Opening the Portal

A conference to establish a European Network
of historical children's book collections

The "Opening the Portal" conference was successfully held at Green Park on the 19th October 2001. Forty five delegates attended from a wide variety of organisations across Europe.

The programme for the day was as published (see below), comprising three papers delivered in the morning, two parallel practical workshops in the afternoon, and a plenary session. This concluding session summarised the impact of the CHILDE project and looked to the future of European co-operation in the field of historic children's books.

The conference proceedings incorporating the text of the three morning presentations and notes of the afternoon practical sessions can be purchased for 15 Euros plus Postage and Packing.

To order a copy of the full proceedings, please contact:

Mike Ryan
Bucks County Library Service
Library Gallery Suite
County Hall
Walton Street
Aylesbury
HP20 1UU

Or through the Contact Us page on this site.

Conference Programme

9:30 Coffee

9:45 Welcome from Mike Ryan, CHILDE Project Manager

9:50 Under suspicion - Nineteenth Century Fairy Tale Debates in England and Germany

Dr Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff, Institut fur Jugendbuchforschung, Frankfurt

10:30 Coffee

10:45 Rewarding Reads: Some thoughts about the gift books featured in historic book collections

Prof. Kimberley Reynolds, National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, UK

11:30 Collecting for the future - the policies and practicalities of creating a major children's book collection

Elizabeth Hammill, Centre for the Children’s Book, UK

12:15 Lunch

13:45 WORKSHOPS (45 minutes each) - N.B. all delegates will have an opportunity to attend both of these workshops, as each will be run twice.

A) Capturing the past - Practical digitisation techniques and strategies

Simon Tanner, Higher Education Digitisation Service, UK

B) A guide to European cultural funding

Claire Herbert, Buckinghamshire County Council, UK

15:15 Tea

15:45 The Next Step: Creating a European Network – a discussion forum led by the CHILDE partners

16:30 Close