Book Contributors

Historian of early modern books, Renaud Adam (b. 1977) is in charge of the ULiège Library’s digitisation unit. He is also a scientific collaborator in the Modern History Department. His work focuses mainly on the book ecosystem in the former Low Countries (15th-17th centuries), with particular attention to socioeconomic issues, cultural transfers and the reception of Italian culture. For several years now, Renaud has also been interested in questions of censorship and the ways in which it is expressed.

During his long career in academic libraries, Laurent Aucher has worked on almost every aspect of librarianship: ILL, serials, electronic resource management, digitisation, team management, staff training and more. Since 1997, Laurent has managed numerous library systems and website projects worldwide. He is also involved in non-profit associations such as ACEF, a French-speaking group of Ex Libris users, and AUFO, a French-speaking group of Omeka users. In the past 10 years, he has developed a particular interest in the dissemination of digital collections.

Eva Ausēja currently serves as the head of the Digital Library of Latvia at the National Library of Latvia (Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka). She specialises in the preservation and accessibility of digital cultural heritage, with a strong emphasis on integrating regional libraries into national digitisation initiatives. Eva has a Master in Library Science and Information Management from the University of Latvia. She has managed and developed numerous digital collections, including the Industrial Heritage project, in collaboration with national, regional, and private partners. Her professional achievements include advancing digital curation practices and fostering the growth and accessibility of the Digital Library of Latvia. Eva’s publication, Overview of Digitisation in Regional Main Libraries (2023), highlights her dedication to sharing knowledge and promoting collaboration in the library community.

Junior Browne is the law librarian at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, where he currently manages both the Faculty of Law Library and the CLR James Cricket Research Centre. His work focuses on legal research access, Caribbean legal history, data privacy, and digital transformation in libraries. Junior is currently pursuing his postgraduate certification in Archival Studies, intending to strengthen regional approaches to heritage preservation and access. His research interests include the governance of data and information in the Caribbean, the legal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence, and the development of legal knowledge systems.

Joris Colla (b. 1983) studied History and International Relations at KU Leuven. Since 2009, he has been working at KADOC-KU Leuven. Until 2025, he was the data manager of ODIS and a heritage expert specialising in Catholic heritage, educational heritage, and intangible heritage. In 2025, Joris became head of KADOC’s Department of Collection Management. He is also the coordinator of the ODIS Renewal Project 2022–2027. His research focuses on the religious and cultural history of Belgium in the long 19th century.

Nicolas Di Méo (b. 1978) holds a PhD in French literature and has published and directed several academic books on 20th-century literature. He worked as a teacher, a lecturer and a researcher before joining the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2012. Since 2014, Nicolas has been the head of the Collections Department at the Strasbourg University Libraries.

Mălina Duță (b. 1985) is a special collections librarian at the Central University Library Eugen Todoran of Timișoara, where she oversees an extensive oral history archive comprising approximately 500 testimonies and interviews related to the history, culture, and sociology of the Banat region, Romania. Moreover, she manages the associated material, such as photographs and other primary source documents. Currently a PhD candidate at the West University of Timișoara, Mălina’s research focuses on forced migration. Her academic interests encompass cultural anthropology, international cultural projects, and the study of marginal communities, with a particular emphasis on migration and diasporic experiences.

Olivier Ghuzel describes himself as ‘a bit literary and a bit software engineer’. He has raised digital library ecosystems for 12 years.

Despoina Gkogkou (b. 1975) holds a PhD and a Master of Arts in Modern Greek Literature and a bachelor’s degree in Library Science. She has worked as a librarian since 1997, first at the Academy of Athens Research Centre for Modern Greek Dialects and then at the Samos Public Library. She joined the Library and Information Centre of the University of Patras in 2008, where she is primarily responsible for the management and curation of the institutional repository, the digital collections, and the Μετάdata database. Despoina’s research interests include the Greek press, mass culture, the sociology of reading, and the reception of foreign literature in Greece.

