Bodleian Library - University of Oxford

The Bodleian Library is the main research library at the University of Oxford. The library has over 7 million volumes that take up about 118 miles of shelving. Our tour guide began by giving us a brief overview of the history of the Bodleian. The first of the four main library buildings was the Divinity School. The building took 65 years to build and opened in 1420 as the university's first examination school. The library for the school was housed in the upper floor of the Divinity School and is known as Duke Humfrey's Library. The library was ruined in 1550, but Thomas Bodley reopened the library with 2,000 texts in 1602. The first librarian at the new library was Thomas James. The first extension of the library was called "Arts End", built to house materials relating to: law, medicine, philosophy and math. Arts End was built in a European style as a "galleried library". At this time, the lower reading room at the Bodliean has collections relating to theology, classics, and philosophy. The upper reading room is the main research area for history, English, and linguistics.


Our tour also took us to Convocation House, located at the Bodleian site. Convocation House was built in 1640 and was used for centuries as a meeting place for Convocation and Congregation. This building also housed meetings of the British Parliament on several occasions. The University Court building is attached to Convocation House. Above the Convocation House is Selden End, which has a reference collection available for those studying early printed books.


In 1749, the Radcliffe building (left) was built on Oxford's campus. The building was originally used as a gallery space, but in 1860, was added to the Bodleian site. The Radcliffe Camera became Britain's first circular library. There are two main reading rooms located in the Radcliffe Camera. The Lower Camera houses the Official Papers collection, which includes a complete set of British parliamentary papers from 1801 to the present. It is also the main undergraduate reading room for those studying theology, English, and Latin America. The Upper Camera is the main undergraduate research area for those studying history, art history, education, archaeology, anthropology and women's studies.


After we toured the main buildings at the Bodleian, we got to walk through some of the underground tunnels that lead to the stacks and different library buildings. On our short walk from the Bodleian to the Radcliffe buildings, our guide asked us to take note of the circles on some of the walkways. These are used to give some natural light to the tunnels, as we saw when we walked underground. Our guide showed us the conveyor system that was installed in the 1940s on the way through one of the tunnels. This system allows books to be sent between buildings for readers in various reading rooms. The conveyor takes 11.5 minutes to make the 11 floor cycle. The Bodleian began as one of Britain's copyright libraries. This means that it was a depository for every British publication. Presently, the library collects only academic materials because of constraints with space. The library has it's own unique cataloging system, and materials are most commonly stored by size. The Bodleian has nine other libraries located around the University of Oxford campus.

Besides the Divinity School building, the walk underground was one of the highlights of our tour. There are just massive amounts of materials housed underground! It was amazing to me that even though things are stored by size, the Bodleian is running out of space. Even more amazing that items can be located in the stacks that run for miles and miles.

Bodleian Library Logo from: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/