Public Online Workshop
95 min of creativity and stories + Q&A
Updated sessions (choose one):
22, 23, or 24 January 2026 @ 10am EST
or recording only
RARE BOOK COLLECTIONS IN TODAY’S LIFE
Discover hidden collections, material culture insights,
and a new Canadian platform for rare books.
Rare books are not relics of the past, but living witnesses of cultural memory, the craftsmanship and knowledge — preserved in material form and still shaping how we see, teach, and design today.
🔸This is an in‑depth online workshop that looks at rare books not simply as historical texts, but as complex cultural objects — where art, craft, materiality, and memory intersect.
This session also introduces a new Canadian initiative: the development of a unified, open‑access educational database designed to make rare and historical book collections visible, readable, and usable for today’s research, teaching, and creative practice.
🔸This is not only about old books — it’s about our shared culture.
Rare books are often perceived as silent artifacts — locked away, minimally described, and accessible only to a small circle of specialists.
At Canadian collections, rare and historical books originate from many cultures and regions — Italy, Germany, France, England, Greece, Slavic countries, Arab states, India, and beyond. Together, they reflect both Canada’s multicultural heritage and the cultural histories of their places of origin.
🔸Across Canada, rare book collections are being lost despite the dedication of librarians and caretakers:
📚 Thousands of volumes are listed with only minimal metadata (Author, Title, Year)
📚 Historic items — some over 300-500 years old — sit miscatalogued and underrepresented
And yet these books matter deeply. They reveal:
📚 How we migrated, printed, traded, taught, worshipped, and imagined
📚 The beauty of hand-bound, hand-illuminated, hand-printed, human-crafted knowledge
They exist in silence, with little public awareness or access and a significant loss of cultural potential.
The project we are developing aims to change that.
🔸What This Workshop Offers
This workshop does not promise quick technical fixes or cataloguing shortcuts. Instead, it offers a conceptual, cultural, and material framework for understanding why these collections matter — and how they might be re‑imagined.
What You’ll Discover:
The ways historical bookmaking skills shape modern life—often without us noticing
How rare books function as material culture, not just containers of text
How calligraphy from 14th-century manuscripts shapes contemporary design
What do we lose or gain when we switch from ink to pixels?
And most importantly:
How rare collections are preserved, represented, and accessed today
What’s hidden in Canadian rare books collections— and why existing systems cannot yet fully reveal it
Why current catalogue structures often fail to represent artistic and material qualities
How a new, visually driven educational platform could help change this landscape
Ways to engage creatively with historical materials and techniques
And more…
The workshop introduces the Rare Collections Database project as a response to these challenges — a platform built around visibility, storytelling, craft, and context rather than metadata alone.
🔸The Database Initiative: A New Approach
The project presented in this workshop is an early‑stage but actively developing initiative aimed at creating:
a unified, user‑friendly interface for rare and historical books held across Canada
an open‑access educational platform, not a closed institutional catalogue
a space where material features, visual language, and cultural context are central
Rather than replacing existing catalogues, the project seeks to complement them — making collections legible to broader audiences while respecting institutional stewardship.
At its core, this is a project about visibility, access, and cultural continuity.
🔸Who This Workshop Is For
This session is designed for those who work with, teach about, or think through cultural objects, including:
university faculty in arts & humanities, and design‑related fields
librarians and special collections professionals
researchers in material culture, art history, book history, and digital humanities
artists, designers, and cultural practitioners
graduate students and independent scholars
book collectors, restorers, supporters of culture and heritage, and for art industry in large.
No prior expertise in rare books is required — the focus is on context, meaning, and cultural relevance.
At the end of the workshop, participants will be invited to become partners in the national project through a variety of opportunities.
🔸Why Your Participation Matters
This initiative is still at a formative stage. Its future depends on dialogue, interest, and collaboration across disciplines.
By attending, you are not only joining a workshop — you are contributing to a broader conversation about how cultural heritage is described, shared, and carried forward.
Your presence helps shape what this project becomes.
Old books carry the voices of our ancestors — the artistry of centuries.
Each one holds stories shaped by hands, tools, and traditions.
To encounter them fully is to understand how the past continues to shape the present.
Updated workshop sessions
(choose one)
22, 23, or 24 January 2026 @ 10am EST
or recording only
We’d love to have you in person — but if you’re unable to attend, you can register to receive the workshop recording afterward. Live attendance is limited, so this helps us make space for those who can attend in real time.
There’s a symbolic $10 registration fee to support the project; but just reach out at info@dsartistrylabs.com if you’d like free access to the recording.
📚 3. Broad Institutional Support
The project has support from 12 Canadian university libraries, all of which have wrote letters affirming their interest and need for the initiative – even though they are unable to fund it themselves. See screenshots of selected letters below.
Presented by
DS Artistry Labs
A registered non-profit based in London, Ontario (legal name: DS Artistry Collections Inc.). We are committed to the preservation, exploration, and educational engagement with rare and antique objects.
The organization focuses on illuminating the craftsmanship, cultural value, and emotional resonance of historical books through both physical and digital experiences.
www.dsartistrylabs.com
Founder & project lead:
Diana Bychkova, MFA, MLIS, PhD
A book historian, book artist, restorer, and library and information science specialist, Diana’s combined background with 20+ years of experience spanning Ukraine, Italy, and Canada—in book arts, librarianship, and academic research—bridges practice and theory in rare book stewardship, offering a rare blend of scholarly insight and hands-on expertise.
Past sessions:
Online, Sept 11 @ 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Weldon Library, Sept 10 @ 4:00 - 6:00 pm (Community Room, main floor, 1151 Richmond Street, London ON, Canada)
Wortley Village, Sept 9 @ 6:30 - 8:30 pm (190 Wortley Road Unit LL10 (Revel office). London ON, Canada)
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Event spaces generously provided by:
Western Libraries and REVEL Realty Inc.
With support of Old South Business Association