Dublin, Ireland

Helen Shenton is Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College Dublin, and the first woman to hold the position since the university was founded in 1592, 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, bringing together the services of seventy-three libraries.

Prior to Harvard, Ms. Shenton 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, Ms. Shenton 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. She 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. Ms. Shenton has served on Leaders Council since 2025.