DRI Role: DRI Board Member
Email Address: helen.shenton@tcd.ie
Profile
Helen Shenton is librarian and college archivist at Trinity College Dublin, where she leads the strategic development of the historic and digital libraries and is a senior officer of the University. Current initiatives include the conservation and redevelopment of the Old Library, the creation of the Virtual Trinity Library, creation of a ‘digital first and foremost’ research and innovation library on the new campus, and a framework for a ‘green library’.
Helen moved to Ireland in 2014 from Massachusetts where she was executive director of Harvard Library, at the heart of bringing together the services of seventy-three libraries.
Prior to Harvard, Helen worked at the British Library (BL) where she led the care of the UK’s national documentary heritage and national printed archive. She was involved with international world heritage projects such as the virtual re-unification of the earliest New Testament, Codex Sinaiticus. She established digital preservation at the BL, was the first chair of the Digital Library System, and a founding member of the UK’s Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC).
That followed positions in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where she was deeply involved with the conservation, care and display of the world-renowned decorative arts collections.
Helen has represented, published, and presented widely in international forums and mediums, including TEDxDublin. She is currently on the Board of the National Museum of Ireland and represents Trinity on LERU (League of European Research Universities). She is a Fellow of the International Institute of Conservation and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
