The Fisher Library summer seminar series began in 2017 and is an annual educational program in the fields of archives, librarianship, book history and bibliography. The seminar has welcomed expert instructors and hundreds of participants from multiple educational and professional backgrounds to learn about a range of topics and approaches by making use of the extensive collections of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

The summer seminar for 2026 is currently being planned.

Past offerings in the summer seminar series:

History and Identification of Book Illustration, 5-7 June 2017 (Instructor: Rowan Watson with presentations by Janis Butler and Walter Bachinski of Shanty Bay Press, and George A. Walker.)

Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography, 4-6 June 2018 (Instructor: Sandra Alston.)

The Medieval Book, 3-5 June 2019 (Instructor: Michelle P. Brown.)

Learning and Teaching with Early Printed Books, 8-10 June 2022 (Instructor: Sarah Werner, with a presentation by Kit MacNeil.)

Cookbooks and Culinary Collections, 7-9 June 2023 (Instructor: Elizabeth Driver, with presentations by Vicky Hayward, Fiona Lucas, Elizabeth Ridolfo, Mya Sangster, and Sherry Murphy.)

Bibliographical Stuides in Latin America, 14-16 June 2023 (Instructors: Guadalupe Rodríguez Domínguez and David Fernández.)

Book Science, 5-7 June 2024 (Instructors: Rachel Di Cresce and Jessica Lockhart, with presentations by Alexandra Gillespie, Sebastian Bosch, Aaron Au, David Fernández, and Deborah Meert-Williston.)

Black Community Archives and Libraries, 13-14 June 2024 (Instructors: Désirée Rochat and David Fernández, with presentations by Dorothy Williams, Cheryl Thompson, Rosalind Hampton, dann j. Broyld, and Melissa J. Nelson.)

Paleography and Provenance in Printed Hebraica, 9-10 June 2025 (Instructors: Nadav Sharon, Edward Fram, Noam Sienna, Marjorie Lehman, Michelle Margolis, Adam Shear, and Joshua Teplitsky.)

Queer Book Arts, 24-26 June 2025 (Instructors: Kit MacNeil, Claire Battershill, and David Fernández, with a presentation by Danny Cardoso and Cleopatria Peterson.)

Fisher Library Summer Seminar Series

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