A Conference Celebrating 100 Years of the Gennadius Library (1926–2026)

From Private Libraries to Public Knowledge: Collecting, Curating, and the Future of Libraries

On the occasion of its centenary (1926–2026), the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens is organizing a conference on April 21–22, 2026, which will bring together twenty scholars, librarians, bibliographers, historians, archivists, book historians, and collectors.

The President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Constantine An. Tassoulas, will deliver the opening remarks of the conference.  

The symposium will focus on three interrelated themes: the world of private collections and their transformation into public institutions of knowledge; the history of printing, classification, and the organization of knowledge; and the challenges and opportunities of openness in the digital age.

With the Gennadius Library as its point of reference, the symposium also highlights diverse traditions of collecting, libraries, and knowledge organization practices across different cultural contexts, with particular emphasis on the future of libraries as laboratories of innovation through digitization projects, open-access platforms, and the use of artificial intelligence.

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.