• Sue Williamson, Director Libraries at Arts Council England, will open the conference.
• Shirley Yearwood-Jackman, University of Liverpool will give a keynote address on trust in libraries and what it means for an institution to be trusted in these fractured times.
• Vickie Varley (Oldham Libraries), Donal Brennan (Bolton Libraries) and Paula Carley (Manchester Libraries) will present a case study on Libraries of Sanctuary.
• Marie Østergård, Library Director, Aarhus Public Libraries, will talk about the creation of Dokk1 and role of the library as ‘town square’ and democratic space.
• Nick Poole, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, will present on the future of libraries post-pandemic.
• Becky Swain, Director of Manchester Poetry Library, will give a case study on the Poetry Library’s approach to building an inclusive collection.

Library professionals can book a place at the Knowledge Exchange for either Wednesday, Thursday or both days here.