The term ephemera generally applies to any documentary or visual material, usually printed, produced to be used for a brief time before being disposed or reused, described by Maurice Rickards as the ‘minor transient documents of everyday life.’ Despite its disposable nature it can be found preserved in many libraries, archives and specialist collections. 

This session will cover the value of ephemera in research, how to find pieces and collections of material and what they can reveal. The first half of the session will be introduced by Richard Espley, Head of Collections, Senate House Library, with Simon Trafford, Lecturer in Medieval History and Director of Studies, Institute of Historical Research will introducing working with ephemera for research and Emma Minns, Assistant curator of Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections, University of Reading, will introducing their specialist ephemera collections and resources for research.

This will be followed by short presentations from the Library's collections including proclamations and broadsides from the Goldsmiths Library Collection, the Latin American pamphlet collection, theatre ephemera from Miller Archive and scrapbook collections of ephemera from the Harry Price Archive, the Dingwall Archive and the Bromhead Library. 

Additional material on finding ephemera, collections and e-resources will be sent to attendees before and after the event.

This session will last 2 hours including time for questions and discussion. It is aimed at post-graduate research students and early career researchers, but all are welcome.