Christian Hänger is a department director at the Federal Archives in Germany. He is responsible for the storage, preservation, and digitisation of all materials held at the Federal Archives, including paper records, books, photographs, and films. Over the past 5 years, he has developed a comprehensive infrastructure for the digitisation of these materials and introduced digitisation on demand (DoD) in all of the institution’s reading rooms. In his previous career, Christian was responsible for library systems and the digitisation of cultural heritage at two university libraries.

Saga Jacksen (b. 1996) holds a master’s degree from the University of Helsinki’s Cultural Heritage programme and is currently pursuing a PhD in the History and Cultural Heritage Doctoral Programme at the University of Helsinki. She works as an information specialist for Finna Services, managed by the National Library of Finland, with a focus on user experience research.

Laura Moré (b. 1975) holds a degree in Librarianship and Documentation from the University of Barcelona and in Documentation from the Open University of Catalonia. She has specialised in bibliographic heritage, having earned both a postgraduate diploma and a master’s degree in Heritage Libraries and Collections from the University of Barcelona. Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral programme at the University of Barcelona; her research focuses on the incorporation of personal archives into Catalan university libraries. Since 2001, Laura has been working at the University of Girona Library, in the Technical Processing section. For more than a decade, she has also served as a special collections librarian.

Cécile Oger (b. 1973) is an art historian specialising in the technological and archaeometric analyses of ancient paintings, and she is a curator of the collections of manuscripts and old and rare books at ULiège Library. Her research is devoted to the study of ancient painting techniques. Cécile works mainly on illuminated manuscripts and easel paintings from the Ancient Low Countries and the Principality of Liège from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Riitta Peltonen has worked with the National Library of Finland since 2017, developing the UX of both the Finna services and the processes of the unit. She holds a master’s degree in science (2004) and service design (2018) and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in applying human-centred design (HCD) in digital ecosystems, using Finna as her research ecosystem. Before joining the National Library, Riitta had a long career in the ICT industry as a UX specialist, including eight years at Nokia in architecture and system design and the nokia.com website and four years as a consultant. HCD was novel in Finland when Riitta completed her MSc, and she has seen its methods gain importance in the ICT industry throughout her career.

Francesca Petricca (b. 1982) holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. During her fieldwork, she worked for two years in the archives of Dar al-Kutub al-Qawmiya in Cairo. After graduation, Francesca moved to the publishing sector, where she has since covered different roles. She joined ProQuest in 2018 and is involved in the promotion of historical collections.

Annika Peurell (b. 1972) works as a team leader for Media at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Library in Stockholm. Her focus area at KTH is collection development and publication infrastructure. Annika has a keen interest in the importance of and the challenges and opportunities in all aspects of cultural and research collections at archives, libraries, and museums. She has degrees in Library and Information Science, Art History and Ethnology from Uppsala University. Annika has been involved in several cultural heritage and research institutions in Sweden in leading roles. She has also headed projects in areas such as acquisition, preservation, metadata, research, digitisation, and digital accessibility.

François Renaville (b. 1976) studied linguistics, literature, and translation before beginning his career as a teacher. He later joined the University of Liège Library as a subject librarian, where he has been working on library systems since 2005. From 2010 to 2014, he served as a policy officer for the French-speaking Belgian library consortium BICfB, and from 2020–2021, he worked as a systems consultant for the European Parliament Library. Since 2022, François has been coordinating the Systems & Data unit at ULiège Library. His professional interests include discoverability, integrations, delivery, and user services.

Laurence Richelle (b. 1972) has been a librarian since 1997. Trained in rare books cataloguing, she began her career at the Catholic University of Lille before joining the University of Liège Library in 2004 as a metadata specialist. Laurence later worked as a systems librarian and resource management coordinator. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Systems & Data unit at ULiège Library.

Gislene Rodrigues da Silva (b. 1986) is a postdoctoral fellow at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie YUFE4Postdocs programme. She also holds a postdoctoral position at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where she earned her PhD (2023) and Master in Knowledge Management. A qualified librarian with a background in information science, she is currently on leave from her role at UFMG’s Physics Department library. Gislene coordinates science outreach projects and is the deputy coordinator of the Eureka Podcast. She is a member of the Brazilian Research Group on Knowledge Representation and Information Retrieval (RECRI/UFMG).

