Lectures
 Lectures

All Rare Book School summer lectures are free, open to the public, and hosted on Grounds at the University of Virginia. Lectures begin at 5:30 p.m. and are followed by a reception. Monday lectures are held in Room 330 of UVA’s Edgar Shannon Library, and Wednesday lectures are held in the Auditorium of UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Recordings of this summer’s lectures will be made available later this year.

Please email contactRBS@virginia.edu with any questions.

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Events & Activities
 Events & Activities

Rare Book School sponsors and co-sponsors a range of programming at various times throughout the year, including activities at book fairs, symposia at UVA and other locations, and more. These include events organized by members of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at their home institutions.

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  • Apr
    10
    2026
    Library Pasts and Presents: Asian Textual Artifacts in the U.S.

    Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia; The Bibliographical Society of America; Department of Information Studies, UCLA
    UCLA's Information Studies Library and Young Research Library; Zoom • 12:00–3:30 pm Pacific Time

  • Apr 9
    /
    Apr 10

    2026
    Conference: The Spanish Atlantic on Paper: Methods on Material Culture and Critical Bibliography

    Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia; The Institute for Historical Studies, Department of History, the Alice Drysdale Sheffield Endowment, Littlefield Lecture, Humanities Institute, the Viola S. Hoffman and George W. Hoffman Lectureship in Liberal Arts and Fine Arts, and LLILAS-Benson at The University of Texas at Austin
    The University of Texas at Austin, GAR 4.100 & Benson Library Conference Room • 9:00 am–4:30 pm

  • Mar
    6
    2026
    Traditions of East Asian Typography Conference

    Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia; and the Korean Heritage Library, Korean Studies Institute, and East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California
    Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California • 9:30 am–4:30 pm PT

Exhibitions
 Exhibitions

Since 1992, Rare Book School has been responsible for a rotating series of exhibitions in the Dome Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, many curated by UVA undergraduate and graduate students. The books and other materials shown in these exhibitions are drawn both from the RBS collections and from the UVA Library, supplemented by occasional loans by other institutions and individuals.

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