonderful when the final 40 minute stretch takes 5 hours. And passengers & staff are left to suffer.

Really lucky to have secured tickets for a preview of the fantastic Hamnet. An outstanding film with amazing acting aided by a wonderful Max Richter soundtrack. Can’t recommend enough.

Might there be a place for this in light of the Hodge review of ACE and the recommendation re public libraries? Rather than putting all the emphasis on the already stretched & under resourced BL.

OCLC introduces new AI tools to make cataloging faster and smarter | OCLC OCLC has added powerful new AI features to its WorldShare Record Manager and Connexion cataloging applications that automatically suggesting classification numbers and subject headings.

“saving up to 20 minutes per title.” Just how long were they spending before?! This isn’t how I would define efficiency. Seems to me that there’s another non-AI issue to be addressed here.

Literary treasure draws thousands of visitors to Durham as exhibition is extended People have more time to see the Shakespeare Folio in Durham as 'wonder' exhibition will remain open until April 2026. Tony Henderson reports

Our Shakespeare Recovered exhibition has been a great success. So much so that we are extending it. It also won the Institute of Conservation Heritage Conservation in Action prize 2025. Congratulations to the colleagues that made this happen.

Kunsthaus Graz is a great museum with fascinating architecture and excellent exhibits. Sat and watched the mesmerising Bill Viola “The Raft” for ages. Absolutely recommend.

Many thanks to colleagues at Universitätsbibliothek Graz @uni-graz.at for hosting an excellent Arqus Alliance Libraries of the Future seminar. Lots of good discussions and much appreciated hospitality.

That moment when you realise your arrival in a wonderful European city for a
conference coincides with an English football team match in the same city.

Yellow coloured Carolina Rediviva Uppsala University Library building with leaves on the ground in the foreground.

Knowledge on top of the hill at Uppsala University. The Carolina Rediviva has a physical and symbolic location between the castle and cathedral. A beautiful library with fascinating collections.

This year's Durham Lumiere to be the city's last, organisers say Since 2009 it has drawn more than 1.3 million visitors and made the local economy £43m.

If you know you know. If you don’t you can guess.

‘Very significant’ Jack Kerouac story discovered after mafia boss auction Exclusive: Two-page 1957 manuscript signed by author linked to his classic of beat literature On the Road

Who would have thought it? Mafia boss as collector of literary mss.

Liverpool poet Brian Patten dies at 79 His poetry often explored love and relationships and he wrote books for children including Gargling With Jelly

RIP Brian Patten. A loss to poetry.

Excellent performance of #BornWithTeeth at Wyndham’s Theatre w/ Ncuti Gatwa as Marlowe & Edward Bluemel as Shakespeare. Equally excellent staging & production. Thoroughly recommend.

We are The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year 2026 and ranked third overall in its Good University Guide. Congratulations to our global university community on this success. 🎉

Read more: brnw.ch/21wVU4Q

Huge thanks to @cathalmccauley.bsky.social and @mulibrary.bsky.social for organising an excellent and engaging seminar for Arqus Alliance libraries.

An interesting and thoughtful piece. Don’t necessarily agree with everything (eg LC distributed catalogue cards pre library automation so the argument of local vs central control is more complex) but worth engaging with.

Ushaw Historic House library open to public for one day The library, usually reserved for researchers, holds many examples of early printed books.

Definitely worth visiting. Always enjoy going to Ushaw House as part of the Durham Ushaw Partnership.

He’s well worth a read; but I’m a biased fan of 20th century American poetry. Have some of his works in my collection. Enjoy!

Excellent discussions at @coimbragroup.bsky.social Heritage Working Group meeting hosted by Università di Bologna. Added bonus is walking under the nearly 40km of porticos/colonnades which are themselves a @unesco.org World Heritage Site. #CoimbraGroup2025

We welcomed colleagues from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to #Durham this week.

Our collaboration supports research, exchange and training.

We're shaping conferences in Washington (2026) & Tokyo (2028), themed: ‘Revolution, Revelation, Reconciliation’.

tinyurl.com/bdfa299t

WHUK meeting reinforcing the tension identified by @unesco.org between outstanding universal value (OUV) and climate change. The move from cultural heritage to natural heritage as a direct outcome.

Highly informative & engaging couple of days at World Heritage UK 10th anniversary meeting discussing sustainability, climate crisis & cultural heritage. Lots to take away.