Marika Sarvilahti MA (b. 1974) is an information specialist at Aalto University, Finland, where she oversees the digital preservation and collection management system and manages access to the University’s archival digital collections on the Finna search service. She also provides training and guidance on the use of visual resources for students and researchers. Her career in academic libraries and archives has had a special focus on art and design collections, digital preservation, visual resources, and digital cultural heritage as an information source. Marika specialises in metadata development, licensing issues, digital collection management, and information literacy in higher education. Her passion is in providing students and researchers with knowledge and skills to make the best use of digital cultural heritage in learning, research, and creative work.

Teresita Scalco (b. 1976) is the head of the Archivio Progetti at Università Iuav di Venezia, where she has worked since 2002 in curatorial and project coordination roles. She holds a BA in Contemporary Art History (University of Padua, 2002), a European Master in Architectural History (University of Roma Tre, 2006) with specialisation at UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre in Paris, and a PhD in Science of Design (2013) focusing on curatorial practices in design culture. Her academic work began with a grant-supported thesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also worked as an assistant curator (1999–2000). Teresita has co-curated some editorial projects: Istanbul. Ritratto di città (with Moira Valeri, Letteraventidue, 2015), Tobia Scarpa. L’Anima segreta delle cose (Marsilio, 2015), Images of the Modern: Construction Sites, Achievemens, Legacy (with A. Marin, Do.co.mo.mo Journal 38/2025). Her research explores the ethical and educational dimensions of curatorship at the intersection of design, photography, and women’s studies.

Rouven Schabinger has been working as a Data & System specialist at the Swiss Library Service Platform (SLSP) in Zurich since 2023. His main interests relate to data migration, collection management, and third-party integration. Rouven’s previous professional and academic positions include the topics repositories (re3data.org) and research data management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, as well as bibliographic and information technological consulting at the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart (Germany).

Mimi Seyffert-Wirth is currently director of Scholarly Communication and Marketing at Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service, where she is responsible for the management of the institutional and digital heritage repositories, open access journal hosting, and the Marketing and Special Collections divisions. Mimi has experience in managing special collections and digital scholarship and plays a leadership role as a member of the Library’s senior management team.

Stéphanie Simon (b. 1986) has been the operations director at ULiège Library since 2021. With a double Master in History (2009 and 2011), she joined ULiège Library in 2010. She was initially responsible for digitisation policy and projects, leading to the creation of a digitisation unit within the library and the launch of the DONum project. At the same time, she was first the subject librarian for the Information and Communication section and then in charge of acquisitions and the management of electronic resources for the library and the French-speaking Belgian consortium (BICfB).

Since 2019, Nikol Stepan has been employed as a Data & System specialist at the Swiss Library Service Platform (SLSP), with a primary focus on the ‘Discovery’ domain. In 2023, she expanded her role to include business analyst responsibilities, and she is actively involved in contributing to and managing various projects. Before SLSP, she served as an information specialist at a cantonal library. In her previous profession, she worked as a teacher. Nikol’s academic background includes studies in requirements engineering, information science, and German studies from the University of Zurich.

Saskia van Bergen is the head of Services and Collection Information at the Special Collections Department of Leiden University Libraries. In this role, she oversees a team of 14 employees and manages all aspects of access to the library’s Special Collections, including cataloguing, digitisation, and research services. Her team handles the Special Collections Reading Room, digitisation projects, and teaching with special collections. Previously, Saskia served as a project manager in the library, where she led several initiatives, including the implementation of ArchivesSpace and Islandora. She also holds a PhD in Art History from Amsterdam University, focusing on medieval art and book history.

Maartje van den Heuvel (PhD) is an art historian specialising in photography. Since 2007, she has been the curator of photography and photographic technology at the Special Collections of Leiden University Libraries, which not only holds the oldest ‘photo-historical’ collection of the Netherlands but also contains numerous scientific photography collections.