Check out Paul’s historic recreations of wooden bindings and watch him lace together the pages and covers.

Watch Spike cut and form brass corners and clasps used to adorn her bindings.

Observe and learn from Joanne’s transformation of lineoleum tiles into printing blocks to produce marvelously intricate art.

See how text is set up backwards and upside down to create book pages.

Enjoy Catherine’s Videos and let her share her passion for Marbled Paper. So many uses for these papers, from packaging to cards, book binding and crafting – let your imagination take you away with a purchase of these beautiful leaves.

Have your name hand scrolled by an expert Calligrapher. Learn more about how to develop this flourishing art.

Check them out September 6-7th at the Shenkman Center in Orleans!

Watch Blake create miniature magic and construct custom bookmarks. Pick up a tip, a tiny work of art, or a much needed place holder.

Since the turn of this decade, a lot of academic discourse and research has investigated the newly rediscovered risk of arsenic used to colour green book cloth during the 19th Century. As would be expected, the repercussions went beyond academia and entered into the pop culture and internet sphere, even making a green book poisoning a plot device on an episode of the TV series the Blacklist. As an academic who has contributed to publications on the topic, and participated in the working group, I will bring my knowledge and experience on the topic to this public audience. This will bring science, history, and art together to help people better understand the risks in a safe and sane way. Real examples both of poison contaminated antique and safe antique books will be shown and discussed

Local history isn’t found in one place—it’s scattered across books, archives, maps, and forgotten records. This talk explores how to research the history of Ottawa using local sources, from antiquarian books and memoirs to newspapers and archival materials. Drawing on work from the Ottawa History Hub, it demonstrates how these fragments can be brought together to reconstruct the city’s past, challenge common assumptions, and uncover overlooked stories. Whether you’re a collector, researcher, or simply curious about Ottawa’s history, this session will offer practical insights into how historical research is actually done—and why local sources remain essential to understanding the past.

Lloyd Keane is the Archives and Rare Book Coordinator for the Carleton University Library. Lloyd completed a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies from the University of Essex in 2007 and fell into the world of book collecting through his work as an archivist. He has had many ‘blopper moments’ in his career and is willing to share them in an illumination of the life of the University’s ‘book worm’.

Bookplates, or ex libris, are more than ownership labels pasted inside books; they are miniature works of art that preserve traces of personal identity, social history, and cultural values. Through examples spanning three centuries, this illustrated lecture will explore Canadian bookplates as forms of visual biography, showing how their owners used heraldic symbols, artistic motifs, and distinctly Canadian imagery to express ancestry, status, taste, vocation, and intellectual interest.

The rare book room at Saint Paul University is a ‘rare treat’ featuring one of the largest theological libraries in North America. Over 30,000 volumes dating from the 1400’s through to the late 1800’s, the librarians will impart their enthusiasm and wonder for rare books during this unique opportunity to visit the otherwise ‘by appointment only’ special collection.