Dr Mark Purcell

Mark Purcell is Director for Research and Collections at the University Library Dr Mark Purcell (cam.ac.uk), with strategic oversight of the heritage collections of one of the world’s greatest research libraries, and also heads the CUL Research Institute  Before coming to Cambridge, he was for sixteen years the Libraries Curator of the National Trust, working earlier in his career at the Bodleian and at Christ Church, Oxford.  His research has focussed on libraries and book collecting in Britain and Ireland, and particularly on libraries in country houses – their assembly, use, dispersal, and architectural setting.  Publications include numerous articles on individual libraries and collectors, a book on libraries in Ulster, and The Country House Library, published by Yale University Press in 2017, which was short-listed for the Berger Prize.  He is a former Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Director of the Consortium of European Research Libraries, and a member of the Acceptance in Lieu Panel, which advises ministers on cultural property offered to the nation in payment of tax.  His other main interest is music, and he is a former Oxford and cathedral organ scholar.  

Mark was elected to serve as the University’s Junior Proctor for 2022-23, on the nomination of the College