The European Print Initiatives Collaboration (EPICo) network is delighted to announce its third EPICo Conference, taking place from Wednesday 30 September to Friday 2 October 2026. The main conference will be held at the British Library's Knowledge Centre in London, with a limited number of places available for an optional visit to the Library’s high-volume storage facility in Yorkshire the day before the conference starts, on Tuesday 29 September.
Building on the traditions established since the first meeting in Kuopio, Finland in 1999, the 3rd EPICo Conference will once again focus on collaborative approaches to the management and preservation of physical library collections with the theme Libraries Together: Safeguarding Our Collections for the Future.
8th Conference, 2024
'Importance of Print in a Digital World'
Barcelona, Catalunya
25th - 27th September 2024
Presentations by conference speakers can be viewed at University of Vienna's repository
7th Conference, 2022
'Review and Renew: Collection Management Policies in a Digital Age'
Vienna, Austria
7th-9th September 2022
Presentations by conference speakers can be viewed at University of Vienna's repository
6th Conference, 2018
"A Matter of Trust. Cooperative Print Storage and Shared Archiving Initiatives"
Basel, Switzerland
14th to 16th March 2018
5th Conference, 2015
"Aligning Commercial and Public Document Repositories to Facilitate Free and Sustainable Information"
Kuopio, Finland
21st to 22nd May 2015
4th Conference, 2012
"Global Policies, Imperatives and Solutions for the Efficient Library Collection Management and Access to Less Used Documents"
Kuopio, Finland
9th to 10th August 2012
IFLA preconference to IFLA 2012 in Helsinki. Sponsored by IFLA sections on Acquisition and Collection Development and Serials and Other Continuing Resources.
Proceedings: O'Connor, S. (ed.). (2013) Special Issue: Kuopio: Third [sic] International Conference on Repository Libraries. Library Management. 34 (4/5)
3rd Conference, 2009
"The Universal Repository Library and Guarantees for the Sustainability of Digital Copy"
Kuopio, Finland
29th to 30th October 2009
Sponsored by IFLA sections on Acquisition and Collection Development and LIBER (The Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche).
2nd Conference, 2004
"Preserving and Maintaining Availability of Print Material. The Role of Repository Libraries"
Kuopio, Finland
13th to 15th May 2004
Proceedings: O'Connor, S. (ed.). (2005) Special Issue: Repository print libraries: Vital strategies in the digital world. Library Management. 26 (1/2)
1st Conference, 1999
"Solving Collection Problems Through Repository Strategies. The Economics of Repository Libraries."
Kuopio, Finland
9th-11th May 1999
Proceedings: Pauline Connolly (ed.): "Solving Collection Problems Through Repository Strategies". Boston Spa, IFLA Offices for UAP and International Lending, 1999. ISBN 0-95324394-X
EPICo Conference Background
From 1980 to 2003 IFLA had a core programme, Universal Availability of Publications. This programme had published a book called National Repository Plans and Programmes. This publication inspired the creation of the first Kuopio Conference in Finland in 1999.
The first five Kuopio Conferences were hosted at the National Repository Library in Kuopio, focusing on the need for efficient management of low-use printed research material. The Kuopio Conference was first held outside Finland in 2018 when it was held in Basel, Switzerland, and it was most recently held in Barcelona in 2024. These conferences will now be held across Europe, and are now branded as the EPICo Conference, but will continue to focus on guaranteeing and preserving access to print material within the evolving context and changing priorities of academic and national libraries across Europe.