The university library and national depository at Oxford. It was founded in 1595 by Sir Thomas Bodley (15451613), who restored the disused 14th-c library and laid the foundations of its now extensive holdings. It was opened in 1602.
The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library. It is one of five copyright deposit libraries in the United Kingdom.
History
The Bodleian Library (officially Bodley's Library) in Oxford, England — known informally to centuries of Oxford scholars as "the Bod" — opened in 1602 with a collection of 2000 books assembled by Thomas Bodley (of Merton College) to replace the library that had been donated to the Divinity School by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (and brother of Henry V of England), but had been dispersed in the 16th century.
In 1610, Bodley made an agreement with the Stationers' Company in London to put a copy of every book registered with them in the library.
In 1911, the Copyright Act continued the Stationers' agreement by making the Bodleian one of the six (at that time) libraries in the United Kingdom where a copy of each book copyrighted must be deposited.
Two floors of bookstack opened beneath the Radcliffe Camera and Radcliffe Square in 1913, and a large new bookstack and reading room, the New Bodleian building, was built in the 1930s.
Tower of the Five Orders
One part of the Bodleian Library is contained in the so-called Tower of the Five Orders.
The Library today
Today, the Bodleian includes several off-site storage areas as well as nine other libraries in Oxford:
the Bodleian Japanese Library the Bodleian Law Library the Hooke Library the Indian Institute Library the Oriental Institute Library the Philosophy Library the Radcliffe Science Library the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House the Vere Harmsworth LibraryThe sites now contain 9 million items on 176 km of shelving, and have seats for 2500 readers.
Before being able to access the library, new readers must make the following declaration....
Digital developments
The Oxford Digital Library (ODL) is a key component of the e-strategy of Oxford University Library Services (OULS). The Bodleian Library has also offered its support for the establishment of the JournalServer open-access digital library and allocated resources on the Oxford Digital Library Servers. The Oxford Digital Library started operationally in July 2001 and has a small collection of digital archives.
The Bodleian for some years had on its website a statement that nothing in its collection should appear online except as part of an initiative of its own, and that no permission would be granted for a photograph paid for by the user to be placed online. the library is currently experimenting with allowing users to scan post-1900 material and make digital photographs under supervision.
The Bodleian Library in fiction
The Library's fine architecture has made it a favourite location for filmmakers. It can be seen in Another Country (1984), The Madness of King George III (1994) and the first two Harry Potter films, in which the Divinity School doubles as the Hogwarts hospital wing and Duke Humphrey's Library as the Hogwarts library.
Also, the first few words of the Latin version of the reader's promise seen above (Do fidem me nullum librum vel) can be found on the linguist's hat in the 1996 mini-series Gulliver's Travels. Many of Tolkien's manuscripts are now at the library.
User Comments Add a comment…