Renate Mesmer is head of Conservation and Preservation at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Mesmer is an experienced book and paper conservator with more than 20 years’ experience in the field. She formally trained as a master bookbinder in Germany and has pursued further conservation training at renowned institutions throughout Europe and the U.S. She has held previous positions conserving and restoring books and manuscripts at the University Library in Mannheim; the Speyer State Archives in Germany, and at the Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland. Mesmer is currently serving her third term as president for the International Association of Paper and Book Conservators (IADA), one of the largest international organizations in the field of book and paper conservation.

The William Anthony Conservation Lecture Series, hosted by the University of Iowa Libraries Conservation and Collections Care Department, invites book and paper conservators and bookbinders to share their experience and work with the UI book arts community and beyond. Funded by a generous gift that established the William Anthony Endowment in 1989, it honors the Libraries’ first conservator and the first bookbinding instructor at University of Iowa Center for the Book.