Libraries abroad: Bodleian Library to be renovated

Oxford University’s world-famous Bodleian Library has unveiled its plans for the restoration and renovation of the New Bodleian library building. The long-awaited project has been designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. It will be renamed the Weston Library, in honour of the donation given in March 2008 by the Garfield Weston Foundation.

The restoration project has three aims: to create high-quality storage for the library’s valuable Special Collections, which include the precious manuscripts, books and maps that the Bodleian preserves for the international world of scholarship; to develop the library’s facilities for the support of advanced research; and to expand public access to its great treasures through new exhibition galleries and other facilities.

The renovation of the New Bodleian is part of an integrated strategy to improve the management of and access to the Bodleian Libraries’ historic collections. To accommodate the books now housed in the New Bodleian and to provide space for the Libraries’ growing collections, the University is constructing a book storage facility in Swindon which will open in late 2010.

Richard Ovenden, associate director and keeper of special collections claims that it is a major project for a working academic library. They need to move over 3.5 million books out of the building before work begins. However, as a working University library, it will continue to deliver normal high standards of book and information delivery.