8th Conference on Museum Libraries, Cartagena, Spain

The 8th Conference on Museum Libraries was held in Cartagena (Spain) on 20 and 21 November 2025, at the premises of the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQVA). The conference was organized by the Network of Museum Libraries (BIMUS), which unites 21 institutions.

This year's conference was dedicated to the role of museum libraries as centres for experimentation and research in the field of cultural heritage. The aim was to highlight the contribution of museum libraries, universities and national and international research centres to the preservation and interpretation of materials that enable the identification, dating, study and evaluation of cultural heritage, with a special emphasis on underwater heritage.

Special attention was paid to the integration of modern web technologies and open access practices in the processing and management of bibliographic collections, which opens up new perspectives in the development of libraries within different scientific disciplines.

Over the two-day programme, participants delivered 16 presentations with 25 speakers representing Spain, Finland, the UK and Croatia. Croatia's contribution came from ICUA Zadar librarian Luka Bratović, who presented Cultural Heritage and Libraries: Insights from the Specialized Underwater Archaeology Library in Zadar, Croatia.

The conference concluded with a shared commitment to enhance cooperation among museum libraries and to integrate new web technologies into the processing and management of bibliographic collections related to cultural heritage.