Maurice Bond Lecture and Harley Prize Presentation.

The 2026 Maurice Bond Lecture will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 6 pm to 9 pm at the Guildhall Library, London.

This year’s lecture will be given by Juergen Vervoorst FIIC ACR, Head of Collection Care at The National Archives.

Standards for the management and preservation of archival and library collections have been available and adhered to by many institutions for a considerable length of time. Following such standards is critical to attain accredited status, and they often provide evidence to senior decision makers to release funding for improvements to collection conditions. On the other hand, increasing energy costs, carbon net zero and broader sustainability targets, and the need to prepare for climate change induced risks put unprecedented pressures on collection managers, the solution of which often seem contrary to the long-term preservation of archival and library collections. Whilst preservation standards have already relaxed, the complexity to fully exploit the flexibility provided and the lack of resource often makes it difficult to make the right decision for collections. This lecture will explore some of the challenges and pressures collection managers are under and will provide an outlook onto what the future of preventive conservation might hold.

There will also be the presentation of the Janette Harley Prize 2025, which has been awarded to Frank Meeres (editor), for Socialism in King’s Lynn and Suffragism in Great Yarmouth: Minutes of the King’s Lynn Socialist and Labour Societies, 1897-1916, and Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Great Yarmouth Women’s Suffrage Society, 1909-1915 (Norfolk Record Society vol. LXXXVIII, 2024).