Helen Shenton

Helen Shenton is Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College Dublin, where she leads the strategic development of the historic and digital libraries. She moved to Ireland in 2014 from Cambridge, Massachusetts where she was Executive Director of Harvard Library, at the heart of bringing together the services of seventy-three libraries.

Prior to Harvard, Helen worked at the British Library where she led the care of the UK’s national documentary heritage and national printed archive. That followed positions in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where she was deeply involved with the conservation, care and display of the world-renowned decorative arts collections.

At Trinity, Helen has led the development of the long-term Strategy for the Library, including a year-long public debate around ‘The Library of the Future; the Future of the Library’, further recalibrating the strategic direction through the lenses of Sustainability and EDI. Helen champions the very ambitious Old Library Redevelopment Project and the Virtual Trinity Library programme, which are flagships for the University’s philanthropic campaign. She co-chaired Trinity’s Task Force on Open Scholarship, is a member of the Trinity Legacy Working Group and shaped the vision for the new ‘digital first and foremost’ Laidlaw Library which is an anchor to the new Trinity East campus.

Helen currently represents Trinity on national and international forums, including LERU (League of European Research Libraries), OCLC Leaders’ Council, UK Legal Deposit Library Directors, IUALG (Irish University Association Library Group), and the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI).

Helen has published and presented widely in international forums and mediums, including TEDxDublin and the keynote address at IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2022. She is a Fellow of the International Institute of Conservation and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.